Friday, February 25
Northridge, Calif.
2:00 p.m.
California State University at Northridge
vs
Pacific
Photo by: Shae Hammond
Matadors Open Home Schedule Hosting Pacific
2/24/2022 9:32:00 AM | Baseball
FULL GAME NOTES
NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Baseball (1-2) opens the home portion of the 2022 schedule this weekend when it takes on Pacific in a four-game set at Matador Field. The series kicks off Friday at 2 p.m. before the Matadors and Tigers play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 11 a.m. The teams will finish off the weekend series on Sunday at 1 p.m. Friday and Sunday's games will be broadcast on ESPN+ while fans can listen to all of the action throughout the series on GoMatadors.com.Radio. Ghizal Hasan will call the entire four-game series.
CSUN welcomes back fans to Matador Field this season. Before heading to the field, fans are advised to view the updated outdoor/indoor spectator policy. To read the specator policy, click here.
Probable Pitching Match-Ups
Pacific at CSUN
RHP Elijah Birdsong (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. RHP Blaine Traxel (0-1, 9.53 ERA)
RHP Marv Guarin (0-0, 1.93 ERA) vs. RHP Blake Sodersten (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
RHP Hunter Hayes (1-0, 1.50 ERA) vs. RHP Ryan Wentz (0-0, 2.08 ERA)
RHP Zach Patterson (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. TBA
The Matadors are set to renew old acquaintances with former Big West adversary Pacific this week. Beginning in 2001, the Matadors played the Tigers annually in Big West competition before Pacific left the conference in 2013. CSUN would win 24 of 45 games against Pacific as Big West members. Overall in the series, the Matadors hold a 27-22 edge. The teams last played in April 2013 when the Matadors swept a three-game series at Matador Field.
CSUN opened up the 2022 schedule last weekend at No. 22 UCLA and would give the nationally-ranked Bruins a battle throughout the weekend. The Bruins would take two of three games but the Matadors nearly pulled off the upset and series win in the finale.
The series began with a UCLA 9-2 win before the Matadors, behind six strong innings from Blake Sodersten, evened the series with a 6-4 win. In the finale, UCLA survived in 13 innings 5-3 but the Matadors would force extra innings with a dramatic three-run home run from Andrew Sojka with two outs in the ninth inning. The Matadors had Mason Le at third base in the 11th inning with one out but were unable to knock in the go-ahead run before the Bruins hit a walk-off homer in the 13th.
Le finished with a team-high four hits in the UCLA series while Sojka produced five RBI with two extra base hits. Kai Moody and Joey Kramer also belted home runs for CSUN. On the pitching side, Sodersten highlighted the weekend by scattering four hits over six shutout innings to beat UCLA. Blake Schriever made his return to the mound after an injury sidelined him for most of 2021 as he earned a save in game two. Other standout performances included freshman pitcher Diego Gutierrez tossing 2.1 innings, allowing one unearned run while Gavin Lizik tossed two shutout frames in relief.
A total of 13 players made their Matador debut last weekend, which included nine field players and four pitchers. Of the 13 players, six were true freshman and one was a redshirt freshman. Ali Camarillo, a true freshman, started all three games at shortstop, tallying three hits while another freshman Xavier Martinez worked 1.1 shutout innings. Junior college transfers in Sojka and Kramer started three games while Sebastian Garcia started twice. USC transfer Bart West also started twice in the outfield. Other newcomers included the Drew Porter, Graysen Tarlow, Matt Thomas and Shunsuke Sakaino on the field and Lucas Braun, Sebastian Granados and Gutierrez on the mound.
The Matadors fell to 38-24-2 all-time in season openers after the loss to UCLA last Friday. CSUN is 43-20 in home openers at Matador Field, dating back to its first season in 1959.
A Closer Look at Pacific
The Tigers (4-0) completed a dominant four-game sweep of Northern Colorado last weekend in Stockton, where they outscored the opposition 37-8 over the four games. Pacific was picked to finish 10th in the West Coast Conference by the league's head coaches. Last season, Pacific finished 17-34 last season and 7-20 in the WCC for a 10th-place finish in the league. The team is under the direction of second-year head coach Chris Rodriguez.
An All-WCC Honorable Mention in 2021, James Arakawa batted .538 (7-for-13) in the Northern Colorado series with five RBI while both Colby Canales and Jacob Weiss batted .444 (4-for-9) with a home run apiece. Thomas Gavello is coming off an All-WCC First-Team nod last season as he produced five hits and four RBI versus Northern Colorado to go with a .417 batting average. Pacific pitching posted a 0.50 ERA in the sweep of Northern Colorado. Friday starter Elijah Birdsong tossed 5.2 shutout innings last weekend with seven strikeouts.Â
#UniteTheValley
Â
NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Baseball (1-2) opens the home portion of the 2022 schedule this weekend when it takes on Pacific in a four-game set at Matador Field. The series kicks off Friday at 2 p.m. before the Matadors and Tigers play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 11 a.m. The teams will finish off the weekend series on Sunday at 1 p.m. Friday and Sunday's games will be broadcast on ESPN+ while fans can listen to all of the action throughout the series on GoMatadors.com.Radio. Ghizal Hasan will call the entire four-game series.
CSUN welcomes back fans to Matador Field this season. Before heading to the field, fans are advised to view the updated outdoor/indoor spectator policy. To read the specator policy, click here.
Probable Pitching Match-Ups
Pacific at CSUN
RHP Elijah Birdsong (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. RHP Blaine Traxel (0-1, 9.53 ERA)
RHP Marv Guarin (0-0, 1.93 ERA) vs. RHP Blake Sodersten (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
RHP Hunter Hayes (1-0, 1.50 ERA) vs. RHP Ryan Wentz (0-0, 2.08 ERA)
RHP Zach Patterson (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. TBA
The Matadors are set to renew old acquaintances with former Big West adversary Pacific this week. Beginning in 2001, the Matadors played the Tigers annually in Big West competition before Pacific left the conference in 2013. CSUN would win 24 of 45 games against Pacific as Big West members. Overall in the series, the Matadors hold a 27-22 edge. The teams last played in April 2013 when the Matadors swept a three-game series at Matador Field.
CSUN opened up the 2022 schedule last weekend at No. 22 UCLA and would give the nationally-ranked Bruins a battle throughout the weekend. The Bruins would take two of three games but the Matadors nearly pulled off the upset and series win in the finale.
The series began with a UCLA 9-2 win before the Matadors, behind six strong innings from Blake Sodersten, evened the series with a 6-4 win. In the finale, UCLA survived in 13 innings 5-3 but the Matadors would force extra innings with a dramatic three-run home run from Andrew Sojka with two outs in the ninth inning. The Matadors had Mason Le at third base in the 11th inning with one out but were unable to knock in the go-ahead run before the Bruins hit a walk-off homer in the 13th.
Le finished with a team-high four hits in the UCLA series while Sojka produced five RBI with two extra base hits. Kai Moody and Joey Kramer also belted home runs for CSUN. On the pitching side, Sodersten highlighted the weekend by scattering four hits over six shutout innings to beat UCLA. Blake Schriever made his return to the mound after an injury sidelined him for most of 2021 as he earned a save in game two. Other standout performances included freshman pitcher Diego Gutierrez tossing 2.1 innings, allowing one unearned run while Gavin Lizik tossed two shutout frames in relief.
A total of 13 players made their Matador debut last weekend, which included nine field players and four pitchers. Of the 13 players, six were true freshman and one was a redshirt freshman. Ali Camarillo, a true freshman, started all three games at shortstop, tallying three hits while another freshman Xavier Martinez worked 1.1 shutout innings. Junior college transfers in Sojka and Kramer started three games while Sebastian Garcia started twice. USC transfer Bart West also started twice in the outfield. Other newcomers included the Drew Porter, Graysen Tarlow, Matt Thomas and Shunsuke Sakaino on the field and Lucas Braun, Sebastian Granados and Gutierrez on the mound.
The Matadors fell to 38-24-2 all-time in season openers after the loss to UCLA last Friday. CSUN is 43-20 in home openers at Matador Field, dating back to its first season in 1959.
A Closer Look at Pacific
The Tigers (4-0) completed a dominant four-game sweep of Northern Colorado last weekend in Stockton, where they outscored the opposition 37-8 over the four games. Pacific was picked to finish 10th in the West Coast Conference by the league's head coaches. Last season, Pacific finished 17-34 last season and 7-20 in the WCC for a 10th-place finish in the league. The team is under the direction of second-year head coach Chris Rodriguez.
An All-WCC Honorable Mention in 2021, James Arakawa batted .538 (7-for-13) in the Northern Colorado series with five RBI while both Colby Canales and Jacob Weiss batted .444 (4-for-9) with a home run apiece. Thomas Gavello is coming off an All-WCC First-Team nod last season as he produced five hits and four RBI versus Northern Colorado to go with a .417 batting average. Pacific pitching posted a 0.50 ERA in the sweep of Northern Colorado. Friday starter Elijah Birdsong tossed 5.2 shutout innings last weekend with seven strikeouts.Â
#UniteTheValley
Â
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