Riverside—With final exams in the rear view mirror, the UC Riverside Baseball Team returns home this week for a three-game weekend series with New Mexico State. Friday's game begins at 6 pm PT, with Saturday's first pitch slated for 1 pm, and Sunday scheduled for 12 pm.
The Highlanders improved to 7-10 on the season last weekend by taking two of three on the road from CSU Bakersfield. UC Riverside got strong pitching performances from Austin
Sodders (six innings, four hits, seven strikeouts) and Angel
Landazuri (seven innings, four hits) in the team's double header victory Saturday, and put together one of its best offensive series of the year posting a slash line of .318/.393/.430 as a team.
Sodders (1-2, 3.55) gets the starting nod on Friday. The junior has 26 strikeouts and has allowed just 14 hits in 20.1 innings this season, while holding the opposition to a .209 batting average.
Landazuri (2-2, 6.43) takes the mound Saturday with the best strikeout-to-walk ratio of any of the three weekend starters. His one rough outing against Washington on February 27 has skewed his seasonal stats, as in his other three appearances he has an ERA of 2.36.
Ricky Delgado (0-4, 5.84) makes his fifth start of the season Sunday, but he hasn't had much offensive support this season, as in three of his starts the Highlanders scored just six combined runs.
As a staff, UC Riverside has struggled with its control walking 91 batters in 153.0 innings compared to just 57 free passes issued by the opposition. Over the past five games, however, the Highlanders have walked just 3.6 batters per nine innings, compared to the 6.0 they issued over the first 12 games.
Offensively, UCR has upped its collective batting average 12 points in the last four games, and now has a slash line of .266/.340/.381. Should the Highlanders maintain their current slugging percentage, it would be their highest figure since the NCAA altered the composition of the bats prior to the 2011 season in an effort to decrease scoring.
Three members of the team are hitting better than .300 and five are slugging better than .400. Vince Fernandez leads the team with a .348 batting average and a .423 on base percentage, while Casey
Worden's .474 slugging percentage paces the squad.
Defensively, the Highlanders are enjoying a resurgence as well, posting a .979 fielding percentage so far this year—26 points higher than a year ago, and should they maintain it, the highest percentage since the UC Riverside made the move to the Big West Conference 15 years ago.
New Mexico State enters the week with a 10-9 record following a 3-1 weekend at the Baylor Baseball Battle, where they took two games from the host Bears and split a pair against San Diego, and an 11-8 loss at Arizona on Tuesday.
Right-hander Matthew McHugh (2-0, 2.08) gets the Friday start for the Aggies. He boasts the lowest ERA on the staff, despite allowing opponents to hit a combined .310 against him.
Righty Kyle
Bradish (1-2, 4.32) takes the mound on Saturday, with Sunday's starter yet to be determined.
As a staff, New Mexico State has an ERA of 5.20, but they are also giving up nearly two unearned runs per game thanks to 40 errors and a .946 fielding percentage on the part of their defense.
Offensively, the Aggie's have five regulars hitting better than .300 led by Austin
Botello's 380. Daniel Johnson is right behind him at .351, and leads the team with a .430 on base percentage and a .581 slugging percentage.
This is the first meeting between the clubs.
