No. 20 Cal Poly to Host No. 17 Notre Dame for Thursday-Saturday Series
3/14/2013 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | NOTRE DAME | BIG WEST
MUNDELL, ELLIS POWER CAL POLY PAST SAN JOSE STATE
AUDIO -- THURSDAY | FRIDAY | SATURDAY
VIDEO | LIVE STATS
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- No. 20 Cal Poly (14-2, 0-0 Big West), which has jumped to 7-0 and 13-1 starts in the first four weeks of the 2013 baseball season, entertains No. 17 Notre Dame (10-4, 0-0 Big East) for a three-game non-conference series Thursday through Saturday in Baggett Stadium (1,734).
First pitch for the Thursday and Friday contests is set for 6 p.m. with Saturday's finale to start at 12 noon. The series will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Dave Grant calling the play-by-play. All three games also will be available via audio and video streams as well as 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.
Under 11th-year head coach Larry Lee, the Mustangs won their first seven games of the 2013 season against San Francisco, Santa Clara and Seattle, then after a 2-1 loss at Washington on March 1, put together a six-game winning streak against the Huskies, Holy Cross and Kansas State before falling to the Wildcats 10-4 in the series finale Saturday. Cal Poly edged San Jose State 6-5 Tuesday night on Brian Mundell's 10th-inning home run and a single, triple and groundout by Jordan Ellis (pictured at right) for three RBI.
The Irish won two of three games in the Dodgertown Classic over the weekend in Los Angeles, defeating USC 2-1 and Oklahoma 6-5 in 11 innings while falling to UCLA 2-1 in 10 innings. Notre Dame dropped a 7-2 decision to UC Santa Barbara on Tuesday and is wrapping up a seven-game California road trip with this weekend's series in San Luis Obispo.
Cal Poly hit .321 in the quartet of Bay Area games, but the mark fell to .234 in the Seattle series and .210 in the Washington series before hitting .307 in winning four of five games last week against Holy Cross and Kansas State.
Junior third baseman Jimmy Allen provided a major portion of the offensive spark for the Mustangs last week, going 10-for-22 with two doubles, a home run, six runs scored and five RBI. He produced four straight multiple-hit games, hit a two-run single against San Jose State and has lifted his batting average to .324. Sophomore right fielder Nick Torres was 8-for-22 last week with two doubles and five RBI while senior second baseman Denver Chavez and junior center fielder David Armendariz both had six hits in five games.
The Mustang starting rotation of senior right-hander Joey Wagman (3-1, 3.38 ERA), sophomore southpaw Matt Imhof (2-0, 1.40 ERA) and sophomore righty Bryan Granger (3-1, 3.04 ERA) has allowed just 21 earned runs in 16 games while relievers Reed Reilly, Michael Holback, Chase Johnson and Taylor Chris have combined for eight saves in the first four weeks of the season.
Lee earned his 300th win last May 5 in a 12-7 decision at UC Davis. Lee (318-254-2) 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 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.
Notre Dame, coached by Mik Aoki (third season at Notre Dame (64-60-1), 13th season overall (274-323-2), Davidson '90), returned 18 lettermen, including seven position starters and 11 pitchers, off a team which went 31-27 a year ago and finished seventh in the Big East Conference at 14-13.
The Irish won two of three games in the Snowbird Tournament at Sarasota, Florida, to open the 2013 season, swept Tulane in a three-game series at New Orleans and won three of four games in the Irish Baseball Classic at Cary, N.C., falling only to Rhode Island.
Top hitters for the Irish after 14 games are right fielder Ryan Bull (.375, five RBI), third baseman Eric Jagielo (.360, five home runs, 18 RBI) and first baseman Trey Mancini (.333, three home runs, 13 RBI). The Notre Dame pitching staff is paced by Sean Fitzgerald (1-0, 2.84 ERA), David Hearne (0-1, 5.12 ERA) and Adam Norton (4-0, 1.61 ERA), all right-handers. The Irish closer is right-hander Dan Slania (2-0, 0.00 ERA, three saves).
Notre Dame is hitting .273 as a team with 17 doubles, three triples and 11 home runs, while the pitching staff has surrendered just 2.67 earned runs per game. The Irish have committed 15 errors in 14 games for a .973 fielding percentage.
Notre Dame has made 21 NCAA postseason appearances, the last time in 2006, and has made College World Series appearances in 1957 and 2002.
Cal Poly and Notre Dame are meeting in baseball for the first time this weekend. The Mustangs have played just one of the current Big East baseball teams, defeating Georgetown 4-3 in 2002 at Baggett Stadium. Notre Dame is 4-12 against current Big West teams, including Tuesday's loss at UC Santa Barbara.
Cal Poly, which climbed one position to No. 20 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll this week and also is ranked No. 23 in the USA Today coaches poll and No. 22 in the National College Baseball Writers Association poll, 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.
The Kansas State series ended a run of eight games in 10 days for Cal Poly. The Mustangs played 10 of their first 15 games on the road and will play 10 of 11 in Baggett Stadium beginning with the San Jose State contest Tuesday.
Next week, Cal Poly plays a three-game non-conference series against Central Coast rival UC Santa Barbara. The Friday and Sunday contests will be played in San Luis Obispo with the Saturday game at Santa Barbara.
