GAMES #35 & #36
ART U (3-31, 3-24 PWC) vs. Grand Canyon (20-20, 15-17 PWC)
April 19, 2012 at 4:00 PM (Game 1)
Laney College -- Oakland, CA
Live Stats

GAMES #37 & #38
ART U (3-31, 3-24 PWC) vs. Grand Canyon (20-20, 15-17 PWC)
April 20, 2012 at 4:00 PM (Game 1)
Laney College -- Oakland, CA
Live Stats

FIRST PITCH
The Urban Knights are coming off a full week without games, and are fresh and ready to get back to baseball as they get ready to host the Antelopes from Grand Canyon. Academy of Art just finished off a tough three-game series with Cal State Stanislaus, losing the series opener in a wild ninth inning that featured four errors and four unearned runs for both sides. That set the tone for the series, as the Knights were unable to muster a similar effort in the weekend games, dropping Saturday's doubleheader to the Warriors.

START OF SOMETHING
Academy of Art won their first game of the 2012 campaign just over a month ago playing at Grand Canyon, when Zach Mexicano threw a complete game en route to a 3-2 victory. That series against the Lopes was the beginning of the turnaround for the Knights pitching staff, as they went into it with a 8.68 ERA. Since that series, however, ART U hurlers have lopped three runs off that mark, pitching to a tune of a 5.02 ERA from March 16 to the present.

IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS
Grand Canyon is packing a powerful 1-2 punch on the offensive end, as Derek Mendoza and (.432) and Michael Pomeroy (.430) are leading the Pacific West Conference in batting. They also boast one of the best pitchers in the league in Justin Lindsey, who has a 6-4 record and a 3.27 ERA, tallying 54 strikeouts in 63.1 innings. The Knights did a good job of holding Mendoza and Pomeroy below their season averages after the first game of the series, as they combined to go 5-for-19 (.263) in the final three games of the doubleheader.

IN THE BEGINNING
Johnathan Robbins and Stefen Henderson have both played three years as Urban Knights, and as a result, sit atop or near the top of most of the leader boards for the baseball program. Henderson has now played the most games in program history at 121. He has also compiled the most walks in program history, is tied for the lead with seven triples, and is well within reach of the Urban Knights RBI record of 50 RBIs, sitting at 44. Robbins, on the other hand, is right behind Henderson in games played (120), and has the most hits (110), runs (80), and steals (56) in the four-year span of the baseball program.

GET TO THE GAME
It's not too late to sign up for the fan bus for this Friday's game against the Antelopes! Make sure to visit Fan Bus Central and get to the game!

WHAT'S ON DECK
After the series against Grand Canyon, the Urban Knights will play host to Hawaii Pacific for back-to-back doubleheaders on April 23-24 before they head off to Hawaii to take on Hawaii Hilo and HPU on the islands.