With the win, the Lancers improve to 31-7 overall and are now 4-0 in extra-inning games.
The Cougars, who are ranked No. 25 in the NAIA, fall to 21-16.
The fact that the Lancers forced extra innings was nothing short of spectacular. In a game where the Lancers displayed never-say-die character, Sais proved to be the hero.
With the game tied 5-5, Andy Crowley hit a one-out triple off the right field wall. Matt Daugherty was intentionally walked before Kenny Belzer, who was making his first appearance of the season, struck out Zach Esquerra. Up stepped Sais who delivered the winner on the only pitch he saw.
The freshman was mobbed in the outfield by his teammates.
The Lancers fell behind 3-0 and trailed the entire game. They were down 5-2 with one out in the eighth when the comeback began. Crowley, who was 3 for 5, a double short of the cycle and raised his average to .423, hit his first career homer to right field to make it 5-3.
Then, in the ninth, Ryan Douglass and Cole Bullard drew walks before moving up 90 feet on a balk to put the tying run at second with one out. Andrew Larson struck out Matt Marnati and then got ahead 1-2 on Kevin Odom. Down to the last strike, Odom smacked a single to left field, scoring Douglass and Bullard to tie the game and force extra innings.
Devyn Rivera started and struggled through five innings. He gave up eight hits and four walks but kept working out of jams, allowing just three earned runs. He struck out five in the no-decision.
Four Lancer relievers combined to scatter six hits and just two runs on a two-out flare single that barely reached the outfield grass by Anthony Renteria in the eighth, but that was it in a solid relief effort. David Herd (3-0) got the win, working a perfect 10th against the Cougars' 1-2-3 hitters.
Erik Wallace and Andy Abrams both worked scoreless innings as well.
The Lancers finished with 11 hits with seven of them coming after the fifth inning. James Dykstra went 6.2 innings and struck out six. His bases loaded walk to Marnati in the seventh got the Lancers within 3-2 and ended his day. After getting just two runs in 6.2 innings against Dykstra, CBU got to the Cougar bullpen for four runs in three innings.
Five different Cougars had two hits each, including a 5 for 5 effort from Austin Coleman.
Odom and Blair Moore both were 2 for 5. Odom, Moore and Crowley, the Lancers' 4-5-6 hitters, were a combined 7 for 15 with three runs and four RBIs.
