Baseball Welcomes #3 Team In The Nation, Cal Poly, To The Plex For Three-Game Series

Friday, May 2

Riverside, CA

6:00 pm

UC Riverside

Cal Poly

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Photo by: Carlos Puma

Baseball Welcomes #3 Team In The Nation, Cal Poly, To The Plex For Three-Game Series

5/1/2014 10:32:00 AM | Baseball

May 2	6 pm PT	vs. #3 Cal Poly	RHP, Jake Smigelski	Game Notes	1440 am		Listen Live	Live Stats	Call (951) 827-4653 For Tickets
May 3	6 pm PT	vs. #3 Cal Poly	RHP, Zach Varela				Listen Live	Live Stats	Call (951) 827-4653 For Tickets
May 4	1 pm PT	vs. #3 Cal Poly	LHP, Ben Doucette		1440 am	Watch ESPN3	Listen Live	Live Stats	Call (951) 827-4653 For Tickets

Riverside—The UC Riverside Baseball Team hosts the number three team in the nation this weekend as the Highlanders welcome Cal Poly (36-8, 12-3) to The Plex for a three-game Big West series. Sunday's game is being broadcast on ESPN3.

UCR (19-21, 7-5) is tied with Long Beach State (21-21, 7-5) in the conference standings, and both teams trail the second place Mustangs by 3.5 games. UC Irvine (29-14, 11-1) leads the Big West, with the Anteaters lone loss coming against the Highlanders.

UC Riverside is coming off of a pair of wins over top 30 opponents—7-2 at UC Santa Barbara (box score/recap) and 8-2 vs. UNLV (box score/recap).

The Highlanders will need to get their offense going against Cal Poly if they are going to be successful. UCR's team batting average is .247 in conference play with a .339 on base percentage and a .327 slugging percentage. Thomas Walker is leading the squad in Big West competition with a slash line of .341/.404/.561.

UC Riverside's weekend rotation remains unchanged with RHP Jake Smigelski (5-5, 3.34) throwing on Friday, RHP Zach Varela (5-2, 2.98) pitching on Saturday, and LHP Ben Doucette (3-3, 3.40) taking his turn on Sunday.

Relief pitcher Dylan Stuart was the Highlanders' nominee for conference pitcher of the week last week. He has gone 13 straight inning over four appearances without allowing an earned run, and his last outing was a 5.2 innings, two-hit effort in Sunday's win over UC Santa Barbara.

Cal Poly has been ranked as high as number one in the nation this year, but they stumbled this week dropping three straight including an 11-4 loss at Pepperdine on Tuesday. That is the most runs the Mustangs have allowed in a game since a 15-14 loss at Seattle on March 8. Despite that misstep, Cal Poly's pitching staff still boasts the best ERA in the conference at 2.89 and 389 strikeouts in 392.0 innings pitched.

The Highlanders will face off against LHP Matt Imhof (8-2, 2.08) on Friday, RHP Justin Calomeni (7-2, 3.67) on Saturday and RHP Casey Bloomquist (9-1, 1.27) on Sunday.

Mark Mathias is taking a run at the .400 mark with a .393 average. He also paces the Mustangs with a .460 on base percentage and a .487 slugging percentage.

The Highlanders are 80-101 all-time against the Mustangs, and have lost seven straight dating back to the 2011 season (view all-time results).