AZUSA, Calif. – No matter what the result was on Saturday, California Baptist University had already produced a great 2017 season by qualifying for the NCAA Division II playoffs for the fourth year in a row and much more. 

Unfortunately for the Lancers, the season came to an end on Saturday in a 14-5 loss to Dixie State at Azusa Pacific's Cougar Baseball Complex. The Trailblazers improve to 39-13-1 and advance to face UC San Diego on the final day of the NCAA Division II West Regional on Monday at 11 a.m.

All week long, CBU defied seedings and found itself within a game of where it finished last year and ends its season ranked 15th in the division with a 35-18 record.

It was a phenomenal year for the Lancers, who overcame a ton of injuries to finish third in the PacWest. CBU also defeated the top-two ranked teams in D-II this season and eliminated top-seeded Chico State from the West Regional on a 14-2 victory Friday. 

"Success, for us, is in the journey," Coach Gary Adcock said. "We got gutted from last year, we lost seven of nine starters and three of four starting pitchers, we had three quarters of our starting rotation go down at different points this year, we lost our best hitter for 21 games and look we're here."

All five CBU seniors: Brian Ruhm, Tommy Bell, Zack Norris, Tyler Johnson and Brad Rinehart got into the game on Saturday and drew high praise from Adcock.

"We are here because of our seniors, our seniors took us here," Adcock said. "We had role players go off and freshmen step up. I think it was still a success… The bottom line is we'll be back. There's enough left in the tank, we'll be back and it's a tribute to those seniors we were even here."

Like all season, the Lancers showed no quit on Saturday and countered a six-run third inning of Dixie State with a three-run fourth. A one-out walk to DJ Porter started the rally and it continued with a single from John Glenn.

Nick Plaia (2-for-4) then doubled home Porter for CBU's first run. Two batters later, Michael Mora came through as a pinch hitter with a clutch, two-RBI single up the middle to make it a 6-3 deficit.

Ruhm continued to be a postseason standout for CBU and hit a two-run homer in the sixth after a leadoff single from Plaia to make it 9-5. The Trailblazers kept coming and hit a grand slam in the seventh to help them eventually win, 14-5.