TURLOCK, Calif.---  After going 3-1 at Cal State Dominguez Hills, the Stan State Warriors will return home to host Cal State Los Angeles in a four-game series this weekend, March 24-26 at Warrior Field in Turlock.  The series will begin on Friday the 24 with a single nine-inning game at 6pm.  The two teams will continue the series with a 1pm starting doubleheader on Saturday the 25.  Stan State will conclude its series with Cal State Los Angeles on Sunday the 26 at noon.

LAST WEEK at CSUDH:  The Warriors took three out of four games from Cal State Dominguez Hills this weekend in Carson, Calif. Entering the weekend, the Toros were at the top of the CCAA with a 5-0 record.  Stan State took the first three games (10-3, 8-5 in 11 innings and 4-3 in ten innings).  CSUDH took the series finale 12-4 on Sunday.

The Warriors' pitching staff had a team earned run average of 2.61.  Seven pitchers had a 0.00 ERA with at least 0.2 innings pitched in Alex Kendrick, Kody Cardoza, Damian Vallejos, Bobby Garcia and Anthony Ramirez.  The victories came from Patrick Sweeney, Maxwell Pappas, and Ramirez with Vallejos recording the save.  The Warrior pitchers combined to have 33 strikeouts in 38 innings pitched with Tony Jacob and Pappas leading the way with seven and six respectively. 

Stan State hit .272 as a team with four players hitting over .300 in Ryan Leonesio (.462), Flavio Perez (.444), Mac Cabero (.350) and Robert Valdivia (.313).  Perez had a 1.000 slugging and .524 on-base percentages while driving in seven runs.  He had two home runs and four doubles.  Kyle Rachels scored a team leading five times.  Tyler Van Dyk and Rachels each had home runs too for the Warriors. 

WARRIORS IN REVIEW:  Stan State enters this weekend's four-game series with a 14-12 overall record and a 7-9 CCAA record.  Five Warriors are hitting over .275 in Flavio Perez (.333), Jonluke Goldman (.296), Alex Solis (.292), Tyler Van Dyk (.291) and Robert Valdivia (.286).  Perez leads the team with 35 hits, 11 doubles, 24 runs batted in and a .543 slugging percentage.  He is tied for the team lead with one triple with Jacob Baker, JD Madrigal and Ryan Leonesio.  Valdivia has a team high .404 on-base percentage and Baker leads the team with his nine stolen bases.  Rachels has scored a team high 22 runs.

The pitching staff has team earned run average of 4.49 with Austin Balentine's 2.70 earned run average leading the way.  Two Warriors have lower earned run averages but have pitched less than the total games that Stan State has played in Anthony Ramirez (1.69 ERA, 16 innings pitched) and Noah Chelberg (2.08 ERA, 13 innings pitched). 
Balentine leads the team with his 32 strikeouts followed by Maxwell Pappas with 31 and Casey Carr with 27.  Carr leads the team with his three victories and three Warriors have won two games each in Balentine, Pappas and Patrick Sweeney.  Ramirez has recorded three of the Warriors' five saves with Balentine and Damien Vallejos each with one.

JUST PERCENTAGE POINTS OUT OF SIXTH:  With its 3-1 weekend, Stan State is in seventh place in the CCAA just 0.017 percentage points out of sixth place which is held by Cal Poly Pomona (5-6, .455).  The Warriors are 7-9 in league play with a .438 percentage points.  The top six teams at the end of the regular season will receive a berth in the CCAA Baseball Championship Tournament in Seaside, Calif.  The top six teams are Cal State San Bernardino (10-3, .769), Cal State Monterey Bay (11-4, .733), Chico State (5-2, .714), Cal State Dominguez Hills (6-3, .667), Cal State East Bay (4-4, .500) and Cal Poly Pomona (5-6, .455).

AMONGST THE TEAM LEADERS:  As a team, the Warriors are in the top five in the league in 14 CCAA statistical categories.  Stan State leads the league in walks, strikeouts, and sacrifice bunts.  The Warriors are second in doubles, stolen bases and double plays while they are tied for second in saves.  They are third in hits and tied for third in shutouts.  Stan State is fourth in runs scored, runs batted in, and sacrifice flies and fifth in home runs.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS:  Ten Stan State players are in the top ten in the CCAA in several categories.  Flavio Perez is tied for first in sacrifice flies and leads the league in doubles.  He is second in hits and tied for fourth in runs batted in.  Kyle Rachels is fourth in runs scored, tied for sixth in victories and stolen bases and tied for ninth in hits.  He is tied for eighth in triples with teammates, JD Madrigal, Ryan Leonesio, Jacob Baker and Perez.  Tyler Van Dyk is tied for third in sacrifice bunts and tied for eighth in home runs while Robert Valdivia is tied for third in sacrifice bunts and tied for sixth in walks.  Danny Murphy leads the league with his six sacrifice bunts and Baker is second in stolen bases and ninth in hits by pitches.

Over on the mound, Austin Balentine is fifth in earned run average and strikeouts.  Maxwell Pappas is second in strikeouts, Anthony Ramirez is tied for third in saves and Casey Carr is tied for fourth in victories.

STREAKS:  Alex Solis had his 12-game hitting streak and 19-game reached base safely streak snapped this weekend in Carson. Robert Valdivia is on a seven-game reached base safely streak and Flavio Perez and Jacob Baker are at five.  Perez has eight multiple-RBI games and 13 multiple-hit games.  Tyler Van Dyk has nine multiple-hit games with Valdivia right behind him at eight and Kyle Rachels at seven. 

CCAA ONLY GAMES:  Stan State is hitting .262 as a team and has a team earned run average of 5.44 in its first 16 CCAA games of the season.  All 16 games have been against the top four teams in the conference in Cal State San Bernardino, Cal State Monterey Bay, Chico State and Cal State Dominguez Hills.  Four players are hitting over .300 in Jonluke Goldman (.364), Robert Valdivia (.328), Alex Solis (.321) and Flavio Perez (.303). Solis has a team leading 12 runs batted in those 16 games.  Tyler Van Dyk has scored a team high 12 runs and hit a team leading three home runs.  Stan State is 17-for-18 in stolen base attempts led by Jacob Baker (four-for-four) and Ryan Leonesio (three-for-three).
Austin Balentine has recorded two of the Warriors' seven victories.  The Warrior pitchers have struck out 133 batters and walked 76 in 139 innings pitched.  Maxwell Pappas leads the way with 22 followed by Balentine with 21 and Casey Carr with 17.  Anthony Ramirez has a 1.74 earned run average in 10.1 innings pitched while Patrick Sweeney has a 0.00 earned run average in 4.1 innings pitched.

UPDATE ON CAL STATE LOS ANGELES: Cal State Los Angeles enters this weekend with an 8-10 record and a 3-6 record.  The Golden Eagles went 3-1 against Cal State San Marcos this weekend. They are hitting .285 and have a team earned run average of 7.19.  Matthew Piotrowski leads the way with his .444 batting average, 29 runs batted in, 32 hits, 19 runs scored, six home runs and .833 slugging percentage.  Kadyn Victorian-Young is hitting .417 with a .517 on-base percentage and three stolen bases.  Owen Hunt leads the CSULA pitching staff with a 3-3 record and a 3.86 earned run average.  He has struck out 28 batters in 30.1 innings pitched.    

ALL-TIME SERIES:  Cal State Los Angeles leads the all-time series 30-23 with the Warriors with the teams splitting the last eight meetings.  Stan State went 2-3 last year in Los Angeles.  The Warriors won the series opener 8-6 with Maxwell Pappas striking out seven in recording the victory while Noah Chelberg had six strikeouts for the save.  They won the second game 17-6 behind Danny Murphy (two-for-five with three runs batted in and two runs scored) and Jonluke Goldman (three-for-five with two runs batted in and three runs scored).  Bobby Garcia picked up the win pitching 3.2 innings, giving up one hit and a run while striking out one and walking five.  Stan State lost 4-3 in the third game despite Goldman going two-for-three.  CSULA won the series finale 15-2 as Casey Carr took the loss and Murphy went one-for-three with two runs batted in.  The two teams split the four-game series in 2020 in Turlock (Stan 8-1, LA 14-5, Stan 7-4 and LA 8-7).

LIVE STATS/VIDEO:  To view the live stats, go to https://warriorathletics.com/sidearmstats/baseball/summary and for the CCAA network go to www.ccaanetwork.com/Stan.  The CCAA network has a monthly subscription rate of $9.95, which can watch any CCAA sport that is hosted at any CCAA institution during that 30-day period. You can also listen to Bryan Nelson call the game at http://bluechipbroadcasting.com/.

UP NEXT: Stan State will return to Southern California for a four-game series in San Marcos, March 31-April 2, against Cal State San Marcos.  The Warriors will return home April 14-16 when they host San Francisco State.