Matadors Win Sixth-Straight, Down William & Mary 11-3

Thursday, March 10

Northridge, CA

2:00 p.m.

California State University at Northridge

11-3

William & Mary

6-7

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
William & Mary	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	3	8	3
CSUN	0	0	1	4	0	6	0	0	X	11	10	0

Photo by: CSUN Athletics

Matadors Win Sixth-Straight, Down William & Mary 11-3

3/10/2016 7:16:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

NORTHRIDGE, CA---

CSUN Baseball (11-3) powered its way to its sixth-straight victory, posting an 11-3 decision against William & Mary on Thursday afternoon at Matador Field. Albee Weiss picked up two hits including a grand slam to lead CSUN while Elias Orona had three hits and Bobby Schuman had two. Angel Rodriguez tossed seven quality innings, scattering four hits to earn the win.

Continuing its recent trend of scoring runs in bunches, the Matadors once again put up a pair of crooked numbers on the board to take control of its game against the Tribe on Thursday. After scoring six runs in the ninth against George Washington last Sunday and plating two seven-run innings against UCLA on Tuesday, the Matadors scored four runs in the fourth and six runs in the sixth against William & Mary to cruise to their eleventh win of the season.

The teams played even in the early innings as the Tribe scored in the top of the first inning on an RBI single from Cullen Large. CSUN answered back with a single tally in its half of the third as Orona tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly from Fred Smith.

The game remained tied until the fourth inning when the Matador bats came alive. After the first batter was retired to start the bottom of the fourth, Weiss hit a popup on the infield that appeared to be a routine play but the ball would be dropped by pitcher Michael Toner, resulting in Weiss reaching safely. From there, Justin Toerner walked and two batters later, Michael Russo collected his first career hit with a two-run double to right field.

Bobby Schuman added to the lead with a single to center and he scored later in the inning on a throwing error on the infield to make it 5-1.

William & Mary kept CSUN off the scoreboard in the fifth but the Matadors broke through with another big inning in the sixth. CSUN loaded the bases with none out on a pair of singles and a hit batter. Smith reached on a fielder's choice and an error on the same play resulted in a runner coming around to score. After Yusuke Akitoshi was hit by a pitch to load the bases again, Branden Berry walked to force in another run.

Ahead 7-1, Weiss stepped to the plate and broke the game wide open on one pitch. Weiss blasted the first pitch of the at bat over the right field wall for a grand slam to give CSUN an 11-1 lead and to put the game out of reach.

Coming off a Big West Conference Pitcher of the Week nod, Rodriguez kept the Tribe at bay with solid pitching throughout his seven innings of work. Rodriguez settled down after giving up three hits through the first two innings to allow just one hit the rest of the way including retiring nine-straight batters over the middle innings. He struck out five batters and gave up one earned run on the day to lower his earned run average to 1.64 for the season.

The Matador offense has scored 40 runs over the past three games thanks to contributions from numerous members of the batting order. Weiss has now hit home runs in three-straight games, and over his last six games, he is hitting .522 with four home runs and 12 runs batted in. Smith went 1-for-3 with an RBI to extend his hitting streak to 14 games. Orona is also swinging a hot bat as he is seven for his last 17 at the plate and he has driven in seven over the last five games.

In addition to Russo recording his first career hit in the contest, freshman Derek Molina picked up his first hit as a Matador with a ground-rule double in the eighth inning.

CSUN returns to action tomorrow afternoon with a contest against the UConn Huskies at 12:40 p.m. The game will follow a morning neutral site game between the Huskies and William & Mary at 9 a.m. at Matador Field.

CSUN Falls to CBU 9-7 After Forcing Extra Innings with Five-Run Ninth

Tuesday, May 05

CSUN Opens Final Homestand Against California Baptist on Tuesday

Monday, May 04

CSUN Drops Rubber Match at #6 Oregon State, 5-2

Sunday, May 03

CSUN Falls in Extras at Sixth-Ranked Oregon State

Saturday, May 02

Next Event

William & Mary

W, 11-7

Mar 12 (Sat)

2:00 p.m.

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Team Stats

Pitching:

W: Rodriguez, Angel (2-0)

L: Toner, Michael (0-1)

William & Mary

Batting:

2B: Wrighte, Kyle 1 ; Keane, Matthew 1

RBI: Wrighte, Kyle 1 ; Large, Cullen 1 ; Keane, Matthew 1

Base Running:

RUNS: Smith, Josh 1 ; Pearson, Zach 1 ; Waldman, Jason 1

CS: Large, Cullen 1

CSUN

Batting:

2B: Molina, Derek 1 ; Russo, Michael 1

3B: Orona, Elias 1

HR: Weiss, Albee 1

RBI: Smith, Fred 1 ; Berry, Branden 1 ; Weiss, Albee 4 ; Russo, Michael 2 ; Schuman, Bobby 1

SF: Smith, Fred 1

Base Running:

RUNS: Smith, Fred 1 ; Akitoshi, Yusuke 1 ; Berry, Branden 1 ; Weiss, Albee 1 ; Toerner, Justin 1 ; Bumstead, Nolan 1 ; Russo, Michael 1 ; Schuman, Bobby 2 ; Orona, Elias 2