ON DECK…
GAMES 33-35: #9 Long Beach State (25-14, 10-2) at UC Davis (12-20, 5-7)
Fri.-Sun., April 28-30, 2017
2:30 p.m. - 1 p.m. - 1 p.m.
Phil Swimley Field at Dobbins Stadium
Davis, Calif.
Game Coverage:
Friday - Live Stats | Tickets
Saturday - Live Stats | Tickets
Sunday - Live Stats | Tickets

ON THE MOUND…
Probable starters for this weekend's series
Friday - RHP Darren McCaughan (5-2, 2.53 ERA) at LHP Robert Garcia (1-4, 4.31 ERA)
Saturday - RHP John Sheaks (6-1, 2.95 ERA) at LHP Orlando Razo (5-2, 3.59 ERA)
Sunday - RHP Dave Smith (4-1, 1.50 ERA) at RHP Justin Mullins (1-2, 4.93 ERA)

FIRST PITCH: Returning home following a series victory on the Islands, the UC Davis baseball team faces one of its toughest tests of the season this weekend, welcoming front-running and No. 9-ranked Long Beach State to Phil Swimley Field at Dobbins Stadium for a three-game series. The series opens on Friday (April 28) with a 2:30 p.m. first pitch, with games two and three to follow on Saturday (April 29) and Sunday (April 30) at 1 p.m. each day.

IN THE POLLS: Long Beach State is ranked as high as No. 9 in the nation according to the latest Baseball America poll, while standing No. 11 according to D1Baseball.com, No. 14 according to the NCBWA, No. 15 by USA Today, and No. 16 according to Collegiate Baseball... UC Davis is unranked.

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SCOUTING LONG BEACH STATE: League-leading Long Beach State enters the week at 25-14 overall and 10-2 in Big West Conference play after sweeping a conference series from UC Irvine (4-0, 8-2, 5-2) on the road and falling in a mid-week meeting with UCLA (5-1)... Long Beach has won all four of its Big West series thus far this season, losing only twice in the opener against UC Santa Barbara (3-2) and the series finale against CSUN (8-5)... Of it's 25 wins, 14 of Long Beach State's victories have come at home (14-3) as it has posted just a 10-11 mark away from Blair Field this season... Junior college transfer Ramsey Romano leads all regulars with a .338 average to go with a team-best 26 RBI... Juniors Lucas Tancas and David Banuelos have combined to slug 11 of the team's 20 home runs this year... Long Beach State's weekend rotation has been stout as the three scheduled starters has posted a 15-4 record with a 2.41 ERA and 122 strikeouts against only 30 walks this season.

SERIES NOTES: According to records that date back to the 1966 season, Long Beach State leads the all-time series, 26-11, with all but that first meeting coming since 2005... The Aggies have lost the last six meetings to this weekend's foe as Long Beach has swept the conference series in each of the last two years... UC Davis' last win in the series came in 2014 when it took 2-of-3 from Long Beach State at home, sandwiching wins of 7-5 and 8-4 around a 2-0 defeat in game two... The Aggies have won four of the five all-time series played in Davis, Calif., between the two schools, taking 2-of-3 from Long Beach State on each occasion and posting an 8-10 record at home in the history of the series.

CONFERENCE CALL: UC Davis is a combined 80-151 (.346) in Big West Conference play since joining the league, finishing as high as fifth in the standings in 2012 and posting a program-best 13 conference victories during its inaugural Big West season in 2008... The five conference wins this season match the team's total from all of last year (5-19), while a sixth win would give the Aggies their highest conference win total since they finished 9-15 back in 2015.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: A correction has been made to the 2017 UC Davis schedule, as the Aggies' final home series of the regular season against Grand Canyon now begins on Thursday (May 18) at 2:30 p.m., with the final two games scheduled for Friday (May 19) at 2:30 p.m., and Saturday (May 20) at 1 p.m., at Phil Swimley Field at Dobbins Stadium. The Aggies will honor their seniors prior to first pitch of the series finale with the Antelopes on Saturday.

"SERIES"-OUS BUSINESS: It only took the Aggies one day to post their third series win of the season, sweeping a doubleheader from Hawai'i to take the first two games of the series after the opener was rained out 24 hours earlier. The wins also gave UC Davis its second league series victory of the year, only the second against the Rainbow Warriors -- the first since taking 2-of-3 in 2014 -- in the history of the series, and the Aggies' first road series win since taking 2-of-3 at CSUN back in 2014.

LET'S WIN TWO: UC Davis had lost its last five doubleheaders until taking both ends last Saturday against Hawai'i, posting its first doubleheader sweep since taking both against New Mexico State by the scores of 5-1 and 4-0 back on March 15, 2014.

QUALITY YOU CAN COUNT ON: Six of junior left-hander Orlando Razo's eight starts on the mound this season have been "quality starts" (a start of at least six innings allowing three earned runs or fewer), after posting a 9-3 win in the nightcap last Saturday at Hawai'i. All told, Razo is 5-0 with a no-decision in those six outings with a 1.24 ERA and 46 strikeouts in 42.2 innings against only 15 walks.

CAM SLAMS ANOTHER: Putting the icing on the cake of a three-hit night in the opener against Hawai'i, senior Cameron Olson slugged his fifth home run of the season -- a two-run shot -- in the Aggies' 11-4 win over the Rainbow Warriors, tying him with David Popkins (2009-12) and Kyle Mihaylo (2008-10) for the school's Division I record with 14 for his career and moving him to within three of Mihaylo, Sam Viney (1969 & 1971), and Jim Grant (1984-85), for 10th on the all-time list.

GOING SOLO: Of UC Davis' 20 home runs, 11 have come with the bases empty, while five have led off an inning. However, the Aggies have hit multiple home runs in a game five times this season -- something that had happened only four times in the last years combined.

YARD WORK: Nine Aggies have accounted for the team's home run total this season -- the most since the 2011, when UC Davis also had nine players leave the yard at least once.

RUN HOME, JACK: Olson's home run also gave the Aggies 20 in 32 games this season -- breaking last year's mark of 16, and posting the most long balls since slugging 22 during the 2012 campaign. UC Davis, which has hit a home run in seven of its last nine games, has now hit 20-or-more home runs in a season only two other times, slamming a Division I era record 34 in 2008, and 24 two years later in 2010.

HOOPER'S A HIT: Quite literally as it turns out but, this time, instead of being hit by a pitch, he's taking his frustrations out on the ball, extending his hitting streak to six games thanks to three straight two-hit contests last weekend at Hawai'i. The junior outfielder from Moraga, Calif., is batting .500 (10-for-20) with five runs scored and four RBI in his last six games, raising his average 46 points to .305 on the year in the process. Oh yeah, about those bruises? Hooper ranks tied for fifth in the league with eight HBPs on the season.

DO RUN, RUN, RUN...: The 11 runs scored in the series opener at Hawai'i marked on the third time this season that the Aggies have reached double figures in that category and the second-highest total of the year behind only the 12-1 win at Creighton in the series opener on March 26. UC Davis has been helped along by the big inning this season, scoring three-or-more runs in 22 of its 82 scoring frames thus far in 2017.

HIT PARADE: Along those same lines, the 15 hits in the opener at Hawai'i marked the 12th time in 32 games that the Aggies have reached double digits in that category, a total achieved on two other ocassions against CSUN (March 31) and Cal State Fullerton (April 8), and trailing only the 19 hits in that opener against Creighton.

MR. BASEBALL… TOO FAST!: The Aggies finished 5-of-6 in stolen bases in Honolulu over the weekend, giving them 41 on the season and moving them into second place in the Big West behind this weekend's opponent, Long Beach State, which has stolen 48 bags this year. Junior Alex Aguiar and his eight steals are tied for seventh in the conference, while Ryan Hooper and Brad Pluschkell are tied for 10th with seven apiece.