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Roman Angelo

Baseball

Baseball Opens Home Stand with CSUN Series

Bakersfield, Calif. - The Roadrunners won three of four at UC San Diego to improve to 14-9 overall and 11-5 in Big West play. It was the third conference series win in four attempts for CSU Bakersfield, who welcomes CSUN to Hardt Field for a four-game series beginning on Friday, April 30 at 3:00 PM.

CSUB will have to rebound from a difficult offensive showing, after hitting just .195 at UCSD and seeing its team batting average drop from .305 to .287. The `Runners still boast the fourth-highest batting average in the Big West.

Bakersfield is led by the versatile Evan Berkey, who is tied for the conference lead in hitting with his .389 average. First-baseman Tyler Jorgensen isn't far behind, batting .387 to rank fourth in the league.

Angel Saldivar (.333), Eric Charles (.324), Nick Grossman (.304) and Jacen Roberson (.289) give CSUB six starters hitting above .280 on the year.

In lieu of their normal offensive out put, the `Runners received great pitching and continued their excellent defensive play against the Tritons.

Starters Aaron Charles, Ethan Skuija and Roman Angelo all threw at least five innings, combining for 16.0 IP, 5 ER and 20 strikeouts in the series.

Bakersfield also received strong relief appearances from Cody Tucker and Noah Cordova in game one and Kellen O'Connor in game two, to go with a pair of saves in the series from freshman Jack Lee.

CSUB made just one error improving its team fielding percentage to .977, 31st best in the nation.

The `Runners and Matadors have met 26 times prior, with CSUN leading the all-time series 14-12. The two schools will meet for the first time since 2018.

SCOUTING THE MATADORS        
CSUN is 9-15 overall and will play only conference games in 2021. The Matadors split a series with Cal State Fullerton last weekend in Northridge, rebounding from a series loss to UC Riverside a week earlier.

The Matadors are hitting .285 as a team, just two points behind CSUB and utility Kai Moody is tied with Berkey for the league lead in hitting at .389.

Jose Ruis is hitting .338 with eight doubles, while Denzel Clark sports a .294 with a team-high four home runs.

On the hill, the Matadors are led by junior RHP Blake Sodersten, the reigning Big West Pitcher of the week. Sodersten boasts a 3.89 earned run average over 39.1 IP, with 34 strikeouts and a .215 opponents' batting average.

Fellow RHP Blaine Traxel has made a start and a relief outing in all six of CSUN's series to date. He's pitched to a 5.26 ERA and a .290 BAA, and is 3-1 for the Matadors.

Jackson Cunningham and Jeremy Hassel are the team's top relievers and have combined to throw 34.0 innings, allowing just 24 hits and eight earned runs.

Defensively, the Matadors have made 27 errors in 24 games and fielded the baseball at a .969-clip. CSUN catchers have thrown out 3 of just 15 would be base stealers, but surrendered 9 passed balls and allowed 34 wild pitches.

CLOSING IN            
Head Coach Jeremy Beard is closing in on 100 wins as the head coach at CSU Bakersfield. Beard has coached the `Runners since the start of the 2017 season, averaging more than 25 wins over his first three seasons in Bakersfield. The pandemic cut short the 2020 season, slowing his pursuit of triple digit victories, but the `Runners have won eight of ten giving him 96 wins in his CSUB tenure.

THEY'RE GOING STREAKING           
Tyler Jorgensen reached base in all four games at UC San Diego, extending his on-base streak to 20 games. The CSUB record for consecutive games reaching base is 37, set by current first-base coach David Metzgar. Jorgensen must reach base in his next three outings to vault into the `Runner top-10 (23), while reaching in all four games against CSUN would tie him for 8th all-time (24).

Senior utility man Evan Berkey enters this weekend's series with a 14-game hitting streak, the longest current stretch among all Big West hitters. Berkey's 14-game run is also the 8th longest in program history, matching Noah Barba's run in 2019.

CONSISTENCY IS KEY         
Tyler Jorgensen leads the Big West Conference with 1.57 hits per game this season. He's recorded at least one base hit in 20 of 23 games, with multiple hits in 12 outings to date. For his career Jorgensen has collected at least one hit in 70 of 94 games played (74.5%) and reached base in 81 of 94 (86.2%).

POINT OF CONTACT          
Three CSUB hitters are among the hardest to strike out in all of NCAA Division I. Nick Grossman leads the trio, ranking 8th nationally with just one strikeout every 15.8 at bats. Tyler Jorgensen is 12th overall, fanning once every 13.3 at bats, while Evan Berkey ranks 52 with a strike out in every 10.3 ABs.

RUN FOR THE ROSES        
Entering Kentucky Derby weekend, senior Evan Berkey leads the Big West in the first leg of the leagues overall and conference only triple crowns. Berkey is hitting .389 overall and .440 in conference play, both league standards. He also ranks second in overall and league on-base percentages and slugging percentages. He is reaching base at a .483 clip overall and .517 in league play, while slugging .639 overall and .760 in Big West games.

INTERNATIONAL MEN OF MYSTERY        
Bakersfield is the only Big West program with student-athletes from three different countries. In addition to a number of American born student-athletes, Ethan Skuija is from Canada, while Jack Lee & Jo Stevens are Australian.

The only other international players in the Big West are CSUN's Denzel Clarke of Pickering, Ont., and UCSB's Jason Willow, who hails from Skuija's hometown of Victoria, B.C.

FOR THE GLOVE OF THE GAME        
Bakersfield ranks second in both overall and conference fielding percentage among Big West opponents, with .970 and .980 FPCTs, respectively. CSUB trails only UC Irvine in each category.

AARON'S ASCENSION        
Bakersfield RHP Aaron Charles ranks third in the Big West Conference in season long earned run average with his mark of 2.00.
Charles has been even better as a starting pitcher, tossing 21.2 IP and allowing just 4 ER in four outings for a 1.66 starting ERA. He's pitched at least 5.0 innings in each of his last three starts, and will get the ball again in Saturday's DH opener.

SUNDAY FUNDAY          
Bakersfield beat UC San Diego 2-1 last Sunday to clinch a 3-1 series win. The victory also moved CSUB to 6-0 in Sunday games this season, with all six started by RHP Roman Angelo.

SWING BATTER SWING      
RHP Ethan Skuija matched a career high with 11 strikeouts in 6 IP at UCSD. He also fanned 11 in a complete game win over Santa Clara in 2019.

COME BACK KIDS      
With a 14-9 record through 23 games played, the `Runners have already posted six victories when trailing in the sixth inning or later. The most notable was a Mar. 19, come from behind win over UC Riverside, when CSUB rallied from down 9-0 to win 15-9.

That number does not include, bouncing back from a 4-0, first-inning, deficit in the series opener at UCSD to win 9-7. All told, CSUB has trailed at some point in nine of their 14 victories.

JUST LIKE RIDING A BIKE        
Sophomore Jacen Roberson hit for the first cycle in CSUB program history when he finished game three against UC Davis 4-for-5, with three runs scored and six RBI. Roberson doubled in the first inning, hit a grand slam home run in the second, tripled in the sixth and singled in the eighth to make history. The Bakersfield native drove in the GW RBI in both of CSUB's wins over UC Davis.

WILD WILD WEST      
The 2021 season is CSUB's first as a member of the Big West Conference, one of the elite leagues in all of college baseball. The `Runners are currently 11-5 in conference play, sitting in third-place behind just UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara despite being picked to finish dead last prior to the season.

THEY COME FROM THE LAND DOWN UNDER          
Freshmen Jack Lee and Jo Stevens are the first non-North American student-athletes to suit up for CSUB Baseball. Lee and Stevens hail from Australia, where they were teammates on the country's 2019 U-18 WBSC Team.

RED DAWN                 
Outfielder Damian Henderson signed with the Cincinnati Reds following a stand-out 2020 season in Bakersfield, becoming the 23rd Roadrunner to sign a professional contract after his collegiate playing career, and the third as a free-agent, in the program's 12-year history.

THE MASTERS        
Fifth-year seniors Noah Cordova (Environmental Resource Management) and Eric Charles (Kinesiology), and true senior Kenny Johnson (Psychology) are all working on Master's Degrees this semester.

LOCAL BOYS MAKE GOOD          
Eight Roadrunners hail from the city of Bakersfield, representing six local high schools, including one set of high school teammates in Stockdale's Cory Blackburn and Eli Brum. Newcomers Art Joven and Nick Salas each attended Highland, but did not play together. Additionally, Roman Angelo (Bakersfield Christian), Aaron Charles (Ridgeview),  Jacen Roberson (Garces Memorial), Kobe Silva (Frontier) are all local products.

WELCOME BACK   
Limited fans are now welcome at Hardt Field for all CSUB home games. Each student-athlete is allowed two passes for family and friends on game day, while a small number of CSUB student tickets are available through a reservation request system on GoRunners.com. At this time, general admission ticketing is not open directly to the public.

CARBON CUTOUTS      
While attendance remains limited for CSUB home games this season, the Bakersfield community has ensured that Hardt Field will be sold out in spirit, purchasing more than 800 fan cutouts to be displayed in the Hardt Field grandstand this season. For more information on purchasing a cutout of your own, visit www.gorunners.com/cutouts.

WATCH & LISTEN        
All 28 Roadrunner home games will be carried live on local radio (101.1 FM / 1230 AM) and available online at www.bakersfieldespn.com. Additionally, all CSUB home contests will be live streamed on WATCHESPN & the ESPN APP.
 
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Players Mentioned

David Metzgar

#15 David Metzgar

INF
5' 8"
Senior
Noah Barba

#2 Noah Barba

3B/OF
5' 11"
Senior
L/R
Roman Angelo

#40 Roman Angelo

RHP
6' 4"
Sophomore
R/R
Evan Berkey

#1 Evan Berkey

IF
5' 11"
Junior
R/R
Cory Blackburn

#11 Cory Blackburn

OF
5' 10"
Redshirt Freshman
R/R
Aaron Charles

#25 Aaron Charles

RHP
6' 5"
Redshirt Junior
R/R
Eric Charles

#8 Eric Charles

OF
6' 0"
Senior
L/L
Noah Cordova

#33 Noah Cordova

RHP
6' 5"
Senior
R/R
Nick Grossman

#3 Nick Grossman

OF
6' 0"
Senior
L/R
Damian Henderson

#22 Damian Henderson

OF
6' 1"
Junior
L/L
Kenny Johnson

#35 Kenny Johnson

RHP
6' 2"
Redshirt Junior
R/R
Tyler Jorgensen

#10 Tyler Jorgensen

INF
6' 2"
Senior
L/R

Players Mentioned

David Metzgar

#15 David Metzgar

5' 8"
Senior
INF
Noah Barba

#2 Noah Barba

5' 11"
Senior
L/R
3B/OF
Roman Angelo

#40 Roman Angelo

6' 4"
Sophomore
R/R
RHP
Evan Berkey

#1 Evan Berkey

5' 11"
Junior
R/R
IF
Cory Blackburn

#11 Cory Blackburn

5' 10"
Redshirt Freshman
R/R
OF
Aaron Charles

#25 Aaron Charles

6' 5"
Redshirt Junior
R/R
RHP
Eric Charles

#8 Eric Charles

6' 0"
Senior
L/L
OF
Noah Cordova

#33 Noah Cordova

6' 5"
Senior
R/R
RHP
Nick Grossman

#3 Nick Grossman

6' 0"
Senior
L/R
OF
Damian Henderson

#22 Damian Henderson

6' 1"
Junior
L/L
OF
Kenny Johnson

#35 Kenny Johnson

6' 2"
Redshirt Junior
R/R
RHP
Tyler Jorgensen

#10 Tyler Jorgensen

6' 2"
Senior
L/R
INF
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