Friday, May 12
Northridge, Calif.
3:00 p.m.
California State University at Northridge
vs
UC Irvine
Photo by: Dianne Wentz
CSUN Opens Weekend Series with UC Irvine on Friday
5/11/2023 12:27:00 PM | Baseball
FULL GAME NOTES
NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Baseball (27-15, 13-8 Big West) continues Big West play with a weekend series with UC Irvine at Matador Field. The series opens on Friday at 3 p.m. before continuing on Saturday at 2 p.m. and concluding on Sunday at 1 p.m. Ghizal Hasan has the call in audio broadcasts all weekend at GoMatadors.com/Radio. Sunday's series finale will also be broadcast on ESPN+.
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS
UC Irvine at CSUN
RHP Finnegan Wall (2-1, 3.05 ERA) vs. RHP Lucas Braun (4-4, 4.52 ERA)
RHP Michael Stanford (4-2, 3.69 ERA) vs. RHP Thomas Bainton (6-1, 3.49 ERA)
LHP Nick Pinto (5-2, 6.04 ERA) vs. LHP Jon Mocherman (2-1, 2.81 ERA)
LAST TIME OUT
The Matadors would drop the final meeting of the season with Pepperdine by a 10-7 decision on Tuesday at Matador Field. CSUN trailed by as many as 10-2 in the eighth inning before scoring five times in the frame but the Waves held on the rest of the way. The Matadors won the season series with the Waves 3-2.
Kevin Fitzer homered for the second-straight game and finished 2-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored. Joey Kramer also hit a three-run home run late in the contest. On the pitching side, seven CSUN pitchers saw action in the contest with Ryan Wentz going the deepest with 4.2 innings of work and four runs allowed. Although Matador pitching allowed 10 runs on the day, three CSUN errors resulted in only four runs being earned.
MATADOR HEADLINES
The Matadors head into the week in fourth place in The Big West standings and four games back of first-place Cal State Fullerton (17-4). UC Santa Barbara holds on to second place with a 15-6 league record while UC San Diego, which is a half-game ahead of CSUN, sits in third place. UCI is in fifth place (12-9) but only a game back of CSUN.Â
CSUN is coming off a series win at UC San Diego last weekend. The Matadors dropped the opener 5-4 in 11 innings to open the series but bounced back with a 10-1 win in game two and a 11-0 victory in the rubber game. The series win was the Matadors' fifth in league action in seven tries. CSUN outscored UCSD 25-6 in the series with Matador pitching posting a team 1.27 ERA.
CSUN would also hit a milestone last weekend at UC San Diego as the Matadors clinched their fourth consecutive winning season for the first time in their Division I history. The team had previously had three consecutive winning campaigns from 1991-93 and 1996-98. Going back to its Division II era (prior to 1991), CSUN's program record for consecutive winning seasons was 10 set from 1967-76.
In The Big West, the Matadors pace the conference with a .302 batting average while they are ranked second in runs (321), RBI (301), slugging percentage (.471), on base percentage (.394) and stolen bases (59). CSUN's pitching is ranked second in The Big West in ERA (4.53). Individually, Jakob Simons is third on the batting list in the league (.351) followed by Ali Camarillo in sixth (.343) and Kevin Fitzer in eighth (.333). Simons also ranks second in homers (12) and slugging percentage (.682) and third in runs scored (42) while Fitzer is fifth in RBI (42). On the pitching side, Joshua Romero is first in saves (9), Thomas Bainton is second in wins (6) and Lucas Braun is third in strikeouts (81).
SERIES HISTORY
UC Irvine holds a 51-37 lead over CSUN in the all-time series, which dates back to 1971. Over the past two seasons, the Matadors have won four of the last seven meetings with the Anteaters while CSUN won two of three games at UC Irvine in 2022. CSUN split a four-game series with UCI two seasons ago at Matador Field.
Seven of the last nine meetings between the teams have been decided by three runs or fewer. The Matadors' four wins over the last seven were all extra-inning wins including both wins at Anteater Ballpark in 2022. UCI would rally to win in walk-off fashion in last season's series finale with CSUN to avoid a sweep.
SCOUTING UC IRVINE
The Anteaters come in with a 31-14 overall record and 12-9 league mark. UCI has won nine of 10 games after knocking off San Diego 10-2 on Tuesday and winning two of three games versus Hawai'i this past weekend. Away from home, UCI has won 16 of 21 games as well as all three of its road Big West series. Prior to the season, UCI was picked to finish second in the league standings by the conference's head coaches. Ben Orloff is in his fifth season as head coach of the program.
Anthony Martinez leads The Big West in batting (.397), on-base percentage (.476) and hits (75) to go with nine homers and 46 RBI. Thomas McCaffrey (.348) and Caden Kendle (.333) are among the team's top batting average leaders while Kendle tops The Big West with 50 runs scored. Chase Call shares the team lead in homers (9) and leads the conference in walks (41). Michael Stanford, who starts Tuesday on mound versus CSUN, is ranked 10th in the league in ERA (3.69) while he shares the team lead in strikeouts (44). As a team, UCI is tops in the conference in runs (340) and walks (242) and second in batting average (.298).
#GoMatadors
Â
NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Baseball (27-15, 13-8 Big West) continues Big West play with a weekend series with UC Irvine at Matador Field. The series opens on Friday at 3 p.m. before continuing on Saturday at 2 p.m. and concluding on Sunday at 1 p.m. Ghizal Hasan has the call in audio broadcasts all weekend at GoMatadors.com/Radio. Sunday's series finale will also be broadcast on ESPN+.
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS
UC Irvine at CSUN
RHP Finnegan Wall (2-1, 3.05 ERA) vs. RHP Lucas Braun (4-4, 4.52 ERA)
RHP Michael Stanford (4-2, 3.69 ERA) vs. RHP Thomas Bainton (6-1, 3.49 ERA)
LHP Nick Pinto (5-2, 6.04 ERA) vs. LHP Jon Mocherman (2-1, 2.81 ERA)
LAST TIME OUT
The Matadors would drop the final meeting of the season with Pepperdine by a 10-7 decision on Tuesday at Matador Field. CSUN trailed by as many as 10-2 in the eighth inning before scoring five times in the frame but the Waves held on the rest of the way. The Matadors won the season series with the Waves 3-2.
Kevin Fitzer homered for the second-straight game and finished 2-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored. Joey Kramer also hit a three-run home run late in the contest. On the pitching side, seven CSUN pitchers saw action in the contest with Ryan Wentz going the deepest with 4.2 innings of work and four runs allowed. Although Matador pitching allowed 10 runs on the day, three CSUN errors resulted in only four runs being earned.
MATADOR HEADLINES
The Matadors head into the week in fourth place in The Big West standings and four games back of first-place Cal State Fullerton (17-4). UC Santa Barbara holds on to second place with a 15-6 league record while UC San Diego, which is a half-game ahead of CSUN, sits in third place. UCI is in fifth place (12-9) but only a game back of CSUN.Â
CSUN is coming off a series win at UC San Diego last weekend. The Matadors dropped the opener 5-4 in 11 innings to open the series but bounced back with a 10-1 win in game two and a 11-0 victory in the rubber game. The series win was the Matadors' fifth in league action in seven tries. CSUN outscored UCSD 25-6 in the series with Matador pitching posting a team 1.27 ERA.
CSUN would also hit a milestone last weekend at UC San Diego as the Matadors clinched their fourth consecutive winning season for the first time in their Division I history. The team had previously had three consecutive winning campaigns from 1991-93 and 1996-98. Going back to its Division II era (prior to 1991), CSUN's program record for consecutive winning seasons was 10 set from 1967-76.
In The Big West, the Matadors pace the conference with a .302 batting average while they are ranked second in runs (321), RBI (301), slugging percentage (.471), on base percentage (.394) and stolen bases (59). CSUN's pitching is ranked second in The Big West in ERA (4.53). Individually, Jakob Simons is third on the batting list in the league (.351) followed by Ali Camarillo in sixth (.343) and Kevin Fitzer in eighth (.333). Simons also ranks second in homers (12) and slugging percentage (.682) and third in runs scored (42) while Fitzer is fifth in RBI (42). On the pitching side, Joshua Romero is first in saves (9), Thomas Bainton is second in wins (6) and Lucas Braun is third in strikeouts (81).
SERIES HISTORY
UC Irvine holds a 51-37 lead over CSUN in the all-time series, which dates back to 1971. Over the past two seasons, the Matadors have won four of the last seven meetings with the Anteaters while CSUN won two of three games at UC Irvine in 2022. CSUN split a four-game series with UCI two seasons ago at Matador Field.
Seven of the last nine meetings between the teams have been decided by three runs or fewer. The Matadors' four wins over the last seven were all extra-inning wins including both wins at Anteater Ballpark in 2022. UCI would rally to win in walk-off fashion in last season's series finale with CSUN to avoid a sweep.
SCOUTING UC IRVINE
The Anteaters come in with a 31-14 overall record and 12-9 league mark. UCI has won nine of 10 games after knocking off San Diego 10-2 on Tuesday and winning two of three games versus Hawai'i this past weekend. Away from home, UCI has won 16 of 21 games as well as all three of its road Big West series. Prior to the season, UCI was picked to finish second in the league standings by the conference's head coaches. Ben Orloff is in his fifth season as head coach of the program.
Anthony Martinez leads The Big West in batting (.397), on-base percentage (.476) and hits (75) to go with nine homers and 46 RBI. Thomas McCaffrey (.348) and Caden Kendle (.333) are among the team's top batting average leaders while Kendle tops The Big West with 50 runs scored. Chase Call shares the team lead in homers (9) and leads the conference in walks (41). Michael Stanford, who starts Tuesday on mound versus CSUN, is ranked 10th in the league in ERA (3.69) while he shares the team lead in strikeouts (44). As a team, UCI is tops in the conference in runs (340) and walks (242) and second in batting average (.298).
#GoMatadors
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