San Diego, CA—The UC Riverside Baseball Team heads to San Diego State, Tuesday, before returning home for a three-game Big West series against UC Santa Barbara. First pitch Tuesday is at 6 pm PT.
This is the second meeting of the year between the Highlanders and Aztecs. San Diego State won the first meeting, 10-1, last Tuesday, April 18 (
box score/
recap).
Since starting the season with a 10-5 record, UC Riverside has won three of its last 20 games, including two of 12 in Big West play.
Prior to the start of conference, the Highlanders had a team ERA of 3.63. It has risen to 5.54 since then, and against league opponents, UC Riverside has an ERA of 6.26.
Left-hander Hazahel Quijada (2-4, 6.00) gets the start for the Highlanders on Tuesday. He has 31 Ks in 30.0 innings, but has walked 21 batters, and allowed 15 extra base hits. Quijada's best start of the year came on March 10 in a 1-0 loss to Kansas State, where he allowed just three hits and one run, while striking out 10 in seven innings.
UC Riverside's offense has also struggled since the start of conference play. The Highlanders are hitting .234/.290/.326 against Big West competition.
Shortstop Colby Schultz has been on a hot streak of late, though, raising his batting average from .257 to .303 over the last 19 games. In 12 conference contests, he has a slash line of .372/.460/.535, and is leading the Highlanders in all three categories. Cade Peters (.310/.396/.405) and Mark Contreras (.306/.346/.388) are also hitting above .300 against the Big West. Freshman Connor Cannon has three of the team's four home runs in conference competition,
San Diego State is 29-12 on the year, and 10-2 against members of the Big West, after taking two of three from UC Santa Barbara over the weekend.
As a team, SDSU is nationally ranked in all three slash line categories: 12th in batting average (.318), 28th in on base percentage (.392), and 19th in slugging percentage (.476).
Eight of the nine Aztecs players with at least 100 at bats on the season are hitting better than .300, led by Tyler Adkison's .376. He also leads the team in on base percentage (.479) and slugging percentage (752).
Right-hander Jorge Fernandez (0-1, 1.74) makes his fifth start of the season, Tuesday, for San Diego State. He has 12 strikeouts and 10 walks in 20.2 innings this year, and is holding opponents to a .227 batting average.
The Highlanders are 24-42-1 all-time against San Diego State (
view results).
