AZUSA, Calif. -- California Baptist seized the wave of momentum it created in a Friday night win, handing NCAA Division II's top-ranked Azusa Pacific its first series defeat of the season with a 13-2, 7-Saturday doubleheader sweep Saturday.

The defeats capped a week which began 2,586 miles away in Hawai'i with the Cougars finishing a perfect 6-0 road trip in the Hawaiian Islands before coming home to take on No. 21-ranked California Baptist for four games. After a 2-3 week, Azusa Pacific is now 34-6 overall and 24-6 in Pacific West Conference play.

California Baptist steadily kept its offensive pressure on Cougar pitching, scoring 20 runs on 27 hits on the day, scoring in 10 out of 16 innings without ever scoring more than four in a single frame. In the opener, CBU jumped out to a 10-0 lead through the first five innings, and Andrew Bash kept the Cougar offense in check with eight strikeouts while surrendering just two runs on three hits in seven innings.

In the second game, Azusa Pacific answered California Baptist's first two scoring innings, pulling within 3-2 after four innings of the seven-inning nightcap before the Lancers pulled away in the final innings with four more runs off a trio of Cougar relievers.

How It Happened (Game 1): Andrew Bash led CBU with an outstanding performance both on the mound and at the plate, firing six shutout frames before Griffen Herrera hit a two-run home run with two outs in the seventh inning to cut the Lancers' lead to 10-2. The home run to left was the first collegiate home run for the sophomore outfielder.

Bash also got CBU's offense rolling with a two-run home run in the first inning. He finished the game 3-for-5 with three runs and three RBIs, leading the Lancers to 13 runs on 17 hits in the opener. Relief pitcher John Szczesny struck out six Lancers in a 3.2-inning relief appearance, and redshirt freshman Tayton Smith tossed a perfect ninth inning with a strikeout in his first collegiate appearance.

How It Happened (Game 2): California Baptist turned a one-out first-inning walk into a 1-0 lead when a throwing error on a pickoff attempt sent D.J. Porter from first to third, where he scored the first run of the game on a Tommy Bell single. The Cougars answered in the second, using a pair of CBU errors to get runners to second and third for a Joe Quire Jr. sacrifice fly which tied the game at 1-1.

After CBU starter Andrew Bernstein issued a two-out walk to Mychael Goudreau to put runners at first and third, he was replaced by Logan Rinehart, who walked Justin Gomez to load the bases but got out of trouble with an inning-ending strikeout of Pablo O'Connor.

California Baptist got three consecutive two-out hits in the third inning to score two, increasing the lead to 3-1 before Gomez hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the fourth inning to cut the lead to 3-2. Rinehart escaped further damage with another inning-ending strikeout, and the Lancers added two runs in the fifth and single runs in the sixth and seventh for the final 7-2 margin.

Inside The Box Score: O'Connor and Gomez were the only two Cougars to hit safely in both games of the doubleheader, with O'Connor going 2-for-4 for the team's only multi-hit game all day… CBU had seven players with multiple hits in a game, and Bell registered three hits in each game of the twinbill to finish the day 6-for-7 with five RBIs while going 10-for-17 in the four-game series.

What's Next: Azusa Pacific continues a challenging three-week stretch to close out the regular season, following the series against California Baptist with a four-game series at Biola University, which currently sits in fourth place in the PacWest baseball standings. The first game of the series is a 3 p.m. single game on Thursday, April 26, followed by another single game on Friday and a Saturday doubleheader for the rivals, who met in a non-conference matchup in La Mirada back in February, when the Cougars rallied for a 7-6 victory with six runs in the final two innings.