Baseball Hits Road For Six Beginning With Tuesday Tilt At San Diego

San Diego, CA—The UC Riverside Baseball Team (14-19) hits the road for its next six games beginning with a Tuesday, April 24 tilt at 17th-ranked San Diego (31-9). First pitch at Cunningham Stadium is slated for 3 pm PT.

The Highlanders have won four of their last five games including two of three from UC Davis over this past weekend as they picked up their first conference series win of the season. At 4-5 in Big West play, UCR is now tied for fifth with Cal State Northridge.

UC Riverside's bats have come alive of late scoring 31 total runs in the team's most recent four victories. Over the last five games, the Highlanders hit for a .295 batting average and a .376 on base percentage.

Alex Rubanowitz (.500/.545/.700), Kyle Boudreau (.444/.583/.444) and David Andriese (.333/.391/.571) accounted for a great deal of that offensive production on the week.

Eddie Young (.327/.440/.372 on the season) and Vince Gonzlez (.320/.356/.368) are the lone Highlanders hitting better than .300 on the season.

Mitch Patito (2-3, 4.30) will get the start on Tuesday at San Diego.

The Toreros have been on a tear of late winning 16 of their last 19 and eight of their last nine. San Diego is hitting .321 as a team, with an on base percentage of .398 and a slugging percentage of .457.

Five Toreros regulars are hitting better than .340 on the season led by Kris Bryant's slash line of .378/.492/.696. The sophomore third baseman has 10 home runs on the season while the Highlanders have just five as a team.

San Diego's pitching staff has a 2.90 earned run average on the year and 287 strikeouts in 356.2 innings. Opposing batters are hitting a collective .240 against the Toreros. Calvin Drummond (7-3, 3.02) will take to the hill on Tuesday for USD.

If San Diego has any weaknesses, they are on defense, where 60 errors have led to 37 unearned run in 2012, and in the running game, where the Toreros are 29-49 on stolen base attempts on the year.

San Diego beat the Highlanders, 8-5, on February 28 of this year. Patito got the start in that game as well, lasting just four innings, giving up three runs, while allowing four hits, walking four and striking out six.

He didn't get the decision, however, as UCR scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game, and single runs in the fifth and seventh to take the lead.

But the Highlanders bullpen couldn't hold the lead as Ben Doucette was touched for two runs in the eighth and Joie Dunyon allowed three in the top of the ninth.

Baseball Hits Road For Six Beginning With Tuesday Tilt At San Diego

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