Cal Poly Returns Home for Pair of Baseball Games vs. Holy Cross
3/5/2013 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
NOTES: CAL POLY | BIG WEST
AUDIO -- TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | VIDEO | LIVE STATS
TORRES EARNS BIG WEST PLAYER OF WEEK HONOR
CAL POLY RANKED IN TOP 25 IN THREE POLLS THIS WEEK
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (9-1, 0-0 Big West), which won its first seven games for the first time in 32 years and claimed two of three games at Washington over the weekend, hosts Holy Cross (1-6, 0-0 Patroit) for a pair of non-conference games Tuesday and Wednesday night in Baggett Stadium (1,734).
Both games will begin at 6 p.m. The games will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Tom Barket calling the play-by-play and both contests 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.
The Mustangs produced a perfect weekend in the Bay Area to open the 2013 season, 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 nearly two weeks ago, Cal Poly swept Seattle 2-1, 1-0 and 4-1.
The Mustangs went back out on the road last weekend and, after falling 2-1 in the opener at Washington, bounced back for 5-3 and 5-1 victories to capture the series despite scoring just 11 runs on 21 hits.
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. Sophomore right fielder Nick Torres provided a major portion of the offensive spark for the Mustangs with two doubles, three home runs and seven RBI, going 5-for-12 at the plate. Junior third baseman Jimmy Allen has a five-game hitting streak after going 4-for-12, including a three-run double in the series finale, while sophomore outfielder Alex Michaels and senior second baseman Denver Chavez each added three hits.
The Mustang starting rotation of senior right-hander Joey Wagman (2-1, 1.93 ERA), sophomore southpaw Matt Imhof (2-0, 1.37 ERA) and sophomore righty Bryan Granger (3-0, 1.42 ERA) have allowed just 10 earned runs in nine games while relievers Reed Reilly, Michael Holback, Chase Johnson and Taylor Chris have combined for seven saves in the first three weeks of the season.
"We have pitched extremely well in the three weekend series," 11th-year Mustang head coach Larry Lee said, noting the 1.42 staff ERA. "We've had great starting pitching and there has been no decline with the guys we've brought in for relief."
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.
Holy Cross, coached by Greg DiCenzo (sixth season, 127-132-1, St. Lawrence '98), returns 24 lettermen, including seven position starters and 11 pitchers, off a team which went 33-22 a year ago and finished second in the Patriot League at 13-7.
The Crusaders opened their 2013 season with four games at Virginia Tech, defeating Temple 8-6 while falling to Temple 13-12, Delaware 9-8 and Virginia Tech 7-5. Holy Cross played a three-game series at Nevada last weekend, losing all three by scores of 8-1, 12-10 and 7-6, and will conclude their nine-game West Coast swing with four games in a tournament hosted by San Diego this weekend.
Top hitters for the Crusaders after seven games are center fielder Bradon Cipolla (.458, five RBI), second baseman Andrew Barry (.417), right fielder Evan Ocello (.364, six RBI) and third baseman Nick Lovullo (.304, six RBI). The Crusaders' pitching staff is paced by right-handers Donny Murray (0-1, 7.84 ERA), Tom Marra (0-2, 9.00 ERA) and Colin Brown (0-0, 18.69 ERA).
Holy Cross is hitting .307 as a team with 12 doubles, five triples and a pair of home runs, but the pitching staff has surrendered 8.38 earned runs per game. The Crusaders have committed just five errors in seven games for a .980 fielding percentage.
Holy Cross first fielded a baseball team in 1876 and has a 1,799-1,277-35 all-time record. The Crusaders have qualified for the NCAA regionals 11 times, but the last invitation was in 1978. Holy Cross claimed the NCAA national championship in 1952. Cal Poly and Holy Cross are meeting in baseball for the first time this week.
Lee said he would start senior right-hander Kyle Brueggemann (0-0, 5.40 ERA) (pictured above) on Tuesday and freshman right-hander Casey Bloomquist (0-0, 0.00 ERA) on Wednesday against Holy Cross.
Cal Poly, which climbed six positions to No. 21 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper this week and also is ranked No. 25 in both the USA Today Coaches and National College Baseball Writers Association polls, 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 Washington series started a run of eight games in 10 days and 12 in 16 days for the Mustangs. Beginning March 12 against San Jose State, Cal Poly will play 10 of 11 in Baggett Stadium.
After the pair of games against Holy Cross, Cal Poly will head 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.
