After Sweeping Seattle, No. 27 Cal Poly to Visit Washington for Series
2/28/2013 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | WASHINGTON | BIG WEST
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BASEBALL AMERICA BLOG: STREAKIN' CAL POLY
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (7-0, 0-0 Big West), off to its best start in 32 years and winner of 14 straight games -- seven to end the 2012 season and seven more to open the 2013 campaign -- visits Washington (2-6, 0-0 Pac-12) for a three-game non-conference baseball series this weekend at Husky Ballpark (1,500).
Friday's series opener starts at 5 p.m., followed by a 2 p.m. contest Saturday and a 1 o'clock finale Sunday. All three games will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Eric Burdick calling the play-by-play and the entire series also will be available via an audio stream and live stats at GoPoly.com.
Cal Poly, 36-20 a year ago and winner of 14 of its final 17 games, returns 23 letter winners, including seven position starters and 11 pitchers (four starters), off its 2012 squad which swept six series, won nine of 14 weekend series, finished one game behind champion Cal State Fullerton in the Big West and ended atop the conference in most key offensive categories, including average, runs, hits, doubles, home runs and RBI.
The Mustangs produced a perfect weekend in the Bay Area on Feb. 15-18, sweeping San Francisco by scores of 5-3, 1-0 and 10-5 victories followed by a 5-4 triumph at Santa Clara on Presidents Day. In its first games at Baggett Stadium last weekend, Cal Poly swept Seattle 2-1, 1-0 and 4-1.
Washington lost three games in four-game series at UC Davis and Lamar.
Cal Poly hit .321 in the quartet of Bay Area games, but the mark fell to .234 in the Seattle series. Freshman designated hitter Brian Mundell went 5-for-8 with an RBI while senior second baseman Denver Chavez was 5-for-12 with a double and two RBI.
The Mustang starting rotation of senior right-hander Joey Wagman (2-0, 1.50 ERA), sophomore southpaw Matt Imhof (1-0, 0.00 ERA) and sophomore righty Bryan Granger (2-0, 1.93 ERA) have allowed just five earned runs in six games while relievers Reed Reilly (pictured above), Michael Holback, Chase Johnson and Taylor Chris have combined for five saves in the first two weeks of the season.
"We have pitched extremely well in the two weekend series," 11th-year Mustang head coach Larry Lee said. "We've had great starting pitching and there has been no decline with the guys we've brought in for relief."
Seattle scored 32 runs on 38 hits in its season-opening three-game series at Santa Clara, losing two of three, but the Redhawks were held to two runs and 17 hits in three games by the Mustangs this weekend. Cal Poly's pitching staff compiled a 0.33 ERA in the series with 30 strikeouts in 27 innings.
Lee earned his 300th win last May 5 in a 12-7 decision at UC Davis. Lee (316-253-2) surpassed Berdy Harr (297-249-6 from 1973-83) as Cal Poly's winningest head baseball coach during the Pacific series a week earlier. Steve McFarland was 290-257 in 10 seasons (1984-93) at the helm of the Mustangs while Ritch Price was 217-228-1 in Cal Poly's first eight years of play in Division I (1995-2002).
Lee has guided Cal Poly to a quartet of 3-0 starts with season-opening series sweeps over San Diego in 2005, Fresno State in 2006, Oklahoma State in 2012 and San Francisco this year. The Mustangs have won their first seven games for the first time since 1981. The 1954 and 1974 Mustangs started 8-0 and the school record start to a season was 10-0 by the 1951 team coached by Robert Mott.
Washington, coached by Lindsay Meggs (fourth season at Washington (77-96) and 20th season overall (692-403-4), UCLA 85), returns 20 lettermen, including eight position starters and eight pitchers, off a team which went 30-25 a year ago and finished seventh in the Pac-12 at 13-17.
Top returnees for Washington are outfielder Jayce Ray (.311, 18 RBI in 2012), first baseman Trevor Mitsui (.308, 14 RBI in 2012) and infielder Branden Berry (.292, 26 RBI in 2012). Ray is off to a .355 start in 2013 while Mitsui and infielder Andrew Ely both are hitting .333 and second baseman/designated hitter Robert Pehl .321.
The Huskies' pitching staff is paced by right-handers Austin Voth (7-1, 4.14 ERA in 2012), Tyler Davis (2-4, 3.57 ERA in 2012) and Tyler Kane (7-2, 2.19 ERA in 2012). Nick Palewicz, also a right-hander, allowed two runs and four hits in five innings of a 3-2 win at UC Davis on Feb. 16 while Voth gave up two runs and five hits in 7.2 innings for the 8-2 win against Lamar on Feb. 22.
Washington as a team is hitting .251, has compiled a 4.92 staff ERA and has made eight errors in eight games for a .971 fielding percentage. The Huskies last won a Pac-12 title in 1998 and last qualified for an NCAA Regional in 2004.
Former Cal Poly pitching coach Jason Kelly was hired by Meggs as Washington's pitching coach last summer; they worked together at Chico State in 2005 and 2006 when Meggs was head coach.
Cal Poly has a 13-6 advantage in the all-time series against Washington dating back to 1969. The Mustangs beat the Huskies twice in a three-game series at Baggett Stadium in 2012. The two teams played home-and-home series from 2005-08. Cal Poly is 12-6 against Washington since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Lee is 10-5 against Washington while Meggs is 1-2 against Cal Poly.
Cal Poly, ranked for the first time this season at No. 27 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and No. 28 by the National College Baseball Writers Association, last year was ranked No. 22 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper after its 7-1 start and No. 27 after sweeping UC Irvine in early April.
Cal Poly has won at least 30 games eight times in the last 13 seasons, in 2012 posted its 10th winning season since 2000 and has finished in the upper half of the conference standings nine times in the last 11 years.
Next week, the Mustangs return home to host Holy Cross on Tuesday and Wednesday for a pair of 6 p.m. contests before heading out to Manhattan, Kansas, to play Kansas State over the weekend. Cal Poly is playing 10 of its first 15 games on the road this season.
