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Eric Charles
Mark Duffel

Baseball

Roadrunners to Host Nationally-Rated Gauchos

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – Fresh off its fifth-straight home series victory, the CSU Bakersfield baseball team will host No. 7 UC Santa Barbara on Monday at 6:00 p.m.

Setting the Scene
The Roadrunners snapped a 10-game losing streak on Friday with a 6-2 victory over Northern Colorado and a blew away the Bears on Saturday with a 16-2 win in seven innings to win the series.  CSUB has not lost a home series yet this season and won the final series of the 2018 season against Chicago State. 

The Bakersfield pitching staff was dominant over the three-game series, recording a strikeout in 25 of the 26 innings played and sitting down a total of 38 Bears over the weekend.  The foursome of Roman Angelo, Graham Kuck, Andrew Ciandro and Mario Lopez combined to allow just two hits in yesterday's victory. 

At the plate, the CSUB offense broke out to score 29 runs over the series and hit .380 as a team.  Daniel Carrizosa hit .667 against the Bears, including a three-hit, three-RBI performance on Friday to set new career highs in both categories.  Tyler Jorgensen had three of his six hits in the series yesterday, including his second home run of the season.  Jesse Rowley went 7-for-12 for the three games and Ryan Koch added three doubles. 

Looking ahead to Monday's game, the Roadrunners are 4-11 all-time against top-10 opponents.  The last time CSUB played an opponent ranked in the top 10 was in the 2015 NCAA Regional against UCLA when they lost 9-1 and 7-2.  Coincidentally, the Roadrunners last top-10 victory came against UC Santa Barbara on May 5 of that season.  Bakersfield is 3-2 against the Gauchos when they are nationally ranked and 16-42 all-time against ranked foes.  CSUB's last victory over a ranked opponent came on March 6 of last season when it shutout UNLV 4-0 at Hardt Field.  The highest ranked opponent the `Runners have defeated was No. 4 South Carolina on March 13, 2011. 

Last week, UCSB was ranked 7th by Collegiate Baseball, 8th by Baseball America, 10th by D1baseball.com and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and 11th in the USA Today Coaches Poll.  In the RPI, the Gauchos are rated fifth. 

Series History
UCSB holds a slim 11-9 lead in the 20-game series between the two in-state opponents.  The Gauchos won both contests last season, scoring a 9-5 victory at Hardt Field and earning 6-5 extra-inning victory in Santa Barbara.  The road teams have been much more successful than the home teams as UCSB owns a 7-3 mark in Bakersfield. 

Noah Barba hit .375 in the two games last season and scored three times.  Ryan Koch also had three hits, but blasted a home run in Santa Barbara and added a double.   

Kyle King appeared in both games and recorded four strikeouts in 2.1 innings pitched.  The redshirt senior allowed just one hit.  Isaiah Moten started both games against UCSB in 2018 and has started against them three times in his career.  In those four starts, he has a 3.97 ERA with 13 strikeouts in 11.1 innings. 

Scouting the Gauchos
The Gauchos are one of the top teams in the country and enter Bakersfield with a 30-5 record and an 8-1 mark in Big West action.  UCSB has won 12 straight games and 28 of its last 31 after splitting the first four games of the year against Loyola Marymount and UNLV.  They haven't lost since losing the middle game of a three-game series with Cal State Fullerton on March 30.  Since then, they beat the Titans to win the series, knocked off USC in a midweek game and swept Stephen F. Austin, UC Irvine and UC Davis.  The Gauchos also beat Pepperdine in between sweeps of the Lumberjacks and the Anteaters. 

Eric Yang is hitting nearly .400 on the season (.394) and has an OPS of over 1.000 (1.056).  The catcher has 15 extra-base hits and leads the team with 11 doubles and 34 RBI.  Tommy Jew  and Armani Smith are both slugging over .600.  Jew has a team-high nine homers and 21 extra-base hits to go with his .283 average, while Smith is hitting .295 with a team-best 23 extra-base knocks. 

On the mound, the Gauchos have a team ERA of just 3.18 and have struck out 319 batters in 311 innings.  Neither team has named a starter for tomorrow evening's contest. 
 
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Players Mentioned

Noah Barba

#2 Noah Barba

3B/OF
5' 11"
Senior
L/R
Daniel Carrizosa

#5 Daniel Carrizosa

RHP/IF
6' 0"
Sophomore
R/R
Andrew Ciandro

#38 Andrew Ciandro

RHP
6' 1"
Sophomore
L/R
Kyle King

#22 Kyle King

P
5' 10"
Redshirt Senior
L/L
Ryan Koch

#23 Ryan Koch

C/1B
6' 1"
Senior
R/R
Isaiah Moten

#28 Isaiah Moten

RHP
6' 1"
Senior
R/R
Mario Lopez

#30 Mario Lopez

RHP
6' 0"
Junior
R/R
Tyler Jorgensen

#10 Tyler Jorgensen

INF
6' 1"
Junior
L/R
Jesse Rowley

#1 Jesse Rowley

1B
6' 1"
Junior
L/R
Graham Kuck

#36 Graham Kuck

LHP
6' 0"
Junior
L/L

Players Mentioned

Noah Barba

#2 Noah Barba

5' 11"
Senior
L/R
3B/OF
Daniel Carrizosa

#5 Daniel Carrizosa

6' 0"
Sophomore
R/R
RHP/IF
Andrew Ciandro

#38 Andrew Ciandro

6' 1"
Sophomore
L/R
RHP
Kyle King

#22 Kyle King

5' 10"
Redshirt Senior
L/L
P
Ryan Koch

#23 Ryan Koch

6' 1"
Senior
R/R
C/1B
Isaiah Moten

#28 Isaiah Moten

6' 1"
Senior
R/R
RHP
Mario Lopez

#30 Mario Lopez

6' 0"
Junior
R/R
RHP
Tyler Jorgensen

#10 Tyler Jorgensen

6' 1"
Junior
L/R
INF
Jesse Rowley

#1 Jesse Rowley

6' 1"
Junior
L/R
1B
Graham Kuck

#36 Graham Kuck

6' 0"
Junior
L/L
LHP
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