Matadors Face UC Irvine to Wrap Up Regular Season

Thursday, May 26

Irvine, CA

6:30 p.m.

California State University at Northridge

UC Irvine

Photo by: CSUN Athletics

Matadors Face UC Irvine to Wrap Up Regular Season

5/24/2016 3:26:00 PM | Baseball

FULL PDF RELEASE

NORTHRIDGE, CA---

CSUN Baseball concludes the 2016 regular season with a three-game series at UC Irvine beginning Thursday at 6:30 p.m. The series will continue on Friday at 6:30 p.m. and the season concludes on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. Thursday's series opener will be broadcast live on ESPN3. All three games will also have a live audio broadcast on the CSUN Sports Network with Brandon Marcus calling all the action from Anteater Ballpark.

The Matadors look to get back on the winning track after dropping just their second non-conference series of the season last weekend at Purdue. In the series, the Matadors were shut out in the first two games, losing 5-0 in game one and 1-0 in 10 innings on Friday. CSUN bounced back with a 6-0 victory on Saturday but fell 8-0 in the series finale. Yusuke Akitoshi hit .333 in the series against the Boilermakers, leading the team in batting and total hits (5). Kenny Rosenberg tossed a complete game shutout on Saturday in a dominating performance. Rosenberg struck out 12 batters, allowing two hits while retiring the final 16 batters in a row to notch his sixth win of the season.

Heading into the final series of 2016, leadoff hitter Fred Smith is batting a team-leading .319 at the plate to go along with 32 runs scored, 19 RBI and eight stolen bases. A top run producer all season long, Branden Berry enters the weekend tops on the team in home runs (9), RBI (40), doubles (12), on-base percentage (.411) and slugging percentage (.522). Fellow senior Akitoshi also concludes his career with the Matadors this weekend as he comes into his final series with a .296 batting average, 37 runs scored, 19 RBI, 24 walks, 22 stolen bases and a .395 on-base percentage. Red hot over his last 10 games, Dylan Alexander is hitting .353 over that span, which has increased his overall average on the season to .280.

CSUN sends right-handed pitcher Joe Ryan (1-1, 3.06 ERA) in the series opener against the Anteaters followed by right-hander Angel Rodriguez (4-4, 3.12 ERA) and the southpaw Rosenberg (6-1, 3.03 ERA) in the finale. Ryan struck out six batters in a losing effort last Thursday at Purdue to move his season total to 33 in 35.1 innings of work. Starting Friday, Rodriguez is coming off a strong start against the Boilermakers where he gave up no earned runs and two hits while receiving a no decision. Rodriguez is posting a 2.17 ERA over his last six appearances to go along with 23 strikeouts over 29.0 innings on the mound. The reigning Big West Conference Pitcher of the Week, Rosenberg leads the Big West Conference with 113 strikeouts in 92 innings of work. Rosenberg is the first Matador in 10 seasons to reach the 100 strikeout milestone.

Looking to end the regular season on a positive note, CSUN comes into the series the winners of its last six Big West Conference games. After starting the season 1-8 against conference opponents, the Matadors have won nine of the last 12 to improve to 10-11. Currently tied for fifth in the conference standings with Cal Poly and UC Riverside, the Matadors are only two games back of third place entering the weekend. Since 2002, only the 2013 Matador squad has been able to finish in the top four in the conference as the team finished 15-12 and tied for fourth in the Big West. This year's CSUN team could also become just the second team since 2002 to finish with a .500 or better win percentage with a series victory over UC Irvine.

UC Irvine leads the all-time series with the Matadors, 39-27, after taking two of three games at Matador Field last season. The Anteaters have won seven of the last nine meetings including posting a three-game sweep in the teams' last series at Anteater Ballpark in 2014. CSUN has not won a series at UC Irvine since 2003 while UCI has won the season series in three consecutive seasons.

A Closer Look at UC Irvine
The Anteaters are 29-24 and 9-12 in Big West play on the season. Sitting in eighth-place in the conference, UCI is a game back of CSUN, Cal Poly and UC Riverside for fifth. UC Irvine dropped to 16-10 at home after falling twice in its three-game series to UC Santa Barbara last weekend.

The 2015 Big West Freshman of the Year, Keston Hiura leads the Big West this season in batting with a .370 average and is tied with Berry for the conference lead in RBI with 40. Hiura also leads the Anteaters in runs scored (39), home runs (7), slugging percentage (.557), on-base percentage (.448) and walks (24). In 34 games this season, junior infielder Evan Cassolato is posting a .355 average at the plate to go along with 21 runs scored. Senior left-hander Elliot Surrey is scheduled to make the start in the series opener (3-6, 3.94 ERA) while sophomore right-hander Alonzo Garcia (5-4, 3.86 ERA) starts Friday night and sophomore left-hander Cameron Bishop (5-5, 4.48 ERA) will start the season finale.