The win moves the Lancers to 39-12 overall and 1-0 in the pool. They play again at 5 p.m. (Pacific) against Malone, which lost 8-0 to Oklahoma Wesleyan this morning.
Bluefield drops to 31-28 overall, 0-1 in pool play.
After giving up three hits in the first two innings, Rivera settled in and dominated until the Lancer bats awoke. He scattered six hits and allowed just one walk, which came with two outs in the seventh. He struck out seven for his second career shutout.
"Devyn did a great job limiting free bases today," said CBU Head Coach Gary Adcock. "When he's throwing well, he keeps his free base count down and that's the key to his success."
Rivera (6-1) also benefited from two strong defensive plays. With a runner on third with two outs in the first, Andy Riley tried to steal home when a ball squirted by catcher Ryan Douglass, but Douglass tracked it down and tossed it to Rivera covering home to get Riley to end the inning.
Then, with a scoreless game in the third, Bluefield threatened after putting runners at second and third with two outs, but Cole Bullard made a spectacular diving play up the middle to rob Zach Myers of a hit and keep the game scoreless.
"Both of those plays were game changers," said Adcock. "That's being a good teammate and then Devyn returned the favor by putting up zeros the rest of the way."
The Lancers finally tacked on a run in the fourth and fifth before putting the game away with three in the sixth. After Blair Moore hit a one-out double in the fourth and Matt Daugherty singled, Crowley hit a single up the middle to bring in Moore with the game's first run.
Ryan Douglass then led off the fifth with a single through the left side, and courtesy runner Andrew Montoya later scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-0.
In the sixth, Daughtery hit a one-out triple, his third hit of the day, and scored on a Crowley double down the right field line. Cole Bullard drew a walk before Crowley advanced to third on a flyout by Zach Esquerra. On the same play, Crowley scored from third when the shorstop's toss back to pitcher Ethan Lewis sailed over his head and far enough away to let Crowley score.
Bullard scored on Douglass's second hit of the game.
"We were bad offensively," said Adcock. "We live by a creed to not make excuses. We've got to do a better job with the bats. Their guy did a good job mixing pitches and we did a bad job adjusting to it, but we came up clutch when we needed to."
Daugherty was 3 for 3, while Crowley and Douglass were both 2 for 3. The Lancers had nine hits.
