The UC Riverside baseball team (2-3) opened up a four-game home series against the Washington Huskies (3-1) on Friday, Feb. 26 and it was largely a 10-inning stalemate. Both starting pitchers, Austin Sodders for the Highlanders and Noah Bremer of the Huskies, did not concede a run; however both teams gave up a run in the form of wild pitches in the sixth inning. From there, the game remained tied, 1-1, as both teams could not seem to drive runners home, until a Chris Baker double drove in MJ Hubbs in the top of the 10th inning for Washington. The Highlanders’ final plate appearance saw two strikeouts and a pop out as Washington’s Troy Rallings picked up his second save of the season.
Despite the game resulting in a loss, the Highlanders played excellent baseball, and showed traits of a well-built and well-coached team. UCR hustled through every ground-out and never looked defeated despite facing three consecutive innings where Washington managed to get multiple runners into scoring position. Yet in these situations, the defense and pitching avoided giving up any runs. Even when a wild pitch scored a Washington run in the sixth inning, UCR managed to keep that from ballooning into a rally and ended the inning with no further damage. Then in the bottom of the same inning UCR managed to get a couple of hits to move a runner into scoring position, who was driven in by a Washington wild pitch.
Friday night’s game was Sodders’ second start of the season, and in both starts went at least five innings. Coach Troy Percival calls Sodders “one of our big game guys,” and his performance was certainly indicative of that. Sodders found himself with runners on base and one or fewer outs in three consecutive innings but he showed tremendous poise in settling himself down and pitching himself out of jams. Of course the Highlanders’ defense, which boasts a ridiculous fielding percentage of .979, is also a strong source of confidence for this pitching staff.
Offensively the Highlanders played a strong game tallying seven hits on the night. However, the offense had three separate occasions with runners in scoring position but were unable to drive them home. This was a small problem in the team’s first series against Kansas State, as the Highlanders had five or more hits in all four of those games but could not seem to get timely hits with runners on. However, Percival believes UCR’s offense is explosive and is absolutely capable of getting guys on base and driving them home. He cites “guys getting too pressed in situations with runners on” as the primary issue and suggests, “They just need to settle down and let the game come to them.”
Overall this Highlanders team is built to go the distance and they know it. Percival asserts, “this team can stay competitive with any team in the country and they want to do just that.” Percival stresses this team has a lot of experience and a high talent level and he wants to play the best talent in the country. Opening up the season against two established programs from strong conferences, the Pac-12 and Big 12, is proof of that belief.
It is worth noting that UCR is playing this well so far with a bench and pitching staff thinned out by the flu, which has kept six players out of the lineup. Ineligibility has also sidelined a few players that are due to return in six games.
As it stands, the Highlanders are 4-4 on the year and the defense and pitching are expected to be bolstered even further with the return of sick and ineligible players. After a 2015 season crippled by injuries, Percival wants to ignite a strong era of UCR baseball in his second season with the team and so far, the 2016 Highlanders are on pace to do just that.
