PROVO, Utah — BYU baseball continues its eight-game season-opening road trip with a three-game series at CSUN Feb. 20-22 in Northridge, California.
| BYU at CSUN | Robert J. Hiegert Field | Northridge, California | |||
| Date & Time (MST) | Watch | Listen | Live Stats |
| Thursday, Feb. 20 at 6:30 p.m. | ESPN+ | BYU Radio 107.9/BYU Radio App | Follow Here |
| Friday, Feb. 21 at 5:30 p.m. | ESPN+ | BYU Radio 107.9/BYU Radio App | Follow Here |
| Saturday, Feb. 22 at 2 p.m. | N/A | BYU Radio App | Follow Here |
WEEK ONE REVIEW
BYU began its season-opening California road trip in the Central Valley with a four-game series at Fresno State. The Cougars split four games with the Mountain West preseason favorites, dropping games one and two before winning the final two games 7-1 and 6-4. BYU fell to UCLA 15-4 in Tuesday’s midweek outing.
Through five games, the Cougar bats are led by veteran outfielder Bryker Hurdsman and Luke Anderson along with newcomer designated hitter Easton Bryant.
Hurdsman leads the team in batting average at .412 and has scored five runs on seven hits. Bryant, a transfer from Chandler-Gilbert CC has matched Hurdsman with a slugging percentage of .471 while batting .294 with two runs on five hits. Bryant is one of just eight batters in the Big 12 with three doubles in the young season.
Anderson leads BYU in slugging percentage at .476 while batting .286, and recording 7 RBI on six hits with a double and home run. The junior left fielder looks to notch an RBI in his fifth straight game when the Cougars face the Matadors on Thursday.
The season’s first five games featured yet another save for BYU’s Stone Cushing along with strong Division I debuts from Garrison Sumner, Nolan Ficklin and Owen Miller. Cushing took the mound in the bottom of the ninth and closed out BYU’s 6-4 win at Fresno State on Feb. 17 for his first save of the season and 11th of his career. The senior closer is now tied for seventh nationally in active career saves with pitchers from Alabama, Ole Miss, Oral Roberts and Charleston.
Sumner, a transfer from Salt Lake CC, earned a win in his first Division I start as BYU overtook Fresno State 7-1 in game two of a doubleheader on Feb. 15. The junior recorded three strikeouts in six innings pitched versus the Bulldogs and heads into week two with an ERA of 1.50. Sumner is one of eight Big 12 pitchers to go six innings on the season’s opening weekend and ranks sixth in the league with a batting average allowed of .095.
Miller, a true freshman out of Orem (Utah) High School, got his first start as a Cougar in game four at FSU, going 3.2 innings with three strikeouts and allowing just one earned run in a no decision. Ficklin, a transfer from College of Southern Nevada, ended up getting the 6-4 win in game fourth throwing a hitless eighth inning.
KNOW THE FOE: CSUN (1-2)
The Cougars and Matadors meet for the 17th time on Thursday with the winner breaking an all-time series deadlocked at eight. BYU won its last series with CSUN 3-1 (5-3, 9-10, 6-5, 10-8) on Feb. 16-17 and 19, 2018 in Northridge. The two teams first met in an 8-3 Matador win on February 21, 1980 at the UNLV Desert Classic.
CSUN is led by head coach Eddie Cornejo in his third season and entered 2025 picked sixth in the Big West after a sixth-place finish a year ago at 30-24 (16-14).
The Matadors dropped two of three (4-5, 11-9, 3-8) in their season-opening series at Santa Clara Feb. 14-16. CSUN infielder Colton Boardman is batting .500 with three runs on six hits and three RBI. First baseman/designated hitter Matthew Pena leads the Matadors in slugging percentage at .778 with six RBI in three games. The CSUN pitching staff features starters Ryan Halamicek and Diego Gutierrez. Halamicek allowed just one hit in five innings versus Santa Clara while Guttierrez recorded five strikeouts and notched the win over the Broncos.