caden-kendle-uci-bsb-2023-cal-state-fullerton-cal-poly

Matt Brown

Anteaters Continue Big West at Cal Poly

March 22, 2023

By: Alex Roberts-Croteau

THE SERIES

PITCHING PROBABLES

Friday: UCI RHP David Vizcaino vs. CP RHP Bryce Warrecker
Saturday: UCI LHP Nick Pinto vs. CP LHP Travis Weston
Sunday: UCI RHP Andre Antone vs. CP TBD

LEADING OFF

+ The Anteaters dropped their Big West opening series for the first time since 2018. The 'Eaters and Titans met for the first time in March since 1991
+ UCI's offense has nine different players scoring 10 or more runs this year, tied for the most in the conference
+ Nick Pinto continues to get healthy with his third straight start of 5+ innings allowing 1 or 0 runs. He earned the win Saturday to go to 12-12 in his Anteater career, and now holds a career 3.32 ERA in 38 starts. He surpassed 200 career innings needing 10 strikeouts to become the 17th Anteaters all-time with 200 career punchouts
+ UCI and Fullerton played in front of 1,102 fans Sunday, the 78th crowd of 1,000+ at Anteater Ballpark. UCI is averaging 830 a game this year in eight home games

SEEING IT WELL

+ Chase Call is heating up with 11 RBIs in March and an on-base streak of 14 games to lead the team heading to CP. His five home runs are tied for second in the Big West, and four have either tied or broken a tie in a game this year
+ Anthony Martinez's numbers translate anywhere, but his .432 average away from home tops the team with nine extra-base hits and .838 slugging percentage
+ Abraham Garcia-Pacheco maintains a .348 average in limited time including hitting .500 in March, .467 on the road, .444 with RISP, and 2-for-2 as a pinch-hitter
+ Dub Gleed is the toughest Anteater to strikeout, once every 9.6 at-bats; 6th in Big West and 102nd in NCAA

TOPPING THE CHARTS

+ The 'Eaters have five sacrifice flies in the past two games now sitting seventh nationally with 16 this season. Tops in the category with 3 each are Martinez and Jacob Stinson
+ UCI has 11 triples, fourth in the nation, with two players in the top 15 in NCAA in Oyama (5th) and Kendle (14th)
+ Other categories UCI leads the Big West in are walks (91), HBP (36), and on-base percentage (.406).
+ Caden Kendle leads a parade of Anteaters ranked 1, 2, and 3 in the conference in RBIs. His 27 leads the way with Martinez (22) and Call (19) following behind
+ Anthony Martinez tops the Big West with nine doubles and 1.47 hits per game. He's also second in RBIs, third in slugging, and sixth in batting
+ Will Bermudez leads the Big West with 23 runs scored and eight HBP. His 1.35 runs per game is 48th in NCAA
+ Nick Pinto is among the conference leaders in many categories. Nationally, his WHIP at 0.82 ranks 22nd.

WORTH A MENTION

+ World Baseball Classic finished up Tuesday. One Anteater, Andre Pallante, represented with Team Italy pitching in three games registering 4 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 6 BB, 2 K as Italy reached the quarterfinals for the first time losing to Japan.
+ Five Anteaters have made collegiate debuts including Max Martin earning two saves and Auggie Gutierrez posting his first career hit and RBI up in Gonzaga
+ UCI added a game vs. Arizona, Monday, May 15 at home

AROUND THE HORN

4th - UCI's 4th participant in the World Baseball Classic starts this week in Andre Pallante on Team Italy. Past players were Israel's Ben Orloff and Dylan Axelrod, and Germany's Dominique Taylor
7.76 - The Anteater offense is averaging 7.76 runs per game. UCI has finished over seven runs a game on a season just five times with the team's record of 7.7 coming in 1974
6+ - The 'Eaters have scored multiple runs in 26 innings, 14 times have scored as many as 4 in an inning, and seven innings of 6+ runs
5-15 - The 'Eaters have had two games canceled - snowed out March 10 at Gonzaga and rained out March 14 vs. SDSU. UCI has added a game on Monday, May 15 hosting the University of Arizona

SCOUTING THE MUSTANGS

The Mustangs had a stellar 2022 season going 37-21 with a 22-8 mark for second place in the Big West, but it wasn't enough to get into the postseason tournament. That squad was led by first-round pick Brooks Lee and second-rounder Drew Thorpe in the 2022 MLB draft

The 2023 Mustangs have had the luxury of not leaving Northern California with 14 of their 17 games coming in their home park. CP is just 4-13 overall however after winning the opening series with Missouri State they dropped 12 of the next 13 sneaking a win over No. 18 Oregon State.

Big West season opened against Hawai'I dropping the first two including a 1-0 loss in 10 innings before salvaging the series with the second part of their Saturday doubleheader, 10-3

The offense runs through catcher Ryan Stafford with a .299 average, six doubles, two HR, and 12 RBI. Collin Villegas adds five homers of his own and 12 RBIs, and CSUB transfer Aaron Casillas with seven doubles and nine RBIs paces the team that bats .247 and averages under five runs a game

Pitching is topped by the weekend duo of 6-8 junior Bryce Warrecker (1-1, 2.93) and his 31 strikeouts alongside grad lefty Travis Weston (2-2, 6.26) who has been hit around a bit this year. The bullpen is led by Derek True, Kaden Sheedy, and Steven Brooks all with over 16 innings to this point and pace a pen where nearly every arm averages over a strikeout an inning. CP is near the bottom in most categories, but excels at strikeout-to-walk ratio (21st in NCAA), strikeouts per nine innings (37th), and WHIP (38th) all ranking in the top three in the conference.

ALL-TIME SERIES

Cal Poly welcomes the 'Eaters to Baggett Stadium for three. The road team has won four of the last five series between these two with the last sweep in 2012 and last road sweep in 2004. CP took last year's series with wins on Saturday and Sunday. Each of the Mustangs' last three wins have come by one run with two coming in a final at-bat. UCI holds the all-time edge, 35-29, and are 18-13 in games at Cal Poly.

DOWN THE LINE

Coming up is the third-longest homestand in Anteater Ballpark history starting next week. USC returns Tuesday night for a 6:00 p.m. first pitch followed by UC San Diego March 31 through April 2 for the first four games of a nine-game homestand

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