Friday, February 28
Riverside, Calif.
6:00 PM
California Baptist University
vs
Houston Baptist
Photo by: Danielle Lutjens
BASE PREVIEW: CBU, HBU Ready for First-Ever Meeting
2/25/2020 12:16:00 PM | Baseball
RIVERSIDE — Coming off the Crosstown Showdown, California Baptist University will stay in Riverside to host Houston Baptist this weekend.
This will be the first-ever meeting between the Lancers and Huskies. Houston Baptist has been a contender in the Southland Conference in recent years, having advanced to the conference's tournament semifinals twice in the last three years.
The Lancers come in with a 2-5 record after it lost two of three to UC Riverside last week. HBU is 2-7 but has played a tough schedule so far, with two games against Texas Tech, three versus Ball State and another with 13th-ranked Texas A&M on Tuesday.
History was made in CBU's most recent game, as John Glenn recorded the 200th hit of his career on Monday at the Riverside Sports Complex. He is the 12th Lancer all-time and fourth in the NCAA era (2014-20) to reach the milestone.
Several Lancers are heating up. Ulises Caballero has hit .400 (4-for-10) and slugged .700 over the last four games. Nick Plaia (.385), Andrew Jurado (.375) and Glenn (.368) are all hitting above .350 over that span, as well.
On the mound, the Lancers received strong outings from Chris Burica, Jacob McCarvel, Ryan Silva and Brett Finnel over the past week. Burica went six strong innings in his second start of the season. The redshirt junior gave up just one run on five hits and a walk and struck out four. McCarvel logged a 3.18 ERA with nine strikeouts over 5.2 innings, while Silva and Finnel did not allow an earned run in their appearances.
SERIES INFORMATION
Opponent: Houston Baptist
Dates/Times: Friday, Feb. 28 (6 p.m.); Saturday, Feb. 29 (1 p.m.); Sunday, March 1 (12 p.m.)
Location: Totman Stadium (Riverside, Calif.)
Watch: WAC Digital Network
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Houston Baptist is hitting .249 as a team coming into the series, but watch out for Johnny Gonzales and Todd Jackson, who are both hitting above .400.
Gonzales, a senior first baseman, is hitting .485 and slugging .788 with a .553 on-base percentage so far this year. He has a hit in seven games this year and multiple hits five times. He went 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBI in the Huskies' most recent win over Ball State (10-8) on Sunday. Jackson is hitting .409 and slugging .545 with a .519 OBP. He also has hits in five games and multiple hits three times.
The Huskies' pitching staff has a 7.63 ERA and 1.77 WHIP as a group, but Kyle Gruller, Dylan Murphy and Brent Pronger are off to strong starts to the year.
Gruller was an All-Southland pick in 2019 and an all-preseason selection in the conference. He has a 3.37 ERA, .179 batting average against and 21 strikeouts in 10.2 innings. Pronger has a 3.48 ERA over three appearances and a start this season. Murphy has been the go-to arm out of the bullpen this year. The junior right-hander has a 0.96 ERA, 0.77 WHIP and .100 batting average against over three appearances and 9.1 innings pitched.
Notables:
This will be the first-ever meeting between the Lancers and Huskies. Houston Baptist has been a contender in the Southland Conference in recent years, having advanced to the conference's tournament semifinals twice in the last three years.
The Lancers come in with a 2-5 record after it lost two of three to UC Riverside last week. HBU is 2-7 but has played a tough schedule so far, with two games against Texas Tech, three versus Ball State and another with 13th-ranked Texas A&M on Tuesday.
History was made in CBU's most recent game, as John Glenn recorded the 200th hit of his career on Monday at the Riverside Sports Complex. He is the 12th Lancer all-time and fourth in the NCAA era (2014-20) to reach the milestone.
Several Lancers are heating up. Ulises Caballero has hit .400 (4-for-10) and slugged .700 over the last four games. Nick Plaia (.385), Andrew Jurado (.375) and Glenn (.368) are all hitting above .350 over that span, as well.
On the mound, the Lancers received strong outings from Chris Burica, Jacob McCarvel, Ryan Silva and Brett Finnel over the past week. Burica went six strong innings in his second start of the season. The redshirt junior gave up just one run on five hits and a walk and struck out four. McCarvel logged a 3.18 ERA with nine strikeouts over 5.2 innings, while Silva and Finnel did not allow an earned run in their appearances.
SERIES INFORMATION
Opponent: Houston Baptist
Dates/Times: Friday, Feb. 28 (6 p.m.); Saturday, Feb. 29 (1 p.m.); Sunday, March 1 (12 p.m.)
Location: Totman Stadium (Riverside, Calif.)
Watch: WAC Digital Network
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Houston Baptist is hitting .249 as a team coming into the series, but watch out for Johnny Gonzales and Todd Jackson, who are both hitting above .400.
Gonzales, a senior first baseman, is hitting .485 and slugging .788 with a .553 on-base percentage so far this year. He has a hit in seven games this year and multiple hits five times. He went 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBI in the Huskies' most recent win over Ball State (10-8) on Sunday. Jackson is hitting .409 and slugging .545 with a .519 OBP. He also has hits in five games and multiple hits three times.
The Huskies' pitching staff has a 7.63 ERA and 1.77 WHIP as a group, but Kyle Gruller, Dylan Murphy and Brent Pronger are off to strong starts to the year.
Gruller was an All-Southland pick in 2019 and an all-preseason selection in the conference. He has a 3.37 ERA, .179 batting average against and 21 strikeouts in 10.2 innings. Pronger has a 3.48 ERA over three appearances and a start this season. Murphy has been the go-to arm out of the bullpen this year. The junior right-hander has a 0.96 ERA, 0.77 WHIP and .100 batting average against over three appearances and 9.1 innings pitched.
Notables:
- The Huskies return 14 players from 2019 and welcome 17 newcomers. HBU does return seven position players and one starting pitcher.
- Houston Baptist qualified for the NCAA Championships in 2015. The Huskies went 28-27 that season, won the Southland Conference Tournament but saw their year come to a close in a pair of two-run losses at the Houston Regional to Houston (6-4) and Rice (3-1).
- Head Coach Jared Moon is in his 15th season in Houston, and is the program's all-time winningest coach with 383 victories, including a 10-4 all-time record in the Southland Conference Tournament.
- Forty Huskies have gone on to professional careers in baseball. Zach Nehrir is the program's highest overall draft pick in Major League Baseball after being taken in the 16th round by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2015. Trevor Enders became the first Husky to appear in a MLB game in his debut with the Tampa Bays Devil Rays in 2000.
Players Mentioned
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