California State University Northridge Athletics
Thursday, May 23
Irvine, Calif.
6:00 p.m.
California State University at Northridge
at
#13 UC Irvine
Photo by: Chuck Marvel
CSUN Wraps Up Regular Season at #14 UC Irvine
5/22/2024 1:17:00 PM | Baseball
GAME NOTES
NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Baseball (29-22, 15-12 Big West) closes the regular season this week against No. 14 UC Irivine at Anteater Ballpark. The series opens on Thursday at 6 p.m. before continuing on Friday at 6 p.m. and closing on Saturday at 1 p.m. All three games will be broadcast on ESPN+.
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS
CSUN at UC Irvine
RHP Kenji Pallares (0-2, 5.82 ERA) vs. LHP Nick Pinto (9-2, 3.43 ERA)
RHP Ryan Halakicek (5-3, 4.98 ERA) vs. RHP Trevor Hansen (6-2, 5.26 ERA)
TBA vs. RHP Tim Grack (2-1, 4.91 ERA)
LEADING OFF
After suffering a sweep last weekend at Matador Field to UC Santa Barbara, CSUN has slipped to sixth place in the Big West standings. While the Matadors have been eliminated from Big West title contention, CSUN can still finish anywhere from third to sixth place in the league. The Matadors are still a game away from notching 30 overall wins for the third consecutive season -- a feat the team has not accomplished since 1996-98.
Also, with just one more win, CSUN could also finish above the .500 mark in Big West play for a fourth-straight season, which the program has never done at the Division I level. In fact, CSUN last had four or more consecutive winning conference records in the early 1980s (1980-85) when the team was a Division II program.
ABOUT LAST WEEK
CSUN dropped its final three home games last weekend to UC Santa Barbara. The Gauchos took the opener 14-2 behind an eight-run top of the seventh. In game two, CSUN would lead for the most of the day, taking a 2-1 lead to the eighth, but UCSB scored once in the eighth and twice more in the ninth to prevail 4-2. The Matadors jumped out to a 4-0 lead in game three after a third-inning grand slam from Andrew Sojka, but the Gauchos rallied again and eventually took the lead in the eighth in a three-run inning for an eventual 6-4 win.
AMONG THE NATION'S BEST
CSUN enters the final weekend of the regular season ranked fourth in the nation in sacrifice hits with 51. The Matadors' .980 fielding percentage is ranked 14th in Division I baseball, which is ahead of the team's school record of .978 set in 2016. Speaking of defense, the Matadors are also ranked 20th in the nation in double plays per game (0.92) and 23rd in total double plays (47).
Individually, Kamau Neighbors is up to fourth place in Division I in toughest to strikeout (18.9). Jakob Simons is ranked third in hit by pitch (27) while Mason Le is 11th in sacrifice hits (12) followed by Neighbors in 19th place (10). On the pitching side, Joshua Romero is 23rd in wins with his eight victories out of the bullpen.
TEAM LEADERS
Kevin Fitzer remains the team leader in batting average at .333 to go with ranking second in the Big West in slugging percentage (.647), third in OPS (1.092) and fourth in home runs (10). Jakob Simons, who is hitting .314, continues to lead the Big West in homers with 16 while he ranks second in OPS (1.099), runs scored (55), RBI (56) and stolen bases (16) and third in slugging percentage (.638). In what has been a career season, Kamau Neighbors is CSUN's team leader in hits (59) and walks (35) while he is second in runs (44) and doubles (11) and third in batting (.312), on base percentage (.551) and stolen bases (8). On the pitching side, Thomas Bainton tops the team with 61 strikeouts and 71.1 innings pitched to go with a 3-2 record and 4.54 ERA. In the bullpen, Joshua Romero ranks third in the Big West in wins (8) and fifth in saves (7).
ABOUT UC IRVINE
The 14th-ranked Anteaters hold a 41-11 overall record with a 20-7 Big West record. The team is three games back of first place UC Santa Barbara in the Big West standings with three games to play. UCI would need to sweep CSUN and have UCSB lose out to UC Riverside this weekend for the Anteaters to earn the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Last week, UCI took two of three games at Cal State Fullerton as the team has won 16 of the last 19 games. As a team, UCI is first in the nation in hit by pitch (156), third in on-base percentage (.445) and 13th in scoring (9.0) and batting average (.315). Myles Smith tops the Big West and ranks fourth in the nation in batting average at .421 to go with eight homers and 40 RBI. Thomas McCaffrey has a team-high 10 homers with 45 RBI while Anthony Martinez tops the team with 68 RBI to go with nine homers. Nick Pinto paces UCI on the mound with 88 strikeouts and nine wins with a 3.43 ERA.
Series History: UC Irvine leads CSUN 52-39 in the all-time series, but the Matadors have won six of the last 10 meetings. CSUN has also won back-to-back series over UCI including taking two of three games at Matador Field in 2023.
#GoMatadors
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NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Baseball (29-22, 15-12 Big West) closes the regular season this week against No. 14 UC Irivine at Anteater Ballpark. The series opens on Thursday at 6 p.m. before continuing on Friday at 6 p.m. and closing on Saturday at 1 p.m. All three games will be broadcast on ESPN+.
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS
CSUN at UC Irvine
RHP Kenji Pallares (0-2, 5.82 ERA) vs. LHP Nick Pinto (9-2, 3.43 ERA)
RHP Ryan Halakicek (5-3, 4.98 ERA) vs. RHP Trevor Hansen (6-2, 5.26 ERA)
TBA vs. RHP Tim Grack (2-1, 4.91 ERA)
LEADING OFF
After suffering a sweep last weekend at Matador Field to UC Santa Barbara, CSUN has slipped to sixth place in the Big West standings. While the Matadors have been eliminated from Big West title contention, CSUN can still finish anywhere from third to sixth place in the league. The Matadors are still a game away from notching 30 overall wins for the third consecutive season -- a feat the team has not accomplished since 1996-98.
Also, with just one more win, CSUN could also finish above the .500 mark in Big West play for a fourth-straight season, which the program has never done at the Division I level. In fact, CSUN last had four or more consecutive winning conference records in the early 1980s (1980-85) when the team was a Division II program.
ABOUT LAST WEEK
CSUN dropped its final three home games last weekend to UC Santa Barbara. The Gauchos took the opener 14-2 behind an eight-run top of the seventh. In game two, CSUN would lead for the most of the day, taking a 2-1 lead to the eighth, but UCSB scored once in the eighth and twice more in the ninth to prevail 4-2. The Matadors jumped out to a 4-0 lead in game three after a third-inning grand slam from Andrew Sojka, but the Gauchos rallied again and eventually took the lead in the eighth in a three-run inning for an eventual 6-4 win.
AMONG THE NATION'S BEST
CSUN enters the final weekend of the regular season ranked fourth in the nation in sacrifice hits with 51. The Matadors' .980 fielding percentage is ranked 14th in Division I baseball, which is ahead of the team's school record of .978 set in 2016. Speaking of defense, the Matadors are also ranked 20th in the nation in double plays per game (0.92) and 23rd in total double plays (47).
Individually, Kamau Neighbors is up to fourth place in Division I in toughest to strikeout (18.9). Jakob Simons is ranked third in hit by pitch (27) while Mason Le is 11th in sacrifice hits (12) followed by Neighbors in 19th place (10). On the pitching side, Joshua Romero is 23rd in wins with his eight victories out of the bullpen.
TEAM LEADERS
Kevin Fitzer remains the team leader in batting average at .333 to go with ranking second in the Big West in slugging percentage (.647), third in OPS (1.092) and fourth in home runs (10). Jakob Simons, who is hitting .314, continues to lead the Big West in homers with 16 while he ranks second in OPS (1.099), runs scored (55), RBI (56) and stolen bases (16) and third in slugging percentage (.638). In what has been a career season, Kamau Neighbors is CSUN's team leader in hits (59) and walks (35) while he is second in runs (44) and doubles (11) and third in batting (.312), on base percentage (.551) and stolen bases (8). On the pitching side, Thomas Bainton tops the team with 61 strikeouts and 71.1 innings pitched to go with a 3-2 record and 4.54 ERA. In the bullpen, Joshua Romero ranks third in the Big West in wins (8) and fifth in saves (7).
ABOUT UC IRVINE
The 14th-ranked Anteaters hold a 41-11 overall record with a 20-7 Big West record. The team is three games back of first place UC Santa Barbara in the Big West standings with three games to play. UCI would need to sweep CSUN and have UCSB lose out to UC Riverside this weekend for the Anteaters to earn the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Last week, UCI took two of three games at Cal State Fullerton as the team has won 16 of the last 19 games. As a team, UCI is first in the nation in hit by pitch (156), third in on-base percentage (.445) and 13th in scoring (9.0) and batting average (.315). Myles Smith tops the Big West and ranks fourth in the nation in batting average at .421 to go with eight homers and 40 RBI. Thomas McCaffrey has a team-high 10 homers with 45 RBI while Anthony Martinez tops the team with 68 RBI to go with nine homers. Nick Pinto paces UCI on the mound with 88 strikeouts and nine wins with a 3.43 ERA.
Series History: UC Irvine leads CSUN 52-39 in the all-time series, but the Matadors have won six of the last 10 meetings. CSUN has also won back-to-back series over UCI including taking two of three games at Matador Field in 2023.
#GoMatadors
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