Sports Editor
Consistency is not there just yet for the CSU Bakersfield baseball squad.
The Roadrunners have a record of 2-3 in their last five games, dating back to a 5-4 loss at San Diego State University on March 20.
On March 27, the Roadrunners (10-16, 1-3 WAC) were outdueled at Matador Field by host CSU Northridge over the Spring Break, by a score of 13-7, in a nonconference affair.
CSUB fought the Matadors for the first five innings with runs going both ways, but they had no answer for second baseman Brandon Bohning. He went 3-for-4, with 4 RBIs on the day.
“I thought we came out with an aggressive offensive approach and we did a nice job of putting the barrel on the ball,” said Head Coach Jeremy Beard. “Those are some positives we can draw from.”
CSUB began Western Athletic Conference play on the road at UTRGV. They ended up with only one win of a three-game set from March 23-25.
By the time this newspaper was sent to the printer, the Roadrunners traveled to play Cal Poly in a nonconference matchup on Tuesday, April 3.
Following that, the Roadrunners will host New Mexico State University in WAC competition at Hardt Field starting Friday, April 6, at 6 p.m., April 7 at 6 p.m. and the Sunday finale at 12 noon.
The Roadrunners are going to need their team on all cylinders against NMSU.
The Aggies have 10 batters hitting over .300 average.
The infield leads NMSU in slugging percentage at .680. Nick Gonzales, a freshman infielder and Trey Stine, redshirt-senior third baseman, are the two players that the Roadrunners shouldn’t take lightly. The Aggies’ overall slugging percentage is .520.
The Roadrunners only have two batters with averages over .300. Andrew Penner (.375) and Christian Deaton (.308) lead CSUB.
Senior pitcher Johnathan Groff leads all Aggie pitchers with a 5-2 record and a 3.70 ERA. Not far behind him with a 3-0 record is sophomore Chance Hroch. Hroch has an ERA of 1.29 and has only given up 2 earned runs to his name, as of April 2.
The Aggies are 3-3 in WAC and 16-12 overall. The Roadrunners will look to battle NMSU this week.
Photo by Roxana Flores/ The Runner
