He kept his word Saturday.
Bullard indeed played nine positions, including pitching the ninth inning, but that proved to be one of the few bright spots for the Lancers, who dropped both games of a PacWest doubleheader to Hawaii Pacific. The Sea Warriors won the opener 9-3 and then took the seven-inning nightcap 15-11 in eight innings.
The sweep is just the Lancers' second of the season and first since March 16 at Hawaii Pacific. The PacWest Conference Champion Lancers conclude the regular season 38-12 overall, 31-9 PacWest.
The Sea Warriors are now 26-19, 18-17.
"It was just one of those midseason statements. I made it, and he held me to it," said Adcock, referring to Bullard playing all nine spots. "Cole playing all nine spots was easy. I was the one who had to think a little harder about how to manage it."
It is the first time anyone has done that in Adcock's nine years at the helm.
"This was coach's idea after our Hawaii trip," said Bullard. "I was just looking forward to pitching an inning, but getting a chance to do this today made it more fun. I took a lot of balls in the outfield pregame since I haven't done that in a long time, and I also took some balls at third, which I've never done. I was a little uncomfortable in the outfield."
Bullard began the game at his usual spot behind the plate for one inning before patrolling all three outfield spots, left to right, the next three innings. He then moved to third base in the fifth, second in the sixth, short in the seventh and first base in the eighth.
He took the mound in the ninth with the Lancers trailing 9-3 and gave up a leadoff single through the right side. After inducing leadoff hitter Derek Nakasato into a 6-4-3 double play, he walked Rylan Morihara before striking out reigning PacWest Player of the Year Blake Amaral swinging on a 3-2 pitch.
As if he had been pitching his entire collegiate career, Bullard walked off the mound calm, cool and collected.
"I'm ready to throw another inning," said Bullard afterward. "I like to be aggressive and that's how I pitched. It was a good location and he couldn't do much with it. He had to protect and I was able to get him."
"What I thought was interesting about his inning was that what you will see in good pitchers is that their stuff gets better against better hitters," said Adcock. "When their best hitter stepped in, he focused and got a little extra velocity. That was a good message for our younger pitchers."
Bullard was also 3 for 5 at the plate, one of four Lancers with multiple hits, though they struggled to find the key one all day long. CBU left 15 runners on, including leaving them loaded in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. It trailed 8-0 before finally getting an unearned run in the fourth.
Jon Bengard (10-2) had his roughest outing of the season, giving up eight earned runs, nine hits and five walks in 3.1 innings of work. In fact, Bullard was the only Lancer hurler to go at least one inning and not give up a run across the 17 innings.
Matt Marnat was 2 for 4 with an RBI. Blair Moore and Zach Esquerra each had two hits as well.
In the nightcap, the teams combined for 26 runs and 35 hits, and the Sea Warriors needed one more inning to escape with the win.
The Lancers led 7-3 heading the sixth when the Sea Warriors struck for seven runs to open a 10-7 lead. However, the Lancers answered right back with four runs in the bottom of the sixth, keyed by a three-run homer from Andy Crowley to take an 11-10 lead into what should have been the final at-bat of the game.
But HPU scratched across a run on a Keanu Kapana single against Matt Daugherty (2-2) to force extras. The Sea Warriors then exploded for four runs in the eighth, getting a bases loaded hit-by-pitch and a two-run single from Kale Sumner to take a four-run advantage.
The Lancers had two on and two out in the bottom of the eighth but couldn't score.
Daugherty took the loss, giving up nine earned runs in 2.2 innings of relief. Both starters lasted just an inning and a third before giving way to the bullpen.
Crowley, Moore and Daugherty all had three hits apiece. Crowley had five RBIs, and Moore had three. Odom and Marnati both had two hits each.
The Lancers will now wait to see if they will host the National Christian College Athletic Association West Regional Playoffs, which if they do will be May 7-8 against Arizona Christian. They won't know exactly if that will happen until May 5, depending on how Arizona Christian does in the NAIA-Association of Independent Institutions Tournament that same weekend.
If Arizona Christian doesn't reach the final of that tournament, then the Lancers will host them in a best-of-three series May 7-8. If Arizona Christian gets to the final, then the Lancers will automatically be the West Region champions and get an automatic bid to the NCCAA National Championships.
