Cal Poly to Host Santa Clara for Single Game Tuesday Night
4/15/2013 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | SANTA CLARA | BIG WEST
MUSTANGS CLIMB TO AS HIGH AS NO. 16 IN NATIONAL POLLS
LIVE STATS | AUDIO STREAM | VIDEO STREAM
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- No. 16 Cal Poly (24-9, 6-3 Big West), which sprinted to 7-0 and 13-1 starts in the first four weeks of the 2013 baseball season and has opened Big West Conference play with six wins in nine contests, continues a seven-game homestand Tuesday night by hosting Santa Clara (9-24, 0-12 West Coast) for a non-conference game in Baggett Stadium (1,734).
First pitch is set for 6 p.m. and the game will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Tom Barket calling the play-by-play. The game 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 three 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 11 of its last 19 games, defeating Hawai'i twice in three Big West games over the weekend. Senior second baseman Denver Chavez went 5-for-12 with a pair of RBI and four runs scored, keeping his batting average at the .400 mark while junior third baseman Jimmy Allen was 4-for-10 with a triple and three RBI. Joey Wagman went the distance for the 8-3 win Friday night, scattering eight hits with eight strikeouts, while Matt Imhof allowed two unearned runs in 7 1/3 innings for the 3-2 victory Saturday night. Hawai'i won Sunday's series finale 7-6.
Santa Clara lost all three games of a series against San Francisco in extra innings last weekend and has lost 16 of its last 17 games since starting the season 8-8.
Cal Poly has hit over the .300 mark in five of its nine weekend series, including a .358 mark in the non-conference series against UC Santa Barbara four weeks ago and .342 against UC Davis. The Mustangs, however, hit just .237 in their Big West series at UCSB two weeks ago and .239 against Hawaii last weekend.
Chavez leads the Mustangs with his .400 batting average. Last week he led the conference in hits and was second in on-base percentage and runs scored. Sophomore right fielder Nick Torres sports a .328 mark with six home runs and leads the team in RBI with 29 while freshman shortstop Peter Van Gansen is hitting .313 and sophomore outfielder Jordan Ellis (pictured above) .309. Freshman designated hitter Brian Mundell has 23 RBI and 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.
The Mustang starting rotation of senior right-hander Joey Wagman (7-2, 2.95 ERA), sophomore southpaw Matt Imhof (4-1, 1.51 ERA) and sophomore righty Bryan Granger (5-3, 4.47 ERA) has allowed just 52 earned runs in 33 games while relievers Reed Reilly, Michael Holback, Chase Johnson and Taylor Chris have combined for 11 saves in the first nine weeks of the season.
Lee earned his 300th win last May 5 in a 12-7 decision at UC Davis. Lee (333-262-2) 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.
Santa Clara, coached by Dan O'Brien (second season at Santa Clara (35-52), 18th season overall (489-335-1), UC San Diego '95), returned 19 lettermen, including six position starters and eight pitchers, off a team which went 26-28 a year ago and finished ninth in the West Coast Conference at 5-19.
The Broncos won six of their first 11 games and were 8-8 after winning two of three games against San Jose State, but have lost 16 of their last 17 games. Lone win over the last five weeks was a 7-5 decision at Pacific on April 9.
Top hitters for the Broncos are third baseman Greg Harisis (.318, seven doubles, 22 RBI, eight steals), catcher Zach Looney (.300), first baseman Quinton Perry (.291, five home runs, 19 RBI), shortstop Justin Viele (.290, 12 RBI, eight steals) and right fielder Casey Munoz (.286, 17 RBI).
The Santa Clara pitching staff is paced by right-handers Mike Couch (3-5, 3.65 ERA) and Reece Karalus (0-6, 6.92 ERA) and southpaw Powell Fansler (0-0, 2.00 ERA). The closers are right-hander DJ Zapata and southpaw Max Deering, each with two saves.
Freshman right-hander Jake Steffens (0-2, 7.53 ERA) will start Tuesday for Santa Clara, facing Cal Poly freshman right-hander Casey Bloomquist (1-0, 6.94 ERA).
The Broncos are hitting .254 as a team with 43 doubles, seven triples and 11 home runs, while the pitching staff has compiled a 5.24 earned run average. Santa Clara has committed 38 errors in 33 games for a .971 fielding percentage.
Santa Clara has made 11 trips to the NCAA regionals, including one appearance in the College World Series in 1962. Last postseason trip was in 1997. Since 1988, Santa Clara has finished first in the West Coast Conference four times, the last in 2001.
Cal Poly and Santa Clara have played 76 times against each other on the baseball diamond and the Broncos own a 41-35 advantage in the all-time series dating back to 1956. Santa Clara won both midweek meetings last year by 5-2 and 11-6 scores, but Cal Poly earned a 5-4 victory at Stephen Schott Stadium on Feb. 18. Cal Poly is 13-15 against Santa Clara since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season.
Cal Poly, which jumped four spots to No. 16 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll Monday, three spots to No. 22 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll and two positions to No. 22 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll, returned to the Baseball America and Perfect Game polls at No. 23 after winning the Hawai'i series, two games to one. 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. After playing four more games on the road at UC Santa Barbara and CSU Bakersfield, Cal Poly is in the midst of a seven-game homestand.
Cal Poly concludes the homestand this weekend with a three-game Big West series against Cal State Fullerton on Friday through Sunday (6 p.m., 6 p.m., 1 p.m.).
