BAKERSFIELD, Calif.--The Bakersfield baseball team travels to Northern Colorado for a three-game series this weekend. Friday's game begins a 3 p.m. (PDT) with Saturday and Sunday's games beginning at 12 p.m. (MDT).
Entering this weekend, Bakersfield (17-26) is tied for the sixth slot that would advance to the WAC Tournament with Texas-Pan American. Both teams are 9-9, but the Broncs would advance to the league tournament as UTPA holds the tiebreaker (head-to-head) against CSUB.
Sacramento State is the league leader (14-4), Grand Canyon which is not eligible for the WAC Tournament this season, is second with a 12-6 mark. Utah Valley is third (11-7) followed by Seattle U (9-6). New Mexico State and North Dakota are tied for the fourth WAC Tournament slot (8-7) followed by Bakersfield and Texas-Pan American.
In addition to the Roadrunners' games this weekend, Texas-Pan American hosts North Dakota, Chicago State is at Sacramento State, Grand Canyon is at Seattle U, and Utah Valley is at New Mexico State.
Northern Colorado defeated Air Force on Tuesday to improved to 7-37 on the season. The Bears are 1-17 in WAC play. Jake Elman is the Northern Colorado leader in batting average (.289). Jensen Park is the Bears' leader in home runs (2) while Nick Miller leads the squad in RBI's (21).
In the first meetings between the schools last season, the Roadrunners swept the Bears in a four-game series in Bakersfield. CSUB outscored Northern Colorado 29-4 in the four games.
Bakersfield begins a busy month of May with a three-game series at Northern Colorado May 2. The Roadrunners will play 12 games in the first 17 days of the month. The WAC Tournament is scheduled for May 21-26.
'Runner pitcher Taylor Aikenhead (Sr., Lancaster, Calif., Bakersfield College) was named Capital One Academic All-District May 1. Aikenhead is now eligible to be named Capital One Academic All-American. He has a 3.84 GPA in his business administration major. He is only the second Bakersfield student-athlete in any sport to earn the honor since CSUB made the move to Division I in 2007.
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