Cal Poly Baseball Opens Nine-Game Road Trip With Four-Game Series at LMU
2/23/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
NOTES: CAL POLY | LOYOLA MARYMOUNT
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (3-1, 0-0 Big West), which opened the 2012 season by sweeping a three-game series against Oklahoma State and concluded a four-game homestand by falling 5-2 to Santa Clara, hits the road for its next nine games, starting with a four-game weekend series at Loyola Marymount (2-1, 0-0 West Coast).
First pitch for the series opener Friday at George C. Page Stadium (cap.: 600) is set for 2 p.m. The two teams also play a 10 a.m. doubleheader Saturday and a 1 p.m. series finale Sunday. ESPN Radio 1280 will broadcast all four games with Tom Barket and Eric Burdick mikeside. The games also will be available via audio stream as well as live stats on the Internet at www.gopoly.com.
Cal Poly returns 16 letter winners, including five position starters and five pitchers, off its 2011 squad which finished 27-26 overall and third in the Big West at 15-9. The Mustangs started the year 0-6 before winning 27 of their next 44 games.
Cal Poly is off to a much better start in 2012, sweeping Big 12 Conference member and perennial NCAA regional qualifier Oklahoma State by scores of 6-0, 11-3 and 6-0 in Baggett Stadium.
Coach Larry Lee's Mustangs hit .284 against the Cowboys, produced a .397 on-base percentage and stole four of four bases while the pitching staff compiled a stingy 0.67 ERA with 27 strikeouts and only five walks. The Mustangs outscored the Cowboys 23-3.
On Tuesday, Cal Poly began a stretch of playing eight of its next 10 games against West Coast Conference schools. Santa Clara scored two runs in the fourth inning and three more in the fifth, making them stand up for a 5-2 victory. Second baseman Evan Busby was the lone offensive bright spot for the Mustangs with a pair of doubles, one of them driving home two runs in the fifth inning.
Cal Poly's top hitter through four games is Busby with a .364 average and three RBI. Freshman right fielder Nick Torres sports a .308 mark while catcher Chris Hoo is hitting .300 and sophomore third baseman Jimmy Allen .286. The Mustangs are hitting .252 as a team with 10 doubles and one triple.
Loyola Marymount, coached by Jason Gill (fourth season, 85-88, Cal State Fullerton '96), returns 15 lettermen, including six position starters and six pitchers, off a team which went 30-25 a year ago and finished tied for third place in the West Coast Conference.
The Lions opened the 2012 season by winning two of three games against UNLV at home. LMU won the opener 4-3, snapping a 3-3 tie with a run in the seventh inning, then fell 6-1 before clinching the series with a 6-2 triumph Sunday as John Lally allowed one run and six hits in five innings for the win and shortstop Joey Boney went 3-for-4 at the plate. Loyola Marymount hit .211 in the series while the pitching staff compiled a 3.33 staff ERA. The Lions committed three errors in three games for a .974 fielding percentage.
LMU has won six conference titles (the last three from 1998-2000) and has qualified for the NCAA regionals eight times (the last in 2000), including one trip to the College World Series (1986).
Gill, who has served as an assistant coach at LMU, Oregon, Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine and Nevada, played one season at Cal State Fullerton, earning all-Big West Conference honors as an infielder. He also played two seasons under Cal Poly head coach Larry Lee at Cuesta College in the early 1990s.
Cal Poly and Loyola Marymount have played 33 times against each other on the baseball diamond and the Lions own a 20-13 advantage in the all-time series dating back to 1949. The two teams split a four-game series at Baggett Stadium a year ago.
A year ago Cal Poly posted its sixth winning season in the last eight years, and a third-place finish in the highly competitive Big West Conference at 15-9. The Mustangs have finished in the upper half of the league standings eight times in the last 10 years.
Cal Poly was 7-4 against top-25 teams in 2011 and finished 19-7 at home.
Following the weekend series at Loyola Marymount, Cal Poly will play four games in the Aztec Invitational at Tony Gwynn Stadium on the San Diego State campus next weekend, taking on the host Aztecs on Thursday, the University of San Diego on Friday, Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Saturday and the University of San Francisco on Sunday.
