By: Mariah Rodriguez, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications and Digital Media
RIVERSIDE--- The California Baptist baseball program will welcome the University of Texas, Rio Grand Valley this weekend in the team's final homestand this season. The Lancers will celebrate 12 seniors on Saturday evening and enter the weekend coming off a midweek 7-1 win against Cal State Bakersfield. The Vaqueros come into the weekend with a 12-12 record in Western Athletic Conference play and currently sit in seventh in the WAC standings.
THE LANCERS AT A GLANCE
After a tough weekend on the road at Grand Canyon, the Lancers will return to Riverside to clean up the first of the team's last two WAC series. The series versus UTRGV is critical to CBU's final seeding at the postseason tournament as a top-four finish would allow for a first-round bye. California Baptist picked up a midweek win over Bakersfield on Monday afternoon that snapped the team's three-game losing streak and should provide good momentum going into the weekend contests.
California Baptist's offense has been led by sophomore Nicholas Dumesnil and junior Josh Paino during the last three weeks of action. Dumesnil holds a .335 batting average paired with a team-high 60 hits this season. The second-year outfielder boasts a .670 slugging percentage behind 13 doubles, 15 home runs, and a triple earlier this year. Paino has also seen success at the plate as of late, posting a .307 batting average and 15 doubles. As a whole, the team is batting .280 and combines for the second most home runs in the WAC at 78.
The California Baptist pitching staff currently holds a 4.57 ERA as a squad with true freshman Lukas Pirko leading the charge. Pirko is maintaining a 3.02 ERA across 56.2 innings and leads the team with 54 strikeouts on the year. Following closely behind is Brandon Downer, a junior right-hander, with a 3.64 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP through 66.1 innings of action.
HOME RUNS ON HOME RUNS FOR MITCH
Mitchel Simon continues to be dominant in the batter's box this season and the fruit of his labors have come in the form of many home runs. Simon has blown past his previous season record of 19 homers and currently boasts 21, tying the CBU all-time single-season home run record. The senior third baseman has already run through the all-time career record for dingers and currently holds 61 during his time in a Lancer uniform. In the squad's last nine games, Simon has hit five home runs.
SERIES INFORMATION
Opponent: UTRGV
Dates/Times: Friday, May 10th (6:00 p.m. PST); Saturday, May 11th (5:00 p.m. PST); Sunday, May 12th (12:00 p.m. PST)
Location: Riverside, CA
Video: ESPN+: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
Live Stats: StatBroadcast: Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3
SERIES NOTES
Competition for these two squads began in 2019 during CBU's inaugural season in the WAC. The Lancers currently hold an all-time 6-4 record over the Vaqueros with the most recent series going California Baptist's way. This will be the first time the Lancers have hosted UTRGV in Riverside after spending the last three series in Edinburg, Texas.
THE VAQUEROS AT A GLANCE
UTRGV enters the weekend with a 23-20 overall record and is coming off a series road win over Abilene Christian. The Vaqueros did not play midweek baseball after taking the rubber match on Sunday 9-6 over the Wildcats to even their conference record at 12-12. UTRGV has picked up a few series wins against tough opponents this year like ACU, and has yet to be swept this season.
The Vaqueros have three batters hitting over .300 including Steven Lancia, Martin Vazquez, and CJ Valdez. Lancia boasts a .368 batting average, the seventh-highest in the WAC, and is slugging .477. Vazquez leads the WAC in RBI-per-game and currently possesses 48 behind a .353 batting average. The junior infielder leads his squad with a .671 slugging percentage while maintaining a .439 on-base percentage. Rounding out the attack for the Vaqueros is Valdez, a graduate student currently hitting .321 across 43 starts this season.
On the pitching side, the squad holds a team ERA of 5.34 with Zach Tjelmeland leading the charge. The right-handed pitcher holds a 3.34 ERA across 70 innings and has posted 71 strikeouts from the bump. During his 12 appearances, Tjelmeland has thrown one complete game and boasts a 5-2 pitching record for the Vaqueros.
Lancer baseball tickets are on sale now at CBULancers.com/baseballtickets for all games at Totman Stadium.
