Los Angeles, CA—The UC Riverside Baseball Team heads out on the road this week for four games, beginning with a Tuesday 6 pm PT first pitch at LMU. Big West play continues this weekend with a three-game set at #19 Long Beach State.
The Highlanders came close to their first home series victory over Cal State Fullerton since 2007 over the weekend, but had to settle for taking one of three from the 10th-ranked team in the nation.
UCR enters the week with a 12-11 mark, including 6-4 away from The Plex. Freshman right-hander Kevin West (0-0, 3.86) makes his third start of the season on Tuesday, and has eight strikeouts in 9.1 innings of work this year.
Initially a team strength, the pitching staff's ERA has grown from 3.63 on March 12, to 4.92 following the series against Cal State Fullerton. After not allowing 10 or more runs in a game over the first 15 games of the season, the Highlanders have done so on four occasions over their last eight games.
Offensively, UC Riverside is second in the Big West, averaging 5.52 runs per game. Leading hitter Mark Contreras returned to the starting lineup over the weekend, and kept his average above the .400 mark. He leads the team in all three slash line categories (.405/.490/.571).
Three other Highlanders are hitting better than .300—Cade Peters (.325), Casey Worden (.319) and Colby Schultz (.316). Schultz carries a seven-game hitting streak into the week, and has raised his average by 59 points during that stretch.
LMU is 18-10 on the season, including 11-7 at home. Left-hander Kyle Dozier (0-0, 4.50) gets his third start of the year for the Lions Tuesday. He also has eight relief appearances on his résumé. The senior has logged just 10.0 innings on the season with eight strikeouts and four walks. Teams are hitting .400 against him, and five of the 16 hits he has allowed on the season have gone for extra bases.
The Lions are hitting .274/.374/.369 as a team this season, and are led by Phil Caulfield, who, like Contreras for the Highlanders, is leading his team in all three slash line categories (.394/.473/.523).
LMU loves to run with 43 successful steals in 60 attempts on the year. Lions opponents have just 14 steals in 22 attempts.
The Highlanders are 20-21 all-time against LMU (
view results), and have lost four straight against the Lions. Each of the last three losses has been by just one run.
