Matadors Face the Northern Colorado Bears in Four-Game Set

Friday, February 26

Northridge, CA

2:00 p.m.

California State University at Northridge

Northern Colorado

Photo by: CSUN Athletics

Matadors Face the Northern Colorado Bears in Four-Game Set

2/25/2016 3:20:00 PM | Baseball

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NORTHRIDGE, CA---

CSUN Baseball (2-2) opens up a four-game series at Matador Field beginning on Friday afternoon as the Matadors take on Northern Colorado (1-4) at 2 p.m. The series will continue on Saturday as the teams will compete in a doubleheader beginning at 11 a.m. and the series finale will take place on Sunday with a start time set for 1 p.m. All four games will have live stats available on GoMatadors.com and each contest will have a live audio broadcast on the CSUN Sports Network with Ross Porter on the call.

The Matadors split their first four games to start 2016 after dropping two of three games to CSU Bakersfield last weekend and earning a victory at Pepperdine on Tuesday. Senior first baseman Branden Berry belted a pair of home runs and drove in an RBI to lead CSUN in the opener but the Roadrunners capitalized on four Matador errors to pull off the 8-5 win. At CSU Bakersfield last Saturday, the Matadors rebounded with a balanced 10-hit attack and Conner O'Neil tossed the final 4.1 innings to seal a CSUN 7-5 victory. CSUB jumped out to an early lead in the finale of the series before CSUN took a 3-2 lead into the late innings. The Roadrunners though would get timely hitting late to pull of a 5-3 win. At Pepperdine, the Matadors rode outstanding pitching in a 3-0 victory. Andrew Weston earned the win and both Berry and Albee Weiss hit solo home runs.

A transfer from Washington, Berry has made quite the impression in the early going this season. He is batting .545 with three home runs, six RBI and six runs scored. He also has posted five walks and a robust .706 on-base percentage. Justin Toerner is batting .357 at the dish for CSUN with five RBI and three runs scored. Junior transfer Fred Smith has also turned heads thus far as he has posted a .353 batting average to go along with two runs and six hits while playing at second base and the outfield. Both Berry and Smith are the only Matadors to hit safely in each game thus far on the season.

On the pitching side, Rayne Raven (0-1) gets the start in the opener against Northern Colorado. The senior has appeared in two games in 2016, starting the season opener and coming in relief against Pepperdine. Raven is boasting a 0.00 ERA in 5.1 innings with seven strikeouts. On Saturday, left-handed Kenny Rosenberg (0-0) gets the start in game one while right-handed junior Conner O'Neil (1-0) will start in game two. Rosenberg tossed 4.2 innings at Bakersfield and allowed two runs in his first appearance since 2014. O'Neal came out of the bullpen to earn the victory at Bakersfield and he earned his 13^th career save at Pepperdine after recording the final four outs. Sunday's starter, sophomore Joe Ryan (0-0) tossed 4.0 innings against the Roadrunners in the series finale and he allowed two runs and struck out four.

The Matadors are closing in on 900 all-time home wins as they can reach the milestone with three victories this weekend.

This weekend's matchup is the first ever meeting between CSUN and Northern Colorado. CSUN will hit the road following the four-game series and head east to meet George Mason on Mar. 3. That weekend, the Matadors will take on George Washington in a three-game series in the nation's capital beginning on Mar. 4.

A Closer Look at Northern Colorado
The Bears are in the mist of 15-game road trip to start the season. Northern Colorado opened up the 2016 campaign at Wichita State and dropped two of three games in the series. Earlier this week, the Bears lost a pair contests at Kansas to drop Northern Colorado to 1-4 this season. After facing the Matadors, the Bears will travel to Pacific for a four-game series and will visit Nebraska for a short two-game set before finally coming home on Mar. 11. In 2015, the Bears went 16-32 including going 12-15 in the Western Athletic Conference.

Senior outfielder Rob Cashel leads the team with a .333 average at the plate through five games to go along with two RBI. Freshman infielder Tyler Yamaguchi is batting .273 with a team-high five runs scored and three doubles. Right-handed senior Spencer Applebach (0-1, 30.38 ERA) will go in the opener and the right-handed duo of senior Alex Werbach (0-0, 4.50 ERA) and sophomore Connor Leedholm (0-1, 7.71 ERA) will get starts in the doubleheader on Saturday. Left-handed junior Nick Tanner (0-0, 0.00 ERA) will take the mound on Sunday afternoon to close out the series.