By Marissa Scott (@marissascotttt ):
San Jose State baseball looks to swing its record above .500 when it travels down to UC Santa Barbara for a three-game series this weekend.
In the last six games, the Spartans (9-10, 2-6 MW) played against the Gauchos (6-11-1) dating back to 2013, SJSU only could come out on top once. The two teams haven’t faced each other since 2014.
Road trips prove tough for the Spartans this season. The team has only won one of their five road games while their home record stays strong at 7-6.
Sophomore center-fielder Kellen Strahm started the season off in a slump going 3-for-30 in his first 10 games. He picked up his bat and found his swing going 13-for-37 (.337 BA) in the last nine games.
Starting pitching has been a major issue for SJSU. Although the team earned run average has lowered slightly in its last four games, it still sits at a 6.26 with 116 earned runs.
The Spartans have played seven games in which the pitching has given up 10 or more runs.
Senior Josh Goldberg will take the mound for the Spartans in Game 1. In his last outing, the right-hander struck out five batters in a one unearned-run complete game.
The Gauchos have an even worse road performance than the Spartans. The team has gone 0-5 on the road while only hitting a combined .127 with nine RBIs compared to hitting .299 at home with 57 RBIs.
In the first eight games, UCSB knocked in 24 runs and struck out a combined 83 times.
In a mid-season push in its last 10 games, the team has knocked in 53 runs and struck out only 48 times.
March has been a successful month for the Gauchos’ offense. Freshmen Jason Willow and Andrew Martinez and sophomore Tommy Jew have had a red-hot month, all batting over .320.
Playing in Caesar Uyesaka Stadium in gives UCSB the upper hand in the three-game series because of their dominance at home.
The first pitch is set for 3 p.m. on Friday followed by a 2 p.m. start on Saturday. The final game of the series is slated for 1 p.m.