Cal Poly to Visit Pepperdine for Single Non-Conference Game Wednesday
5/1/2013 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | PEPPERDINE | BIG WEST
LIVE STATS | AUDIO STREAM | VIDEO STREAM
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- No. 24 Cal Poly (28-13, 8-7 Big West), which sprinted to 7-0 and 13-1 starts in the first four weeks of the 2013 baseball season but has posted a 15-12 mark since and is tied for fifth place in the Big West Conference, concludes a five-game road trip Wednesday with a non-conference game at Pepperdine (21-17, 9-6 West Coast) at Eddy D. Field Stadium (1,800) in Malibu, Calif.
First pitch is set for 3 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 stream 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 capped by a sweep of a doubleheader March 8 in Manhattan, Kansas.
Cal Poly swept UC Davis to open Big West play five weeks ago, but has been able to win just eight of 15 games since, falling into a fifth-place tie in the conference. The Mustangs, who reached the 20-win mark before the end of March for the first time since the NCAA's uniform start date was implemented in 2008, lost two of three games at Long Beach State last weekend at Blair Field, hitting just .255 and posting a 5.76 staff ERA.
Pepperdine was idle last weekend for graduation. The Waves, who beat Cal Poly 8-6 on March 26 in Baggett Stadium, salvaged a win in the finale of their West Coast Conference series against Gonzaga on April 21, 10-4, at home and host USC on Tuesday before entertaining the Mustangs on Wednesday.
Cal Poly has hit over the .300 mark in five of its 11 weekend series, including a .358 mark in the non-conference series against UC Santa Barbara six weeks ago and .342 against UC Davis. The Mustangs, however, hit just .237 in their Big West series at UCSB four weeks ago and .239 the next weekend against Hawaii.
Chavez leads the Mustangs and is second in the Big West with his .376 batting average. He also leads the conference in hits (64) and runs scored (39) and is fifth in on-base percentage (.440), sixth in doubles (11) and fourth in steals (11) and total bases (79). Sophomore right fielder Nick Torres sports a .321 mark with six home runs and leads the team in RBI with 35 and the Big West with seven sacrifice flies while sophomore center fielder Jordan Ellis is hitting .352, leads the team in triples with four and takes a nine-game hitting streak into the Pepperdine game.
Freshman designated hitter Brian Mundell has 29 RBI and eight home runs on the year, second only to Matt Jensen (nine) among freshmen in Cal Poly's 19-year Division I history, while junior third baseman Jimmy Allen is hitting .282 with 29 RBI. Freshman shortstop Peter Van Gansen sports a .281 average. 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 (9-2, 3.04 ERA), sophomore southpaw Matt Imhof (4-3, 2.38 ERA) and sophomore righty Bryan Granger (5-3, 4.91 ERA) has allowed just 72 earned runs in 41 games while relievers Reed Reilly, Michael Holback, Chase Johnson and Taylor Chris have combined for 13 saves in the first 11 weeks of the season.
Lee earned his 300th win last May 5 in a 12-7 decision at UC Davis. Lee (337-266-2) 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.
Pepperdine, coached by Steve Rodriguez (10th season, 320-246, Pepperdine '01), returned 21 lettermen, including five position starters and seven pitchers (three starters), off a team which went 36-23 a year ago, finished tied for first in the West Coast Conference at 16-8 and went 2-2 in the Stanford Regional, losing to Stanford by 5-4 and 8-7 scores.
The Waves opened the year by sweeping a four-game home series against Western Michigan, then lost nine of their next 13 games before putting together a six-game winning streak capped with their 8-6 win at Cal Poly on March 26, scoring two unearned runs in the top of the ninth inning. The Waves are 7-8 since then, losing two of three games against Gonzaga on April 19-21 at home.
Pepperdine has won series against Texas A&M, Loyola Marymount, Santa Clara, Washington and San Diego but lost series against Oklahoma, Seton Hall, Brigham Young and Gonzaga.
Top hitters for the Waves are outfielder Ranny Lowe (.338, 22 RBI, six steals), catcher Kolten Yamaguchi (.319, 17 RBI), outfielder Bryan Langlois (.301, four home runs, 24 RBI) and third baseman Austin Davidson (.296, 12 doubles, five home runs, 18 RBI). The Pepperdine pitching staff is paced by right-handers Scott Frazier (3-5, 4.92 ERA) and Corey Miller (4-4, 2.71 ERA) and southpaw Aaron Brown (5-1, 3.99 ERA). Righty Michael Swanner (1-0, 1.06 ERA, 10 saves) is the closer.
Junior southpaw Matt Maurer (1-3, 5.45 ERA) is expected to start for the Waves on Wednesday, facing Cal Poly freshman right-hander Casey Bloomquist (3-0, 4.38 ERA). Bloomquist (pictured above) has won three straight midweek starts in as many weeks against CSU Bakersfield, Santa Clara and Cal, and has struck out 24 batters in 24 2/3 innings this season.
Pepperdine is hitting .269 as a team with 81 doubles, two triples and 24 home runs, while the pitching staff has compiled a 3.48 earned run average. The Waves have committed 45 errors in 38 games for a .970 fielding percentage.
Pepperdine has appeared in 26 NCAA regionals, the last time in 2012, and has made two College World Series appearances, capturing the national title in 1992.
Cal Poly and Pepperdine have met 51 times in baseball since the series began in 1947. The Waves hold a 30-21 advantage, including an 8-6 victory March 26 in Baggett Stadium. Jimmy Allen's two-out home run in the 10th inning last May lifted Cal Poly to a 2-1 victory in Baggett Stadium, the only meeting between the two clubs in 2012.
Cal Poly, which fell six spots to No. 24 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll Monday and five positions to No. 28 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll, fell out of the USA Today Coaches Poll. Baseball America and Perfect Game dropped the Mustangs from their polls last week. 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.
After Wednesday's game at Pepperdine, Cal Poly will play seven of its next 11 contests in Baggett Stadium before closing out the 2013 regular season with a Big West series at Pacific on May 23-25.
The Mustangs host UC Riverside for a three-game Big West series Friday through Sunday in Baggett Stadium (6 p.m., 6 p.m., 1 p.m.).
