The Cal Lutheran baseball team gave a lot more than it got.

CLU's inability to capitalize with runners in scoring position, combined with 10 Chapman batters who reached base without hitting safely — via seven walks, two hit batters and one of CLU's four errors — proved costly as Chapman beat the host Kingsmen 7-3 on Friday to open a three-game non-conference series.

Chapman, ranked No. 4 in NCAA Division III by the American Baseball Coaches Association, improves to 6-1. CLU falls to 2-2. The teams meet again today in an 11 a.m. doubleheader in Orange.

The Kingsmen jumped to a 2-0 first-inning lead on the strength of Paul Hartmann's two-run homer, his second of the season. But from then on, CLU was 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position, failing to score after getting runners to second with no outs or one out in the third, fifth and sixth. Its final run came in the eighth, when Alex Massari was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

"It's what we were talking about the whole game as we saw all those zeros go up," said CLU coach Marty Slimak. "We had a couple of opportunities. We just never adjusted, and they beat us."

By then, Chapman had a firm grip on the game, having cashed in three of the walks, while two of CLU's errors also figured in the scoring.

"We could have pitched better in situations," said Slimak. "They're a good team, and we can't give them opportunity after opportunity. At one point they had only one hit in four innings, but we walked them four or five times."

After single runs in the second and fourth, the Panthers took the lead on Stuart Hyman's RBI single in the fifth. The key blow came in the sixth when Kyle Redding delivered a bases-loaded double off CLU relieaver Brian Minnich, giving Chapman a 5-2 lead.

"We were still in it," said Slimak. "If you're down by a run or two it's OK but that double really hurt us and kind of put us behind the eight ball. We couldn't do as much of the stuff we wanted to do."

Redding, a senior from Moorpark who came in batting .391, has a team-leading 16 RBIs in seven games — even though he bats ninth.

"It's kind of funny," said Redding. "We've got some good hitters; better than we've had in the past."

Redding's double came on a full-count pitch.

"I wasn't going to let him get me," he said. "I worked the count a little bit to make sure he threw me my pitch, especially with only one out. I wasn't going to pop up. But either way, all I was trying to do was hit a ball in the outfield — get a sac fly, at least."

Pinch hitter John Semel provided insurance for Chapman in the seventh with a two-run homer, his first hit this season.

For Slimak, the big frustration of the day was how atypical it was in light of CLU's early-season performance.

"We hadn't made an error all season," said Slimak, "and we made four today. We walked (seven) guys, hit batters — I don't think we played as good as we're capable of. I think (today) we'll be better."