Cal Poly Baseball Hits the Road for Big West Series Against UC Davis
5/3/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
NOTES: CAL POLY | UC DAVIS | BIG WEST
VIDEOS: PEPPERDINE | ALLEN'S WALK-OFF HOMER | SLOCALSPORTS.COM
MILLER A QUARTERFINALIST FOR BROOKS WALLACE AWARD
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (26-17, 9-6 Big West), which has won six of 10 weekend series, including four sweeps, and is tied for third place in the Big West Conference standings, takes a four-game winning streak into a Big West Conference series this weekend at UC Davis (16-23, 4-8 Big West) in Dobbins Stadium (cap.: 3,500).
First pitches are set for 2:30 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday. All three games of the series will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Tom Barket providing the play-by-play. An audio stream as well as live stats will be available on www.gopoly.com.
Cal Poly returned 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 jumped to a much better 20-10 start in 2012 with series sweeps against Oklahoma State (3-0), Loyola Marymount (4-0) and UC Irvine (3-0) as well as series wins over Washington (2-1) and San Diego State (3-1). The Mustangs, 7-1 in February, posted a 10-8 record in March, including series losses to Minnesota and Long Beach State, and finished April with an 8-8 mark after sweeping a three-game Big West series at home against Pacific over the weekend.
Cal Poly opened May with a walk-off 10-inning 2-1 victory over Pepperdine on Tuesday night as Jimmy Allen belted a first-pitch fastball some 390 feet over the left-center field wall with two out. It was the Mustangs' second walk-off win of the season -- Cal Poly scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to edge San Diego State 6-5 on March 23 -- and was the 299th for Larry Lee (299-250-2), in his 10th season as head coach of the Mustangs. It also was Cal Poly's first win in six tries on Tuesday.
After sweeping UC Irvine on April 5-7, Cal Poly won just two of its next nine games -- eight of the nine games on the road -- before posting 7-1, 15-4 and 6-4 victories over Pacific last weekend in Baggett Stadium, hitting .343 as a team with 12 extra-base hits and not committing a single error.
UC Davis dropped two of three games to UC Santa Barbara last weekend at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium and fell 11-4 to Fresno State at Pete Beiden Field on Wednesday night.
Cal Poly's top hitter through 43 games is sophomore third baseman Jimmy Allen with a .351 average, 11 doubles, 29 RBI and nine stolen bases. He went 7-for-13 with six RBI against Pacific. Senior shortstop Mike Miller sports a .348 mark with 12 doubles, four triples, three home runs, 28 RBI and 41 runs scored. He had a 14-game hitting streak earlier this season and was 7-for-11 in the Pacific series last weekend with two home runs and five RBI.
Junior center fielder Mitch Haniger is hitting .337 and leads the Mustangs and the Big West with nine home runs, 46 RBI, a .615 slugging percentage, 99 total bases and five sacrifice flies.
UC Davis, coached by Matt Vaughn (first season (16-24), UC Davis '92), returned 16 lettermen, including six position starters and five pitchers, off a team which went 18-36 a year ago and finished tied for sixth in the Big West Conference at 10-14. The Aggies were 10-8 after sweeping a March 18 doubleheader against San Jose State, but have lost 16 of their last 22 contests. UC Davis won three of four against Utah and two of three against CSU Bakersfield, Seattle and Pacific.
Top hitters so far in 2012 for the Aggies are designated hitter Nick Lynch (.333, 18 RBI), second baseman Tino Lipson (.311), right fielder Kevin Barker (.303), third baseman Paul Politi (.309, 23 RBI) and left fielder David Popkins (.303, 5 home runs, 13 RBI). The pitching staff is led by right-hander Tom Briner (2-6, 4.31 ERA) and southpaws Dayne Quist (6-1, 2.52 ERA, 79 strikeouts in 75 innings) and Anthony Kupbens (3-4, 3.17 ERA). The closer is right-hander Harry Stanwyck (1-3, 1.63 ERA, four saves).
UC Davis is hitting .268 this season, has compiled a 4.11 staff ERA and has committed 55 errors in 40 games for a .964 fielding percentage.
The Aggies have appeared in one NCAA Division I regional (2008) and seven in Division II, making two appearances in the Division II College World Series (1995, 2003). UC Davis won the California Collegiate Athletic Association regular-season title in 2004 and nine Northern California Athletic Conference championships.
Cal Poly and UC Davis have met only 27 times on the baseball field since the series began in 1951. Twenty-one of those meetings are over the last seven seasons after the Aggies announced their intention to move to Division I, a transfer that was completed in time for the 2008 season. The Mustangs hold a 22-5 advantage in the series, sweeping the Aggies in 2011 at Baggett Stadium by scores of 4-2, 4-2 and 11-4. Cal Poly has won seven consecutive series against UC Davis.
Cal Poly is 6-3 against West Coast Conference schools this season, sweeping a four-game series against Loyola Marymount and beating San Francisco 11-9 on March 4 and Pepperdine in 10 innings 2-1 on May 1 while losing twice to Santa Clara 5-2 and 11-6 in the first three weeks of the season.
Cal Poly was ranked No. 22 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper after its 7-1 start and No. 27 three weeks ago after sweeping UC Irvine.
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.
Cal Poly is 13-1 on Saturday, 5-1 in shutouts, 24-1 when leading after eight innings, 19-5 when outhitting its foes and 17-5 when making fewer errors than the opposition this season.
Cal Poly has just six home games remaining in 2012 -- three-game series against CSU Bakersfield on May 11-13 and UC Santa Barbara on May 18-20.
