Cal Poly to Host Hawai'i for Three-Game Big West Conference Series
4/11/2013 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | HAWAI'I | BIG WEST
LIVE STATS | VIDEO STREAM
AUDIO STREAM: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- No. 20 Cal Poly (22-8, 4-2 Big West), which sprinted to 7-0 and 13-1 starts in the first four weeks of the 2013 baseball season, opened Big West Conference play with a three-game series sweep over UC Davis but stumbled at UC Santa Barbara last weekend, losing two of three, opens a seven-game homestand with a three-game Big West series against Hawai'i (7-22, 2-4 Big West) this weekend in Baggett Stadium (1,734).
First pitch is set for 6 p.m. both Friday and Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. All three games of the series will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Tom Barket calling the play-by-play. The 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, returned 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, then after their first loss, a 2-1 decision at Washington (snapping a 14-game winning streak over two seasons), put together a six-game winning streak before falling to Kansas State 10-4 in the series finale at Manhattan, Kansas. Despite sweeping UC Davis two weeks ago and reaching the 20-win mark before the end of March for the first time since the NCAA's uniform start date was implemented in 2008, Cal Poly has won just nine of its last 16 games, falling twice in three Big West games at UC Santa Barbara over the weekend. Senior second baseman Denver Chavez went 7-for-13 with two doubles and a pair of RBI and has collected seven hits in each of Cal Poly's last three weekend series (21-for-39, .538), bumping his batting average for the season up to .398.
Hawai'i, in the midst of a seven-game California road trip, was swept by UC Irvine last weekend and dropped a 5-1 decision at UCLA on Tuesday night. The Rainbows have lost five straight games.
Cal Poly has hit over the .300 mark in five of its eight weekend series, including a .358 mark in the non-conference series against UC Santa Barbara two weeks ago and .342 against UC Davis. Last weekend, however, the Mustangs hit just .237 in their Big West series at UCSB.
Chavez leads the Mustangs with his .398 batting average, second in the Big West. Chavez leads the conference in hits (49) and is second in on-base percentage (.464) and runs scored (26). Sophomore right fielder Nick Torres sports a .336 mark with five home runs and leads the team in RBI with 24 while freshman designated hitter Brian Mundell is hitting .303 with 22 RBI and has seven home runs on the year, second only to Matt Jensen (nine) among freshmen in Cal Poly's 19-year Division I history. Torres had an 18-game hitting streak, fourth-longest in Cal Poly's 19-year Division I history, snapped by UC Davis on March 29.
Freshman shortstop Peter Van Gansen (pictured above) is hitting .330 after his first collegiate three-hit game in a 5-2 win at CSU Bakersfield on Tuesday. Both Torres and Van Gansen had three hits and two RBI in the game.
The Mustang starting rotation of senior right-hander Joey Wagman (6-2, 3.29 ERA), sophomore southpaw Matt Imhof (3-1, 1.72 ERA) and sophomore righty Bryan Granger (5-2, 3.80 ERA) has allowed just 47 earned runs in 30 games while relievers Reed Reilly, Michael Holback, Chase Johnson and Taylor Chris have combined for 10 saves in the first eight weeks of the season.
Lee earned his 300th win last May 5 in a 12-7 decision at UC Davis. Lee (331-261-2) 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.
Hawaii, coached by Mike Trapasso (12th season, 351-316, Oklahoma State '87), returned 15 lettermen, including five position starters and nine pitchers, off a team which went 30-25 a year ago and finished fourth in the Western Athletic Conference at 10-8.
The Rainbows lost their first 10 games of the season, the first eight at home, before defeating Loyola Marymount 8-3 in the UNLV Rebel Classic. Hawai'i was 1-15 before beating Gonzaga 2-0 and winning three of four games against Wichita State. The Rainbows split four games against UC Santa Barbara in late March before getting swept at UC Irvine last weekend.
Top hitters for the Rainbows are right fielder Connor George (.288, 13 RBI), first baseman Marc Flores (.265, eight doubles, nine RBI) and center fielder Kaeo Aliviado (.255, seven RBI). The Hawaii pitching staff is paced by Matt Cooper (2-3, 2.58 ERA), Corey MacDonald (3-3, 3.38 ERA) and Connor Little (1-4, 4.44 ERA), all right-handers, and the closer is right-hander Jon Flinn (1-3, 8.05 ERA, one save).
The Rainbows are hitting .226 as a team with 41 doubles, five triples and two home runs, while the pitching staff has compiled a 4.68 earned run average. Hawai'i has committed 21 errors in 29 games for a .981 fielding percentage, second in the Big West.
Hawai'i was in the WAC for 33 years before moving to the Big West last July 1 and won WAC titles in 1991, 1992 and 2011 in addition to a WAC Tournament title in 2010. The Rainbows have made 13 NCAA postseason appearances, including one trip to the College World Series in 1980.
Cal Poly and Hawai'i are meeting for the first time in 15 years this weekend. Both teams were in the Western Athletic Conference in 1995 and 1996. Cal Poly has a 7-6 advantage in the series which began in 1995. Last meeting was in 1998 in a tournament hosted by Arizona State, won by Hawai'i 17-3. The two teams played home-and-home three-game series in both 1995 and 1996.
Cal Poly, which dropped three spots to No. 20 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll this week, four spots to No. 25 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll and four positions to No. 24 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll, fell out of the Baseball America and Perfect Game polls after losing two of three games at UC Santa Barbara. Last year the Mustangs were ranked No. 22 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper after their 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 Mustangs played 10 of their first 15 games on the road and recently finished a stretch of playing 10 of 11 contests in Baggett Stadium. Tuesday's game at CSU Bakersfield ended a four-game road trip.
Cal Poly continues its seven-game homestand next week with a single game Tuesday against Santa Clara (6 p.m.) and a three-game Big West series against Cal State Fullerton next Friday through Sunday (6 p.m., 6 p.m., 1 p.m.).
