AZUSA, Calif. – One swing separated California Baptist University and Azusa Pacific in round one of the NCAA Division II West Regional Thursday morning at the Cougar Baseball Complex.

It was a pitcher's duel throughout, with both teams generating six hits apiece in the game. The few exceptions were three home-run swings that accounted for all four runs in a 3-1 victory for second-seed host and ninth-ranked APU. The fifth-seeded and 15^th-ranked Lancers drop to 34-17, while the PacWest champion Cougars improve to 41-10.

"It was a good college baseball game; both guys went out and played well," Coach Gary Adcock said. "It had that playoff atmosphere and vibe and it was tough to get swings, as it should be in the opening game of a playoff with two number ones going against each other."

Andrew Bernstein turned in a great start for CBU against one of the top offenses in Division II to hold the Cougars well below their average of 7.7 runs a game. The junior allowed five hits, three runs and a walk and struck out seven in seven innings.

In his first appearance in exactly two months, Justin Montgomery threw a scoreless eighth inning and struck out three for the Lancers.

"I think we go into the next games with the same mentality and same focus, same relaxed, loose energy because I think that's what's going to bring us out of the loser's bracket and into the championship on Monday," Bernstein said.

CBU finds itself in must-win mode in the double-elimination tournament and will face the loser of Thursday afternoon's game between the No. 1 and 6 seeds -- second-ranked Chico State and Cal Poly Pomona, respectively -- Friday at 11 a.m. The Cougars advance in the winner's bracket and will take on the winner of third-seeded, 10^th-ranked Dixie State and fourth-seed, No. 14 UC San Diego.

"Not to be cliché but our mantra has been to take it one game at a time," Adcock said. "Now we've got the unique opportunity to try to send everybody home one at a time through the loser's bracket. I like challenges and that's a pretty daunting task, and hopefully we're up to that challenge."

Offensively, CBU began to come alive late and logged five of its six hits from the seventh to the ninth innings. APU managed to escape each jam, though.

"We created opportunities late, just didn't get the swing," Adcock said. "We started to put more pressure on in the eighth and ninth; we were just one hit away from a different ballgame."

The Lancers rallied in the eighth inning on singles from Nick Plaia and DJ Porter, but a 4-6-3 double play grounder gave APU two outs with no one on base. Staudinger also made a great diving play on a line drive from Bryce Macy to end the inning and possibly save a run after Porter's two-out hit.

Once again, CBU logged two base hits in the ninth, starting with a leadoff single from Tommy Bell. Brian Ruhm then brought the go-ahead run to the plate, as he put two runners on with two outs on a single into right field, but APU came up with the game-ending strikeout to finish off a nail-biter.

"We just need to rely on our offense a little more," Macy said. "We were a little slow until we picked it up in the eighth and ninth innings. We will take the eighth and ninth into the next games we have. I know the pitchers will pick us up, too, the pitchers have been doing well."

APU scored first on a leadoff homer from Michael Staudinger in the bottom of the second. Macy repaid the favor with a solo shot in the top of the fourth to tie things up at 1-1 for CBU.

Both pitchers were locked in early on Thursday. Bernstein sat down the side in order in the third, fourth and fifth innings, retiring 14 in order after Staudinger's homer.

"I had my changeup, that's been my pitch this year," Bernstein said. "I could throw it any count, I could fall behind and throw it 3-2, I could throw it in 2-0 counts – that was my out-pitch that was working. I thought I had pretty good location of my fastball today, and with our sequences every once in a while we could work a breaking ball in there when we needed to. It was all sequence that really set us up for success."

Azusa Pacific came up with the big inning of the day in the sixth. It started with a two-out single from Pablo O'Connor and two-run homer from Justin Gomez, which gave the Cougars the 3-1 lead.