Matadors Visit CSU Bakersfield in Midweek Game

Tuesday, February 27

Bakersfield, CA

6:00 p.m.

California State University at Northridge

CSU Bakersfield

Photo by: Samuel Ware

Matadors Visit CSU Bakersfield in Midweek Game

2/26/2018 3:46:00 PM | Baseball

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NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Baseball (4-3) hits the road this week for the start of a stretch of five-straight played away from Matador Field. The Matadors will open up the trip with a midweek game on Tuesday evening against CSU Bakersfield at 6 p.m. The game will be streamed live on the WAC Digital Network and the Roadrunners will provide live audio and live stats for the contest. All links can be found on the baseball schedule page at GoMatadors.com.

The Matadors are coming off an historic weekend at the plate. CSUN hit .465 as a team in a three-game sweep of Manhattan, and tallied 57 runs on 59 hits. After routing the Jaspers 21-5 in the opener, the Matadors tied a school run record and set a new RBI record (31) in a 31-5 victory. CSUN defeated Manhattan in the finale, 5-1, behind strong pitching on the mound. The 57 runs in the series are the third-most runs scored in a series of three or four games in team history. The 1992 team tallied the most with 63 runs in a series with Southern Utah while the 1996 team registered 61 runs at BYU.

The 31 runs scored on Saturday tied the 1997 team's output against UC Santa Barbara, and marked just the third time in team history the team scored at least 30 runs in a single game. As a team, CSUN pounded out 25 hits, 13 extra base hits and six home runs on the day. A total of 15 different Matadors recorded at least one hit and six had multi-hit efforts. Nick Sablock drove in a career-high six runs to go with four hits, four runs scored a home run. Also, Joey Cooper and Brandon Bohning had three hits apiece.

On the pitching side, junior Tei Vanderford earned his first victory of the season, going six innings and striking out six batters. Junior Walker Armstrong also notched his first win of the year as he scattered two hits over five shutout innings. Out of the bullpen, junior Isaiah Nunez nailed down his first career save in a Matador uniform with a scoreless ninth on Sunday.

Junior catcher Trevor Casanova went 8-for-11 in the series sweep over Manhattan and finished with a .625 average at the plate. For his efforts, Casanova was named Big West Field Player of the Week on Monday. During the week, Casanova collected 10 hits, six RBI, six runs scored, two doubles and two home runs. He also posted a tremendous 1.125 slugging percentage to go with a .647 on-base percentage.

Through seven games, the Matadors' offense is among the best in the nation. CSUN is first in the nation in home runs (20) and slugging percentage (.701) while the team is second in batting average (.376), runs (83) and runs per game (11.9), and third in hits (102). Senior Albee Weiss is second in the nation with five home runs. Meanwhile, Casanova is sixth in batting average (.577) and ninth in hits (15). The combination of Cooper and Justin Toerner are also tied for ninth with two triples.

Junior right hander Matt Acosta is set to make the start against the Roadrunners on Tuesday. Acosta (1-2) has appeared in three games this season and has already figured into all the decisions. He has struck out a pair in five innings of work while allowing four runs. Acosta earned his first victory with the Matadors on Saturday by tossing a shutout inning in relief.

The Matadors and Roadrunners have split 24 all-time meetings. The teams have met in each of the last three seasons with the road team winning five of those contests. Last season, the teams broke that trend with each squad holding serve at home. CSUB defeated the Matadors in Bakersfield last season but the Matadors rallied to win in 10 innings behind Riley Conlan's walk-off single back at Matador Field.

A Closer Look at CSU Bakersfield
The Roadrunners are 2-6 this season and 2-2 at Hardt Field. Last weekend, CSUB suffered a four-game sweep at the hands of California. The Bears won by double-digits in three of the four games. Last season, the Roadrunners went 32-24 and 14-10 in the Western Athletic Conference. The team also advanced to the WAC Tournament finals in 2017.

Freshman shortstop Evan Berkey is hitting .414 on the young season to go with six runs scored, three doubles and two RBI. Also hitting above .400, senior Andrew Penner has a home run with three RBI, three runs scored and a .407 average at the plate. Junior left hander Kyle King (0-1) gets the starting nod against the Matadors, and he comes into the start with an 18.00 ERA in 3.0 innings along with three strikeouts.