Editor-in-Chief
Western Athletic Conference play continues this weekend for the CSU Bakersfield baseball team as it hits the road to take on Seattle University for a three-game series beginning on Friday, April 27.
“Seattle is a very good team and they’re very well coached,” said CSUB head coach Jeremy Beard. “They have some top-end pitching and play excellent baseball at their place.”
After their five-game winning streak was snapped last weekend against Sacramento State, the Roadrunners (15-24, 5-7 WAC) have now dropped three straight after their loss to Loyola Marymount University on April 24.
CSUB is sixth in the WAC as of April 26. If the season were to end today, the Roadrunners would clinch the final spot in the WAC Tournament.
The Redhawks (27-11, 8-4 WAC) come into this weekend’s matchup winners of three straight and nine of their last ten games. Seattle U currently sits fourth in the WAC standings.
“The key for us this weekend will be timely hitting,” said Beard. “We got a lot of quality at-bats last weekend and our guys are doing a better job of getting better pitches to hit.”
Senior Alec Daily will be on the mound to begin the series for CSUB on Friday night. Daily, who has a 4-1 record with a 3.25 earned run average in 36 innings this season. In his last start against Sacramento State last Friday, Daily struck out nine in 8.1 innings, earning the win.
“He’s a tremendous competitor, he has a plethora of pitches he likes to throw and he works with tempo,” said Beard about Daily. “He’s a leader out there, he’s a veteran and our guys feel comfortable playing behind him.”
He will be countered by redshirt-junior Tarik Skubal of Seattle U. The lefthander has a 6-0 record this season with a 3.54 ERA.
Saturday’s matchup will pit senior Naithen Dewsnap of the Roadrunners against junior Jake Prizina of the Redhawks.
Dewsnap, the team’s former closer, will be making his fourth straight appearance as a starter. He gave up three earned runs and recorded five strikeouts in 6.2 innings of work his last time out.
In the series finale, freshman Elijah Parks, who remains a weekend starter for CSUB for the third straight weekend, will get the ball for the Roadrunners. He will be opposed by redshirt-junior Nick Merservey.
Senior infielder Luis Martinez has a six-game hitting streak and has recorded a hit in 11 of his last 12 games. He also is hitting .325 with three home runs over that stretch.
Andrew Penner, another senior infielder also brings a hitting streak into play this weekend in Seattle. Penner has a nine-game hitting streak going. He also has hit safely in 13 of his last 14 contests.
“Everything we do offensively is predicated off what the pitcher is doing,” said Beard. “We’ll take advantage of mistakes and hopefully they give us a few of those.”
CSUB leads the all-time series over Seattle U 12-8 and won two out of three between the two teams last season.
