@NCBearsBaseball Looks to Break Tie With Sacramento State

Northern Colorado and Sacramento State open this weekend's series tied for fourth in the WAC with just two weeks left.

Games 41-43
Who: Sacramento State 26-23, 12-9 WAC
When: Saturday, May 9 and Sunday May 10
Where: Sacramento, Calif., John Smith Field
Series History: Sacramento State 9-3, last meeting March 21, 2014 (Sac St. 3-1)
Game Notes: Northern Colorado | Sacramento State | WAC

Probable Starters

Game	Northern Colorado	Sacramento State	Game Links
Saturday, May 9 at 1:00 PM	LHP Dylan Shiraki (2-2, 6-68 ERA)	RHP Brennan Leitao (5-4, 2.28 ERA)	Audio \| Live Stats
Saturday May 9 at 4:30 PM	LHP Matt Loutzenhiser (1-1, 4.93 ERA)	RHP Ty Nichols (3-0, 1.44 ERA)	Audio \| Live Stats
Sunday May 10 at 1:00 PM	LHP Nick Tanner (2-1, 4.17 ERA)	RHP Justin Dillion (5-4, 3.51 ERA)	Audio \| Live Stats

First Pitch
• Northern Colorado was supposed to come home for its final six games of the regular season hosting Sacramento State and Seattle, but with weather concerns leading to possible travel issues, the Bears now head to Sacrament to face the Hornets. Although the series will be played at Sacramento State's home field UNC will be the designated home team.
• UNC, Sac St., and North Dakota are all tied for fourth place in the WAC.
• Of the 28 innings played last weekend against Bakersfield, UNC had a runner on in 26 of them, including a streak of 23 straight innings with a runner reaching safely.
• Five Northern Colorado players hit above .300 over the weekend, including two hitting .500. Cole Maltese and Jensen Park were the two players who hit .500.
• Cole Maltese had a weekend cycle recording a single, double, triple and hitting his team leading fifth home run.
• Jensen Park and Dan Reese extended their hit streaks to 9 games, six Bears are currently on a hit streak.
• Last weekend's series featured eight lead changes and neither team led by more than two runs over the three games.
• UNC averaged 13.3 hits a game against Bakersfield who had been averaging giving up just 8.6 hits a game.
• Reyn Sugai saw his consecutive game streak of scoring a run stopped on Sunday, but it reached 11 games.
• The Bears have scored first in 12 straight games, having a 7-5 record during the streak.

Scouting the Hornets
Sacramento State comes into Greeley tied with the Bears and North Dakota for fourth place in the WAC. The Hornets bring with them the top pitching staff in the conference posting a 3.19 ERA. Ty Nichols leads the team with a 1.44 ERA in 17 appearances including seven starts. He has a 3-0 record and has struck out 39 batters in 62.1 innings pitched. Sac St. has eight pitchers who have a sub 4.00 ERA. At the plate Sacramento State is led by the duo of Nathan Lukes and Scotty Burcham. Lukes' has a .352 batting average to go with his team leading five home runs and 25 RBI. Burcham is not far behind him with a .347 batting average and 24 RBI. Before sweeping their weekend series against Chicago State the Hornets were 1-5 in their last six games.

The Race to Mesa
With two weeks remaining in the regular season, the race to qualify for the WAC tournament in Mesa, Ariz. is really heating up. The top six teams in the regular season standings will qualify for the double elimination tournament at the Oakland A's spring training facility, Hohokam Stadium.

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 266 hits going into the weekend.

Nationally Ranked
Jensen Park leads the WAC with a .415 batting average and ranks 6th overall in the nation.

Getting Offensive
The Bears have one of the best offenses in the WAC, ranked second in batting average (.291), slugging percentage (.395), and on base percentage (.374).

Moving the Runners
Jake Ek ranks 6th nationally with 14 sacrifice bunts this season. His 14 sacrifice bunts have helped produce eight runs for UNC.

They Get On Base
Seniors Jensen Park and Reyn Sugai rank in the top five in the conference in OBP with Park leading the WAC. Park has a .472 mark, while Sugai is fifth at .453.

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 88-118 overall against the WAC. Since joining the league last season, UNC is 16-29.

On Deck
UNC will finish up its regular season hosting Seattle U for three games starting on Thursday May 14.