Baseball Heads To Bakersfield For Three-Game Series With Roadrunners

Friday, February 28

Bakersfield, CA

6:00 pm

UC Riverside

Cal State Bakersfield

Photo by: Annishia McKoy

Baseball Heads To Bakersfield For Three-Game Series With Roadrunners

2/27/2014 10:28:00 AM | Baseball

Feb. 28	6:00 pm PT	at Bakersfield	RHP, Jacob Smigelski	Game Notes	Listen Live (home feed)	Live Stats	Purchase Tickets
Mar. 1	2:00 pm PT	at Bakersfield	LHP, Ben Doucette			Live Stats	Purchase Tickets
Mar. 2	1:00 pm PT	at Bakersfield	LHP, Antonio Gonzales		Listen Live (home feed)	Live Stats	Purchase Tickets
Mar. 3	3:05 pm PT	at UNLV	RHP, Zach Varela			Live Stats	Purchase Tickets

Riverside—The UC Riverside Baseball Team hits the road this weekend for a three-game series at Bakersfield where they will try to end a four-game slide and avoid the inclement weather scheduled to hit Southern California over the coming days. UCR's road trip continues on Tuesday when they head to Sin City for a Monday afternoon game at UNLV.

After opening the season by winning three of its first four games, the Highlanders have dropped four straight by a combined total of just six runs.

UCR is hitting .325/.400/444 as a team, led by four players with an individual OPS of better than 1,000—Joe Chavez (.424/.537/.486), Francisco Tellez (.421/.463/.632), Nick Vilter (.414/.485/.862) and David Andriese (.412/.474/.529).

The Highlanders pitching staff has an ERA of 4.20, but the team has also given up 12 unearned runs in eight games thanks to 14 defensive miscues.

UCR is scheduled to keep the same starting rotation this week with Jacob Smigelski (1-1, 2.25) getting the start on Friday. Ben Doucette (0-1, 8.22) on Saturday and Antonio Gonzales (0-1, 6.14) on Sunday. Zach Varela (1-0, 3.86) will throw on Monday against the Rebels.

Bakersfield is 5-3 on the season, but two of those losses have come against Big West Conference opponents—3-2 at UC Irvine, and 5-1 at UC Santa Barbara. The RoadRunners are 5-1 at home so far in 2014.

The Runners have just one batter with an OPS over 1,000 in Jordie Hein (/409/.536/.500), but the team's earned run average is 2.74. Lefty Taylor Aikenhead (1-1, 0.82) gets the start for Bakersfield on Friday followed by either right-handers Hayden Carter (1-0, 4.85) or Steven Gee (1-0, 0.00) on Saturday, and left-hander Austin Davis (1-0, 2.77) on Sunday.

The Highlanders are 9-3 all-time against Bakersfield, but the Runners took two of three at UC Riverside last season (view all-time results).

Offense is always on display in Las Vegas as the Rebels play in one of the most hitter-friendly parks in the nation. UNLV is averaging nearly six runs per game, but has a slash line of just .250/.358/.322. The Rebels lineup has been hit-or-miss this season with four regulars boasting batting averages above .300, and another five hitting below .250 including three at .125 or below.

UNLV's pitching staff has a 2.37 era and 60 strikeouts in 60.2 innings, but the Rebels defense has also been an area of concern as 11 errors have led to 13 unearned runs.

The Highlanders are 17-7 all-time against UNLV, but the Rebels took both games a year ago outscoring UC Riverside 44-17 (view all-time results).