FRESNO, Calif. – The Fresno Pacific University baseball team is set to begin a four-game PacWest Conference series against Hawai'i Pacific on Thursday. The series will conclude with a doubleheader on Saturday and marks the final road games of the season for the Sunbirds.
 
ON DECK
Game 30 – PacWest Game
@ Hawai'i Pacific
Thursday, April 13 • 9 p.m. PST
Hans L'Orange Park • Honolulu
Stats • Video    
 
Game 31 – PacWest Game
@ Hawai'i Pacific
Friday, April 14 • 9 p.m. PST
Hans L'Orange Park • Honolulu
Stats
 
Games 32/33 – PacWest Doubleheader
@ Hawai'i Pacific
Saturday, April 13 • 5 p.m. PST (9 innings) / 8 p.m. PST (7 innings)
Hans L'Orange Park • Honolulu
Stats • Video    
 
SCHEDULE  
After this weekend, Academy of Art heads to the Valley for the first of four league games on April 20, with back-to-back doubleheaders against Holy Names set for the following weekend. The final series of the year for the Blue and Orange will also feature Point Loma, and FPU's Senior Day is set for May 9.
 
The NCAA Division II West Regional will begin on May 18, with the championship game scheduled for Monday, May 22. The site will be determined at the conclusion of the regular season. Grand Prairie, Texas will host the NCAA Championship for the first time, with Regional winners squaring off from May 27 – June 3.
 
To view the entire schedule for Fresno Pacific baseball, please click here. For a printable version, click here. 
 
ABOUT THE SUNBIRDS (13-16, 10-10 PacWest)
Fresno Pacific is coming off consecutive doubleheader splits against Hawai'i Hilo and enters the HPU series at 10-10 in PacWest play. Against the Vulcans, Joey Gallegos went 6-for-14 at the plate while driving in three and scoring three more. Hunter Villanueva clipped an even .400 for the series, including coming with a single of the cycle on Monday afternoon. On the season, freshman leadoff man Michael Warkentin has hit a team-high .357, while Baron Bower and Eddie Sievers have each driven in 20 runs at the plate.
 
Nic Boatman went the distance in Monday's series finale, picking up three strikeouts while holding the Vulcan offense to just two base hits. Fellow starters Trent Ashford and Josue Mendivil combined for 10.1 innings and just two earned runs, while reliever Nic Garcia did not allow a run to cross the plate. Boatman now has the best earned run average on the club, and Mendivil's 29 strikeouts are tops on the team.
 
ABOUT THE SHARKS (14-24, 4-22 PacWest)
Hawai'i Pacific has dropped its last eight league games, including four losses on the road against #2 Azusa Pacific last weekend. The Sharks are 11-7 at their home field this season, including and 8-1 record in non-conference contests.
 
Jordan Mopas sits atop the team leaderboard in batting average (.290) and doubles (10), and he is currently tied with Wyatt Hoppie for the team lead in RBI with 21. Four Shark pitchers claim a sub-3.00 ERA, highlighted by the 1.96 posted by reliever Evan-Thomas May over ten outings. Opponents have hit just .253 against HPU pitching, and the team has only been outscored by five runs so far this spring.
 
SERIES HISTORY: FRESNO PACIFIC VS HAWAI'I PACIFIC
The Sunbirds stand 7-9 overall in the all-time series but have never won a road game against the Sharks. FPU took three of four last season in Fresno, snapping a six-game losing streak that stretched over two seasons.
  
PACWEST CONFERENCE STANDINGS
The Sunbirds currently sit in sixth in the PacWest Conference standings, while the Sharks rank 10th in the league. The standings are based solely on win percentage in league games.
 
HEAD COACH OSCAR HIRSCHKORN
Oscar Hirshckorn has been the head baseball coach at Fresno Pacific University since the program's inception in 2006. In 11 seasons at the helm, he's led the program to a 339-242-1 all-time record, seven regional postseason appearances, three World Series appearances (NAIA and NCCAA) and back-to-back World Series championships (2014-2015).
 
FPU baseball made its postseason debut in just its third season as a program (2008) with Hirschkorn being named conference coach of the year. Before joining the NCAA Division II, FPU qualified for four straight NAIA Championship Opening Round appearances from 2008-2011 and was ranked in the NAIA Top-25 for four consecutive years. In 2009, in just its fourth season, the Sunbirds reached the NAIA World Series, finishing fifth in the nation.
 
In 2014, Hirschkorn led the program to its first World Series title, being named NCCAA national coach of the year. He repeated both accolades in 2015. Prior to starting the FPU baseball program, Hirschkorn was an assistant coach at Reedley College and Caruthers High School and was a head coach at Sanger High School, where he inherited a team that had gone 4-23 the previous season. Three years later, he guided the squad to the school's first postseason appearance in 19 years.
 
Hirschkorn's playing career began at Kerman High School and took him to Reedley College, Cal Poly, and Chico State. Hirschkorn ranked among the top tier in the Northern California Athletic Conference in wins and was in the starting rotation on the school's first NCAA Division II National Championship team in 1997, a year in which the team compiled a 52-11 record. He was drafted by the San Diego Padres in 1993 and again in 1994. 
 
Hirschkorn was named GSAC coach of the year and region coach of the year in 2008, and national coach of the year in 2014 and 2015. He holds his B.A. (1998) and M.A. (1999), both in Physical Education, from Chico State.
 
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SHOP FPU?
The Fresno Pacific Department of Athletics is proud to announce the opening of a Team Store that can be accessed on ShopFPU.com. Fans and students can now purchase apparel for all 14 athletic teams, along with numerous other items, throughout the 2017 season.