BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – The softball season marches on as the CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners will travel to Fresno, Calif. this weekend for the Fresno State Classic. The 'Runners will play five games over three days against tough opponents including No. 7 Washington and No. 22 Fresno State.
Despite the tall task ahead of the 'Runners, CSUB's Head Coach, Crissy Buck-Ziegler, is optimistic about her team's chances: “We are playing better softball. The girls are coming together and figuring out what they have to do in order to produce when they need to. This will be a tough week, but we have to continue to work on ourselves and not worry about our opponents.”
In order to go toe-to-toe with their opponents, the 'Runners will look to its pair of outfielders to continue leading the way on offense. Senior Sydney Raeber and sophomore Julea Cavazos have paced the 'Runners through the first 15 games of the season at the plate. Raeber has a team high .405 batting average after 9-for-18 at the Stacey Winseberg Tournament last week. Cavazos is close behind Raeber with a .378 average and has slugged a CSUB-best four doubles this season.
The 'Runners have not yet established a go-to ace in the circle, but have the solid arms of four different student-athletes to rely on. So far in the 2016 campaign, senior Amber Mills has posted the lowest ERA (3.20) on the team while going 2-3 in nine appearances.
CSUB (4-11) opens the weekend with a pair of games on Friday. The 'Runners will take on San Diego State (12-7) at 9:30 a.m. before coming back against Washington (16-3) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday will feature a single game against Weber State (11-7) at 10 a.m. Bakersfield will wrap up the Fresno State Classic Sunday with a rematch against SDSU at 11:30 a.m. before closing the tournament against the host Bulldogs (14-5-1) at 2 p.m.
Live stats and free live video, courtesy of the Mountain West Network, of every game at the Fresno State Classic will be available. Check back at GoRunners.com at the end of each day of competition for a full recap and results.
~GoRunners.com~
