Baseball Welcomes West Virginia, Sacramento State For Five Games At The Plex

Friday, March 7

Riverside, CA

6:00 pm

UC Riverside

Sacramento State

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Photo by: Gabriel L. Acosta

Baseball Welcomes West Virginia, Sacramento State For Five Games At The Plex

3/5/2014 7:14:00 PM | Baseball

Mar. 7	6 pm PT	vs. Sacramento State	RHP, Jake Smigelski	Fox Sports 1350	Game Notes	Listen Live	Live Stats	Tickets 951-827-4653
Mar. 8	1 pm PT	WVU vs. Sac. St.e	LHP, Ben Doucette				Live Stats	Tickets 951-827-4653
Mar. 8	5 pm PT	vs. West Virginia	TBD				Live Stats	Tickets 951-827-4653
Mar. 9	1 pm PT	vs. Sacramento State	TBD			Listen Live	Live Stats	Tickets 951-827-4653
Mar. 9	5 pm PT	vs. West Virginia	TBD				Live Stats	Tickets 951-827-4653
Mar. 11	6 pm PT	vs. Gonzaga	TBD				Live Stats	Tickets 951-827-4653

Riverside—The UC Riverside Baseball Team returns to the friendly confines of The Plex Friday for the start of a nine-game home stand. West Virginia and Sacramento State are in town this weekend for a pair of games each, and the Highlanders host Gonzaga on Tuesday, March 11.

With four games scheduled over the three-day weekend, UCR's pitching rotation consists of Jake Smigelski on Friday, Ben Doucette on Saturday, and the ever-popular TBD over the next three games.

Junior infielder Nick Vilter has turned into the Highlanders' most potent offensive weapon, and was named CollegeSportsMadness.com's National Field Player of the Week last week (read press release).

Sacramento State is 7-6 on the year following a walk-off victory over nationally-ranked Fresno State Wednesday evening. The Hornets had dropped four of their last six games prior to last night's win. Two of their most recent losses came in a three-game series last weekend against San Francisco. The Highlanders took two of three from the Dons to open the 2014 season.

Sac State has a team slash line of .262/.316/.338 on the year. Nathan Lukes leads the way hitting .354/.458/.396, but the Hornets have five regulars and two reserves who are hitting .240 or below. Their pitchers have an ERA of 3.52 with 60 Ks in 115.0 innings of work.

The Highlanders are 22-6 all-time against Sacramento State (view all-time results), but the team's split their four-game series from a year ago.

West Virginia brings a 5-4 record to the Inland Empire after winning the Caravelle Resort Tournament hosted by Coastal Carolina over the weekend. Their three wins in the tournament were over Duke, Coastal Carolina and James Madison.

The Mountaineers were out west the weekend prior for a three-game series at San Diego State where they dropped two of three to the Aztecs. The Highlanders lost 8-7 to San Diego State in a mid-week game last Tuesday evening (box score/recap).

West Virginia is hitting .298 as a team, led by Billy Fleming's .457 to go along with a .486 on base percentage. Ryan McBroom is the Mountaineers top slugger with three home runs, 14 RBIs and a .629 slugging percentage. The WVU pitching staff sports a 2.44 ERA with 77 strikeouts in 81.0 innings of work.

This is the first meeting ever between the Highlanders and Mountaineers.

Gonzaga is 3-8 so far in the 2014 campaign. They travel to UC Irvine this weekend for a three-game series with the Anteaters. The Bulldogs are struggling at the plate so far this season with seven regulars batting below .250. Mitch Gunsolus is their top batter with a slash line of .432/.560/.486.

The 'Zags pitching staff has an earned run average of 5.23, but their top three starters all boast ERAs of 3.32 and below.

The Highlanders are 3-2 all-time against the Gonzaga (view all-time results), but the Bulldogs beat UC Riverside 6-3 the last time the clubs met on February 15, 2013 (box score/recap).