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KennyJohnsonMD
Mark Duffel

Baseball

Bakersfield Hosts UC Irvine on Senior Weekend

Bakersfield, Calif. - The Roadrunners return home to Hardt Field and look to right the ship in a four-game series against Big West leader UC Irvine, beginning on Friday afternoon, at 3 p.m. CSU Bakersfield currently sits in fourth place in the league standings, after losing three of four at Long Beach State a weekend ago. The `Runners sit seven games behind UCI in the conference championship race, and are looking for a big series to vault themselves back into contention.

CSUB has received great pitching, especially out of the bullpen, over the past two series, allowing just 21 earned runs over 71 innings against Cal Poly and Long Beach State. That's good for a 2.66 earned run average over the team's last eight games.

Bakersfield relievers have been even more stingy, throwing 34.1 innings over the past two weekends with just seven earned runs allowed and a 1.83 ERA. The pen has accounted for four wins and three saves in that span.

Starters Aaron Charles (3.13) and Roman Angelo (3.28) rank in the top-10 in the conference for overall ERA. Both pitched into the sixth inning in starts against the Dirtbags.

The `Runner staff will be put to the test again this weekend, against the top offense in the Big West.

After a record-setting performance in the series against Cal Poly, the CSUB bats were quiet in four-games at Long Beach State. Bakersfield will need to bounce back, in the friendly confines of Hardt Field, against a UCI staff that ranks third in the league in conference play with a 3.84 ERA.

Senior Tyler Jorgensen continues to lead the `Runners at the dish, with a team-high .362 average and 50 hits in 35 games this season.

Evan Berkey ranks amongst the Big West's top-10 in batting average (.360, 7th), on-base percentage (.463, 4th) and slugging-percentage (.559, 7th).

But it's Nick Salas who has been CSUB's hottest hitter of late, with at least one base hit in 18 of his last 19 games. He's raised his average to .290 on the season, third best on the club.

Jacen Roberson leads the `Runners with six home runs, the most by a CSUB baseball player since the 2014 season.

The `Runners and Anteaters have faced off 20 times, with UCI holding a 16-4 advantage in the series. CSUB, however, has won each of the last two games between the two teams.

SCOUTING THE ANTEATERS         
UC Irvine enters the weekend winners of seven straight. The Anteaters swept UC Riverside last weekend to run their overall record to 30-15 overall and 22-7 in conference play.

UCI's league-best offense is led by Jacob Castro (.350 AVG.), Nathan Church (.341)  and Mike Peabody (.333). Church and Peabody boast 28 and 20 extra-base hits, respectively, with Peabody's total including seven home runs.

Junior catcher Dillon Tatum adds a team-best 12 home runs in just 98 at bats for the Anteaters.

On the bump, Irvine is led by a deep bullpen and four starters who have made at least 10 starts this season, in Michael Frias, Nick Pinto, Peter Van Loon and Trenton Denholm.

Frias leads the starters with a 2.30 ERA and has twice been named the Big West Pitcher of the Week this season.

Jacob King leads UCI with 32.2 IP out of the pen, and has racked up six saves to go with a 2.20 ERA.

SWEET RELIEF                    
The CSU Bakersfield bullpen has been exceptional over the past eight games. In two series against Cal Poly and Long Beach State, Roadrunner relievers have allowed just seven earned runs in 34.1 innings pitched, good for a 1.83 ERA. The bullpen staff has garnered four wins and picked up three saves in that span.

RANKED COMPETITION                    
This weekend's opponent UC Irvine enters the series ranked in multiple NCAA polls, including as high as #20 in the DI Baseball Poll. CSUB welcomes a ranked opponent to Hardt Field for the first time since Apr. 22, 2019, when the `Runners hosted #6 UC Santa Barbara (4-1 Loss). The team's last win over a ranked foe came on Mar. 6, 2018 in the form of a 4-0 win over UNLV.

CHASING 100                    
Three Roadrunner hurlers are chasing 100 career strikeouts. Junior right-hander Roman Angelo is on the cusp of joining the CSUB century club, with 97 strikeouts in 124.0 IP. His .227 career opponents' batting average also remains the best in program history.

Seniors Aaron Charles and Art Joven both enter the weekend with 89 career whiffs.

REACHING 100                    
Tyler Jorgensen made the 100th start of his Bakersfield career in game two at Long Beach State a weekend ago. He's now started 103 games over 2+ seasons as a `Runner, recording 129 hits and a .336 career batting average. Jorgensen has also recorded multiple base hits in 40 (39%) of his 103 starts.

SLAMMING THE DOOR                    
The `Runners lost a late lead for the first time this season in the series finale with Long Beach State, illustrating just how dominant CSUB has been in the late innings this season. Bakersfield is now 18-1 when leading after eight innings in 2021. The team has lost just three times when carrying a lead or tied score into the seventh inning, and has outscored opponents by 22 runs in the 7th, 8th and 9th this year.

BOUNCING BACK                    
The `Runners lost a series for just the third time in 2021, when the dropped three of four against the Dirtbags. On both prior occasions Bakersfield bounced back to win or split their next series.

CENTURY CLUB      
The series sweep of Cal Poly gave Head Coach Jeremy Beard the four victories he needed to reach 100 wins in his tenure 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. He has 23 more wins over the last two COVID abbreviated campaigns.

BACK-TO-BACK                    
Cody Holtz and Evan Berkey hit back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning of the series finale against the Mustangs. It was the first time that CSUB hitters went back-to-back since the program's inaugural season of 2009, when Stuart Smith and Martin Media turned the trick.

COME BACK KIDS        
The Roadrunners have come from behind all season long, grabbing eleven victories when its opponent scores first, nine in Big West action, and winning seven times when trailing in the 6th inning or later.

ROMAN CANDLE                    
Roman Angelo's .227 career opponent's batting average is the best in school history, .024 points ahead of James Barragan's standard of .251.

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 Bakersfield, representing six local high schools, including 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.

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

Damian Henderson

#22 Damian Henderson

OF
6' 1"
Junior
L/L
Roman Angelo

#40 Roman Angelo

RHP
6' 5"
Junior
R-R
Evan Berkey

#1 Evan Berkey

INF
5' 11"
Senior
R-R
Cory Blackburn

#26 Cory Blackburn

OF
5' 10"
Redshirt Sophomore
R-R
Eli Brum

#46 Eli Brum

C
5' 6"
Redshirt Freshman
R-R
Aaron Charles

#25 Aaron Charles

RHP
6' 5"
Senior
R-R
Eric Charles

#8 Eric Charles

OF
6' 0"
Redshirt Senior
L-L
Noah Cordova

#33 Noah Cordova

RHP
6' 6"
Redshirt Senior
R-R
Cody Holtz

#23 Cody Holtz

C
6' 0"
Senior
R-R
Kenny Johnson

#35 Kenny Johnson

RHP
6' 3"
Senior
R-R
Tyler Jorgensen

#10 Tyler Jorgensen

INF
6' 2"
Redshirt Senior
L-R
Jacen Roberson

#16 Jacen Roberson

OF
6' 1"
Redshirt Sophomore
L-L

Players Mentioned

Damian Henderson

#22 Damian Henderson

6' 1"
Junior
L/L
OF
Roman Angelo

#40 Roman Angelo

6' 5"
Junior
R-R
RHP
Evan Berkey

#1 Evan Berkey

5' 11"
Senior
R-R
INF
Cory Blackburn

#26 Cory Blackburn

5' 10"
Redshirt Sophomore
R-R
OF
Eli Brum

#46 Eli Brum

5' 6"
Redshirt Freshman
R-R
C
Aaron Charles

#25 Aaron Charles

6' 5"
Senior
R-R
RHP
Eric Charles

#8 Eric Charles

6' 0"
Redshirt Senior
L-L
OF
Noah Cordova

#33 Noah Cordova

6' 6"
Redshirt Senior
R-R
RHP
Cody Holtz

#23 Cody Holtz

6' 0"
Senior
R-R
C
Kenny Johnson

#35 Kenny Johnson

6' 3"
Senior
R-R
RHP
Tyler Jorgensen

#10 Tyler Jorgensen

6' 2"
Redshirt Senior
L-R
INF
Jacen Roberson

#16 Jacen Roberson

6' 1"
Redshirt Sophomore
L-L
OF
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