Well, that's where the California Baptist University bats were for about six innings Thursday night.

Then suddenly, the bats awoke and with their season hanging in the balance, the Lancers strung together five straight two-out singles to ignite a three-run sixth inning and key a season-saving 5-3 win over defending champion Oklahoma Wesleyan in the final pool play game of the NCCAA World Series.

What the Lancers (41-13) do know is that they're in tomorrow's semifinals. What they don't know yet is who or what time they will play as a host of scenarios could play out with tiebreakers coming into play.

Coming into the tournament, the Lancers have been averaging eight runs a game. Coming into tonight's game, though, they scored just eight runs total in the first three games and after a 2-0 loss to Mid-Continent this afternoon, they were in a do-or-die situation.

"One of the mistakes we've made as a coaching staff in the past is making games like this bigger than it is," said CBU Head Coach Gary Adcock. "I'd like to think we've learned from that and now just make it like any other game. We want to just trust our preparation and our ability."

That preparation took on a whole new meaning tonight.

About 25 minutes before the game, Blair Moore took every single one of the Lancer bats into left field and began to sling them all over the field hoping to wake them up from their three-game slumber.

And right away it seemed as if the ritual worked.

Trailing early 1-0, Andy Crowley led off the second with a solo homer to right and the three batters later Zach Esquerra hit a sacrifice fly to give the Lancers a 2-1 lead. But OWU tied it in the bottom of the fifth with an unearned run after the Lancers committed a pair of errors in the inning.

Meanwhile, after the early eruption, the Lancer bats hit the snooze button, because Esquerra's sac fly in the second started a string where Eagle hurler Thomas Kellner retired 13 of 15 Lancers, including eight in a row at one point.

He got the first two out in the sixth, but Matt Daugherty and Cole Bullard extended the inning with singles, and Esquerra broke the 2-2 tie with a single up the middle.

Travis Sais hit a two-strike, pinch-hit single through the left side, and Luke Esquerra capped the inning with a single to left center to give the Lancers a 5-2 advantage.

"I don't know what's going on offensively this week, but usually when you're struggling it's because the pitcher is throwing well so you always want to credit the pitcher," said Adcock. "We battled tonight. That's a difficult game and we battled through it. We had to make some adjustments and fortunately we did."

The way Jon Bengard (11-2) was throwing the three-run lead was more than enough. The Pacific West Conference Pitcher of the Year scattered eight singles and allowed just one earned run while striking out five in his second complete-game of the year. He also picked up his 11th win of the season, the second-highest single-season win total in program history.

The Eagles threatened in their final at bat, getting a pair of one-out singles to lead off the seventh, but Bengard induced a game-ending double play to put the Lancers into the semifinals.

"The transformation of Jon from long reliever to pitcher of the year is amazing," said Adcock. "He's worked really hard to get here. He stands up there and toes the rubber like he's the man, and he pitched like it tonight."

Bullard was 2 for 3 as the Lancers tallied eight hits. Zach Esquerra had two RBIs, and Daugherty scored twice.