@NCBearsBaseball Looks to Stay Hot at UTPA

Friday, April 24

Edinburg, Texas

6:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

Texas Pan American

Photo by: Rob Trubia

4/23/2015 3:13:00 PM | Baseball

Northern Colorado baseball will look to extend its four game win streak against Texas-Pan American this weekend

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

Northern Colorado baseball looks to continue to stay in the top half of the WAC standings when they travel to Texas-Pan American this weekend.

Games 35-37
Who: Texas-Pan American 13-23-1, 1-13-1 WAC
When: Friday, April 24 - Sunday, April 26
Where: Edinburg, Texas, Edinburg Baseball Stadium
Series History: UNC 29-6, last meeting May 18, 2014 (UTPA 7-2)
Game Notes: Northern Colorado | Texas-Pan American | WAC

Probable Starters

Game	Northern Colorado	Texas-Pan American	Game Links
Friday, April 24 at 6:00 pm	RHP Spencer Applebach (2-4, 8.91 ERA)	RHP Parker Gallegos (2-3, 3.92 ERA)	Video \| Live Stats
Saturday, April 25 at 5:00 pm	RHP Alex Werbach (2-4, 5.82 ERA)	RHP Robert Quinonez (2-4, 3.65 ERA)	Video \| Live Stats
Sunday April 26 at 11:00 am	LHP Nick Tanner (2-1, 3.41 ERA)	LHP Alex Henson (1-0, 6.75 ERA)	Video \| Live Stats

First Pitch
• Northern Colorado is currently riding a four game win streak coming into this weekend.
• Jensen Park became the school's leading hitter on Sunday, April 19th against Utah Valley. Park passed Kevin Sandberg (2006-09) who had 243 hits. Park currently stands with 254 hits coming into the weekend.
• UNC made a big move in the WAC standings with the sweep of Utah Valley going from a tie for sixth place to sole possession of fourth place at the mid-way point.
• The Bears pitching staff has been preforming well during the win streak all earning quality starts, and three getting the win.
• Alex Werbach and Spencer Applebach posted back-to-back games fanning eight Utah Valley player's each. The eight strikeouts are a career high for both, and the most by any UNC starter this season.
• It's not just the starting pitching that is doing well for Northern Colorado, but the bullpen has done well too. Over the past four games they have pitched 15 innings posting a 1.80 ERA.
• The Bears are getting into the habit of scoring early on in games to put pressure of their opponents. In the past four games UNC has scored 21 runs in the first three innings, including nine in the first inning.
• Jensen Park continues his hot hitting, going 10-for-15 over the weekend against Utah Valley and adding on another 3-for-4 day against Metro State on Tuesday. Over the four games he has scored seven runs, driven in five runners and stole two bases.
• Park is not the only hot hitter for UNC, Cole Maltese has settled in well at first base and recorded three multi-hits games in the past four games. With runners doing a good job of getting on in front of him he has been able to record five RBI during the time.
• The Bears will look to buck the trend of sweeping and getting swept every other weekend in WAC play against the Broncos this weekend.

Scouting the Broncos
Texas-Pan American comes into this weekend's matchup sitting in last place in the WAC standings with a 1-13-1 record. The Broncos are 14-23-1 overall after defeating Prairie View A&M Tuesday 14-4. Last weekend UTPA hosted Chicago State going 1-1-1 against the Cougars. At the plate the Broncos are led by the trio of Logan Landon, Cole Loncar and Jesus Garcia who are hitting .413, .316 and .300, respectively. Landon is the team's big bat having seven home runs and 37 RBI this season. On the mound UTPA has a 5.09 ERA for the year with three pitchers posting sub 4.00 ERAs. Robert Quinonez, Parker Gallegos, Blake English and Ryan Jackson have started the majority of the team's games this year with Quinonez posting the lowest ERA of 3.65 with a 2-4 record.

Who are You?
Fans will have to purchase a program to learn all the new faces on the Bears baseball team this year. Overall the team has 21 newcomers. There are 13 transfers and eight freshman that make up the group of 21.

Hits King
Jensen Park became the leading hitter in Northern Colorado last weekend with his first hit against Utah Valley on Sunday. Park passed Kevin Sandberg (2006-09) who had 243 career hits. He currently has 254 hits going into the weekend.

Slugging It Out
The Bears have the third highest slugging percentage in the WAC at .382.

Moving the Runners
Jacob Ek ranks 9th nationally with 11 sacrifice bunts this season. His 10 sacrifice bunts have helped produce eight runs for UNC.

They Get On Base
Northern Colorado has the second highest on base percentage in the WAC at .365. Seniors Jensen Park and Reyn Sugai rank in the top five in the conference in OBP with Sugai just edging out his teammate .456 to .455

Second Time Around
It is well known is baseball that batters hit better the second time around when facing a pitcher. For Northern Colorado, they hope as a team they have more success in the WAC. Northern Colorado competed in its first season in the WAC last year, going 4-23.

Proud Tradition
Northern Colorado has been to 10 College World Series, which still ranks among the top 15 in the history of the CWS. There have only been 14 teams to make it the Omaha double digit times. The last time UNC made it was in 1974. Texas has the most CWS appearances with 34.

Proud Alum
Baseball is one of three sports at Northern Colorado (football, women's golf) with an alumnus as the head coach. Carl Iwasaki played for the Bears from 1981-84. Coach Iwasaki is not the only alum on the baseball staff, assistant coach Patrick Perry is an alum of the Northern Colorado too, graduating in 2009. This is his sixth year as the team's hitting coach.

New Territory
The WAC is the fifth conference the Bears have belonged to in the history of the program (Rocky Mountain Conference, Great Plains Athletic Conference, North Central Conference, Great West Conference). The team was also a Division I independent from 1976-90 and 2004-09.

Home Grown
Head coach Carl Iwasaki has done a great job of getting kids from Colorado to stay in-state. The Bears roster is comprised of 17 players from Colorado.

Against the WAC
Northern Colorado is 85-115 overall against the WAC. Since joining the league last season, UNC is 13-26.

On Deck
UNC finishes its four game mid-week series against Air Force on April 28th at home with first pitch at 3:00 p.m. The Falcons have won the first three games in the series this year.

In the Hole
Northern Colorado travels to Bakersfield over the weekend of May 1-3 in another WAC weekend.