Highlanders In Week Seven
at Arizona	at Arizona
Tuesday, March 29, 6 pm PT	Wednesday, March 30, 1 pm PT
RHP Alex Fagalde	RHP Tyler Musgraves
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vs. UC Davis	vs. UC Davis
Friday, April 1, 6 pm PT	Saturday, April 2, 6 pm PT
LHP Austin Sodders	RHP Angel Landazuri
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vs. UC Davis
Sunday, A[ril 3, 1 pm PT
RHP Richard Delgado
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Riverside—The UC Riverside Baseball Team plays five games this week traveling to Arizona for a pair of mid-week contests, before hosting UC Davis for a three-game weekend series to open Big West play.

The Highlanders last played on Tuesday, March 22 at San Diego State where Colby Schultz's solo shot in the top of the tenth helped UC Riverside to a 3-2 victory over the Aztecs. UCR's bullpen trio of Jared Morton, Keaton Leach and Alex Fagalde pitched seven innings of shutout baseball to keep the Highlanders in the game, allowing just four hits, and striking out five.

Fagalde (1-0, 0.54) gets his first start of the season on Tuesday against the Wildcats. The junior transfer from Cuesta College has logged 16.2 innings in 10 appearances this season, striking out 18, while walking five. Opposing batters are hitting just .207 against him.

Tyler Musgraves (2-0, 4.34) takes the mound on Wednesday. The Highlanders have won each of his five starts this season, but the right-hander has lasted just four combined innings in his last two starts, allowing four unearned runs while walking six.

On the offensive side of things, Vince Fernandez has upped his batting average 92 points over the past three weeks to a team-high .372, putting together a nine-game hitting streak in the process. His .449 on base percentage is also tops on the team, and his slugging percentage of .442 is second only to Schultz's team-best .471.

The Highlanders have 12 home runs on the season, and are on pace to club 31 for the year. That would be the highest total for the team since they hit 58 in 2010, which was the year before the NCAA altered the composition of the bats to decrease scoring.

UCR's defense is also on a record-setting pace. The Highlanders are fielding .976 on the season which would tie the team's best percentage since they joined the Big West Conference.

Arizona is 16-7 on the year including 11-2 at home. The Wildcats have won four of their last five games including two of three against UCLA over the weekend. They are hitting .306/.404/.459 as a team, and boast five starters hitting .329 or better.

Ryan Aguilar tops the team with a .350 batting average and a .600 slugging percentage, while Justin Behnke leads the Wildcats with a .493 on base percentage thanks in part to 23 walks.

Arizona is throwing left-hander Alfonso Rivas II (0-1, 9.00) on Tuesday, with Wednesday's starter yet to be determined. Rivas is making his first start of the season for the Wildcats after pitching three innings in four relief appearances. He allowed just two hits in those innings, but walked five.

As a team, Arizona has an ERA of 4.21. There defense is fielding .983 on the season, and has only allowed seven unearned runs.

The Highlanders are 10-15 all-time against Arizona (view results), and last squared off against one another in the 2006 season where the Wildcats took two of three from UCR.

This weekend against UC Davis, UC Riverside is expected to throw Austin Sodders (2-2, 3.08) on Friday, Angel Landazuri (2-1, 6.23) on Saturday and Ricky Delgado (0-4, 5.81) on Sunday.

Prior to Friday's game, the Highlanders are retiring the #12 jersey of former Head Coach Doug Smith. A catcher for UC Riverside for three seasons, Smith went on to serve as an assistant coach and head coach for the Highlanders for more than 35 years.