CSUN Opens Weekend Series with Bakersfield on Friday

Friday, March 27

Northridge, Calif.

5:00 p.m.

California State University at Northridge

Cal State Bakersfield

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Photo by: Chuck Marvel

CSUN Opens Weekend Series with Bakersfield on Friday

3/26/2026 1:22:00 PM | Baseball

BASE Game Notes - March 26

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Baseball kicks off a weekend Big West series with Cal State Bakersfield on Friday at Robert J. Hiegert Field at 5 p.m. The series continues on Saturday at 2 p.m. before concluding on Sunday at 1 p.m. The final two games of the series will be broadcast on ESPN+ while Ghizal Hasan has the call in audio broadcasts all weekend at GoMatadors.com/Radio.

FOR STARTERS
Through three weekends of conference play, the Matadors (14-9, 5-4 Big West) are tied for third place in the Big West standings with UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis and Cal State Fullerton, all with identical 5-4 conference records. CSUN has won two of three series in Big West action thus far with those series wins both coming on the road. The Matadors look to get in the win column for the first time at home during the conference season after they suffered a three-game sweep to UC San Diego two weeks ago.

ABOUT LAST WEEKEND
The Matadors would limit Cal State Fullerton to just six runs in a three-game sweep of the Titans at Goodwin Field last weekend. Gabriel Hernandez shut down the Titans in game one, tossing seven innings and allowing two runs, one of which earned, while freshman Mateo Rickman drove in four runs in a 5-3 victory. In game two, Traig Oughton struck out a season-high eight batters over seven quality innings and the Matador offense hammered five home runs in a 6-2 win to clinch the series. Game three would be low scoring affair with CSUN coming out on top 4-1 as pitchers James Voorhies and Lucas Alaniz combined to hold Fullerton to just five hits.

The series victory was CSUN's third straight at Goodwin Field, dating back to the 2022 season. CSUN has won eight straight games at Fullerton after picking up the three victories.

PANGANIBAN EARNS BIG WEST ACCOLADES
Sophomore third baseman Kyle Panganiban earned his first career Big West Field Player of the Week award on March 23. The Cerritos native batted an even .500 at the plate and slugged .700 across a 4-0 week for the Matadors on the road including a three-game sweep of Cal State Fullerton. Panganiban totaled 10 hits, six runs scored, two RBI, two stolen bases and a home run for the week. He would post a career-high five hits with three runs scored in a 5-3 win in the opener of the Fullerton series while he homered in game two and collected a timely RBI hit in the ninth in the finale. Panganiban batted .600 in the Fullerton series, going 9-for-15 at the plate.

HOME RUN HITTERS
CSUN comes into the weekend series leading the Big West and ranking 23rd overall in the nation in total home runs with 40 this season. That home run total is just nine fewer than the team's entire total from the 2025 season. CSUN's top two home run hitters share the Big West lead in the category as Matthew Pena and Matthew Thomas each have a conference-best nine this season. Kyle Panganiban is just below that duo, ranking fourth in the Big West with seven homers while eight other Matadors have recorded at least one homer on the year.

MATADOR QUICK HITS
Along with its home runs, CSUN tops the Big West in several categories including runs scored (156), RBI (146), total bases (397) and slugging percentage (.512) while the team is second in batting average (.284) and hits (220) ... Newcomer Matthew Thomas has recorded 28 hits this season, 22 of which have gone for extra base hits. In addition to sharing the conference lead in home runs with nine, Thomas is the conference leader in runs scored (26) and slugging percentage (.845) ... Sophomore Colton Boardman sports a team-high .383 batting average to rank sixth-best in the Big West. Over his last nine games, Boardman has recorded five multi-hit efforts and hit safely in eight of those contests ... Junior first baseman Matthew Pena is the conference leader in OPS at 1.274. Overall, Pena is hitting .319 with nine homers and 24 RBI this season while his production in Big West play includes a .379 batting average and .828 slugging percentage ... Freshman James Voorhies made his first career start on the mound last Sunday at Cal State Fullerton. He would rack up his third win already this season after going five innings and allowing a run. In seven appearances, Voorhies is second on the team with 21 strikeouts.

SCOUTING CAL STATE BAKERSFIELD
The Roadrunners are 9-15 overall and 3-6 in Big West play this season. CSUB earned its first series win in conference action last week, taking two of three games at home from Long Beach State. In the Big West, the 'Runners are near the top in a host of offensive categories as they rank first in stolen bases (37), second in runs (149), third in homers (21) and fourth in batting (.268). Evan Cloyd is first in the Big West in on-base percentage (.522) along with third in RBI (26) and fourth in batting average (.384). Teammate Kanoa Morisaki is second on the team in hitting at a .367 clip to go with four homers and 15 RBI. On the pitching side, the team boasts a 6.99 staff ERA. Jacob Gutierrez leads the team with 31 strikeouts in 30 relief innngs to go with a 3.60 ERA.

Series History: CSUN leads Bakersfield 28-14 in the all-time series. The Matadors have won the past five series between the two teams including taking two of three games from the Roadrunners last season in Bakersfield. In the teams' last series in Northridge in 2024, CSUN came away with a series sweep.

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