CSUN Hosts CSU Bakersfield in Final Midweek Game

Tuesday, May 9

Northridge, CA

3:00 p.m.

California State University at Northridge

CSU Bakersfield

Photo by: Paul Trafecanty

CSUN Hosts CSU Bakersfield in Final Midweek Game

5/8/2017 12:27:00 PM | Baseball

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NORTHRIDGE, CA---

With just two weeks left in the regular season, CSUN Baseball (23-25) returns home for a midweek game on Tuesday afternoon against CSU Bakersfield at 3 p.m. The game will be streamed live on the CSUN Sports Network through Big West.TV with Ross Porter calling all the action from Matador Field.

Last weekend, the Matadors posted their first series victory at UC Irvine since 2003 and the team's first conference road series win in four seasons. CSUN erased a four-run deficit in the eighth inning in the series opener and pushed across the winning run in the top of 10th to defeat the Anteaters 6-5. UCI bounced back with an 8-4 win in game two but the Matadors took the series finale, 2-1, behind eight outstanding innings from Samuel Myers where he surrendered one run on four hits.

Nolan Bumstead hit .385 (5-for-13) in the UCI series with five hits and three RBI while Justin Toerner batted .364 (4-for-11) with two runs scored, two walks and an RBI. In his only game of the series, Kevin Riley belted a three-run home run to help spark a CSUN rally in the opener. On the pitching side, Andrew Weston also recorded a quality start in game two by going seven innings, allowing three runs on eight hits. Making two appearances out of the bullpen, Conner O'Neil earned a win in game one with three shutout innings of work and he registered his seventh save of the season in the finale with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

The Matadors remain among the league leaders in several offensive categories. CSUN is first in the Big West in doubles (80), home runs (43), extra base hits (128) and total bases (624), second in RBI (220) and slugging percentage (.394) and third in stolen bases (46). Albee Weiss leads the Big West in home runs (10) and RBI (42) while Riley is second in slugging percentage (.567), third in homers with eight and fourth in runs batted in with 32. Alvaro Rubalcaba leads the conference with 14 stolen bases and he sits in fourth place in runs (34) and walks (28).

After a productive series against UC Irvine, Toerner leads the Matadors in batting (.294) to go along with 31 runs, 22 walks, 12 RBI, nine stolen bases and two home runs. Second in the team in batting average, RIley is hitting .291 with 30 runs, 11 doubles and 10 walks while Bumstead is third in batting (.281) with 23 RBI, 21 runs, six doubles and four home runs.

Sophomore right hander Ray Diaz (0-5) will make his fifth start of the season on Tuesday against CSU Bakersfield. He comes into the start with a 6.75 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 20.0 innings of work this season. Diaz faced the Roadrunners earlier this season in Bakersfield and tossed a career-high 5.0 shutout innings to go along with five strikeouts.

The Roadrunners lead the all-time head-to-head series with the Matadors, 12-11. On April 11, CSUB defeated CSUN, 4-2, thanks to a four-run seventh inning that erased a Matador 2-0 lead. The home victory for the Roadrunners snapped a seven-game string where the road team won games in the head-to-head series.

A Closer Look at CSU Bakersfield
The Roadrunners are 26-17 this season and sit in third place in the Western Athletic Conference standings with an 11-7 record. CSUB is coming off a three-game sweep of Northern Colorado last weekend and the team has won five in a row overall. One of the top hitting teams in the WAC, the Roadrunners are batting a league-leading .320 as a team to go along with a .396 on-base percentage.

Senior Ryan Grotjohn leads the team with a .402 batting average with 38 runs, 36 RBI, 12 doubles and three triples. The tandem of senior David Metzgar and junior Andrew Penner are also enjoying fantastic seasons as each is hitting .399. Metzgar has 38 runs this season with 32 RBI and 15 stolen bases while Penner possesses 32 runs, 24 RBI and 22 walks.

Freshman right hander Kenny Johnson is scheduled to start against the Matadors on Tuesday. Johnson is 0-2 with a 7.16 ERA in 18 appearances to go along with 23 strikeouts across 27.2 innings.