Cal Poly Baseball to Visit Minnesota for Three-Game Weekend Series
3/16/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
NOTES: CAL POLY | MINNESOTA | BIG WEST
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (11-5, 0-0 Big West), off to its best start in three years following three series wins and a 2-2 mark in the Aztec Invitational, visits Minnesota (7-10, 0-0 Big 10) for a three-game weekend series in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (cap.: 63,699). The Mustangs swept a Big 12 opponent (Oklahoma State) in February, won a series against a Pac-12 foe (Washington) last weekend and take on their only Big 10 opponent on the 2012 schedule this weekend.
Coach Larry Lee's Mustangs will play the Golden Gophers on Saturday at 4:35 p.m. PDT, Sunday at 12:05 p.m. PDT and Monday at 11:35 a.m. PDT. All three games of the series will be broadcast on ESPN Radio 1280 as well as on the Internet at GoPoly.com. Video streams as well as live stats for the series also will be available on the Internet.
Cal Poly, ranked No. 22 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper two weeks ago, 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 with series sweeps against Okla-homa State (3-0) and Loyola Marymount (4-0). The Mustangs, 7-1 in February, are 4-4 in March with back-to-back 2-2 weeks. After splitting four games in the Aztec Invitational at San Diego State two weeks ago, Cal Poly lost a midweek game at Santa Clara, ending a nine-game road trip (6-3), and won two of three games against Washington last weekend in Baggett Stadium.
The Mustangs won Friday's game 6-3 as Joey Wagman pitched eight solid innings, scattering five hits, while Nick Torres drove in five runs with three hits and a groundout. Cal Poly clinched the series Saturday night with a 2-0 victory as southpaw Kyle Anderson pitched a six-hit shutout with a career-high 11 strikeouts and freshman designated hitter Alex Michaels and sophomore third baseman Jimmy Allen produced RBI singles in the second and third innings. Washington parlayed six doubles, a triple and a home run into a 10-5 win in the series finale Sunday afternoon.
Minnesota split two games against Stony Brook and lost to Kansas in the Metrodome Tournament over the weekend. The Golden Gophers also dropped 9-5 and 8-4 decisions to Kansas State in a pair of midweek games this week.
Cal Poly's top hitter through 16 games is Torres at .381 with eight doubles, a pair of home runs and 15 RBI. Allen sports a .356 mark with 11 RBI while senior shortstop Mike Miller is hitting .352 with 10 RBI and a team-leading 21 runs scored. Junior center fielder Mitch Haniger has a .290 average and leads the club in home runs (3) and RBI (18).
Minnesota, coached by John Anderson (31st season (1,070-709-3), Minnesota '77), returned 20 lettermen, including five position starters and nine pitchers, off a team which went 25-24 a year ago and finished tied for fourth in the Big 10 Conference. The Golden Gophers split a four-game series against Wisconsin-Milwaukee and also own victories over Louisville, New Mexico State, West Virginia, Hamline and Stony Brook. Cal Poly beat Wisconsin-Milwaukee 6-2 in the Aztec Invitational two weeks ago.
Minnesota is in the middle of a 27-game homestand after playing 35 of its 49 games a year ago on the road due to damage to the Metrodome roof caused by a December 2010 snowstorm. The Golden Gophers, originally scheduled to host the Mustangs a year ago, switched the series and played at Baggett Stadium in 2011.
Top hitters so far for Minnesota in 2012 are infielder Dan Olinger (.400, nine RBI), designated hitter David Bettenburg (.295) and outfielder Bobby Juan (.273, nine RBI). Minnesota is hitting .239 this season, has compiled a 3.71 staff ERA and has committed 21 errors in 17 games for a .971 fielding percentage.
The pitching staff is led by junior right-hander TJ Oakes (4-0, 0.72 ERA), a 41st-round draft choice of the Minnesota Twins last June, and senior right-hander Austin Lubinsky (0-2, 7.47 ERA), a 36th-round selection by the San Francisco Giants. Both chose to return to school.
Minnesota has qualified for the NCAA regionals 30 times along with five College World Series berths (capturing national titles in 1956, 1960 and 1964). The Golden Gophers have produced winning records in 48 of their last 49 campaigns and 23 Big Ten titles, the last in 2010.
Cal Poly and Minnesota met for the first time last year in Baggett Stadium and the two teams split the series. A third game was rained out. Cal Poly won 5-1 as right-hander Steven Fischback struck out nine batters with no walks while giving up one run and three hits in seven innings. Catcher Elliot Stewart had three hits and knocked in a run. Minnesota won the final game of the series 9-4 with 16 hits, 15 of them singles.
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.
The Mustangs, who won just eight games away from Baggett Stadium in 2011, posted a 6-3 mark on the nine-game road trip which ended last Tuesday at Santa Clara. Cal Poly was 5-3 against West Coast Conference schools in a 10-game stretch beginning and ending with losses to Santa Clara on Feb. 21 and March 6.
Following the series against Minnesota, Cal Poly will play 11 consecutive games in Baggett Stadium, beginning Wednesday, March 21, against Dartmouth at 1 p.m. The Mustangs host San Diego State for a four-game series March 23-25.
