Baseball Returns Home For Three-Game Series vs. Cal State Northridge

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Riverside—The UC Riverside Baseball Team returns to the friendly confines of the Riverside Sports Complex this weekend for a three-game Big West Conference series with Cal State Northridge. First pitch Friday is slated for 6 pm PT.

The series will also mark the Highlanders debut of a radio supercast, with Kevin Strauss (Northridge) and Ghizal Hasan (Riverside) splitting play-by-play duties as each brings experience from their respective programs to the broadcast to give fans a complete perspective on the game and the student-athletes.

UCR put an end to a season-worst five game losing streak at UNLV on May 2, bouncing back from a 10-1 loss to defeat the Rebels, 5-2. Mitch Patito had his best game of the year on the mound, throwing seven innings of shutout baseball, allowing five hits and striking out six while walking just three batters.

The Highlanders pitching staff is getting a makeover this weekend, as normal Saturday night starter Eddie Orozco (4-5, 2.30) will take to the mound on Friday night, moving Trevor Frank (1-5, 4.01) over to Saturday, and Dylan Stuart (4-6, 4.96) to Sunday.

The Highlanders are 4-8 in conference play, one game back of the Matadors at 5-7. UCR was swept in its most recent Big West series at UC Irvine last weekend, but took two of three from UC Davis back on April 20-22.

Vince Gonzalez continued his hot hitting this week collecting four base knocks in the two games at UNLV while raising his batting average to a season-high .351, good enough for third in the conference. In Big West play, he is hitting an even more impressive .396 with a .423 on base percentage and a .479 slugging percentage.

Cal State Northridge dropped two of three over the weekend to Long Beach State giving up 25 runs in the series. The Matadors pitching rotation for the weekend consists of right-hander Alex Muren (5-5, 4.82) on Friday and left-hander Jerry Keel (4-1, 1.93) on Saturday, with Sunday listed as TBD.

Keel has the second best ERA In the conference despite striking out just 31 batters in 60.2 innings. He allows fewer than a hit per inning, and only nine of those 56 hits have gone for extra bases—eight doubles, zero triples, and one home run.

As a staff, however, CSUN is allowing the opposition to hit for a slash line of .306/.385/.428. That .306 batting average is the highest in the Big West.

The Matadors have just two players hitting better than .300—center fielder Nate Ring (.301/.397/.369) and first baseman Cal Vogelsang (.301/.327/.378). None of the other regulars are hitting better than .281, and as a team, Cal State Northridge owns a slash line of .260/.352/.345.

A year ago, the Highlanders took two of three from CSUN winning 9-2 and 8-2 before dropping a 9-8, 10-inning decision on Sunday.

Baseball Returns Home For Three-Game Series vs. Cal State Northridge

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