Cal Poly to Visit UC Irvine in Battle of Third-Place Teams in Big West
5/10/2013 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- No. 22 Cal Poly (32-14, 11-7 Big West), which sprinted to 7-0 and 13-1 starts in the first four weeks of the 2013 baseball season and overcame a sluggish second half of March and all of April (15-13) by sweeping UC Riverside last weekend, takes a four-game winning streak into its Big West Conference series at No. 23 UC Irvine (29-15, 11-7 Big West) this weekend in Anteater Ballpark (3,200). The two teams are tied for third place in the Big West.
First pitches are set for 6:30 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. both Saturday and 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 an 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 against Kansas State on March 8 in Manhattan, Kansas.
Cal Poly swept UC Davis to open Big West play six weeks ago, but won just eight of its next 16 games before sweeping UC Riverside to climb into a third-place tie in the conference. The Mustangs extended their winning streak to four games with Tuesday's 5-2 victory at San Jose State as Jimmy Allen doubled twice, knocking in a run, and Casey Bloomquist (4-1) allowed just two runs and four hits with no walks in 6 2/3 innings.
Cal Poly, which 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, surpassed the 30-win mark and clinched its 11th winning season since 2000 with the UC Riverside sweep. The Mustangs are 18 games above the .500 mark for the first time since 2009. That squad earned Cal Poly's first NCAA Division I regional playoff berth.
UC Irvine lost three of four games last week -- a single contest at UCLA and two of three games at UC Santa Barbara. The Anteaters' game Tuesday at home against USC was postponed two weeks due to weather.
Cal Poly has hit over the .300 mark in five of its 12 weekend series, including a .358 mark in the non-conference series against UC Santa Barbara seven weeks ago and .342 against UC Davis. The Mustangs, however, hit just .237 in their Big West series at UCSB five weeks ago and .239 the next weekend against Hawaii.
Chavez leads the Mustangs and is third in the Big West with his .365 batting average. He also leads the conference in hits (69) and runs scored (43) and is fifth in on-base percentage (.435), ninth in doubles (11) and fourth in steals (13) and total bases (84). Sophomore right fielder Nick Torres sports a .322 mark with six home runs and leads the team in RBI with 36 and the Big West with seven sacrifice flies while sophomore center fielder Jordan Ellis is hitting .351 and leads the team and Big West in triples with five.
Freshman designated hitter Brian Mundell has 33 RBI and nine home runs on the year, tying Matt Jensen among freshmen home run hitters in Cal Poly's 19-year Division I history, while junior left fielder David Armendariz is hitting .276. Freshman shortstop Peter Van Gansen (pictured above) sports a .279 average and junior third baseman Jimmy Allen also is hitting .279 with 31 RBI. Torres (18 games, fourth-longest in Cal Poly's Division I history), Ellis (13) and Armendariz (10) all had long hitting streaks snapped in recent weeks.
The Mustang starting rotation of senior right-hander Joey Wagman (10-2, 2.82 ERA), sophomore southpaw Matt Imhof (4-3, 2.34 ERA) and sophomore righty Bryan Granger (5-3, 4.88 ERA) has allowed just 76 earned runs in 46 games while relievers Reed Reilly, Michael Holback, Chase Johnson and Taylor Chris have combined for 15 saves in the first 12 weeks of the season. With his 13 saves, Reilly is one shy of the school record.
Lee earned his 300th win last May 5 in a 12-7 decision at UC Davis. Lee (341-267-2) 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.
UC Irvine, coached by Mike Gillespie (sixth season at UC Irvine (229-112), 26th season overall (996-579-2), USC '62), returned 24 lettermen, including four position starters and 10 pitchers, off a team which went 31-25 a year ago and finished fourth in the Big West at 13-11.
The Anteaters won their first four games and 11 of 13 before losing twice at BYU. UC Irvine was swept by UC Riverside to open Big West play in late March, but rebounded with 13 wins in its next 16 games before losing three of four games last week -- a single game at UCLA and two of three at UC Santa Barbara.
Top hitters for the Anteaters after 44 games are first baseman Connor Spencer (.383, 26 RBI), third baseman Taylor Sparks (.350, eight home runs, 39 RBI, five steals), catcher/designated hitter Ronnie Shaeffer (.309, 31 RBI) and center fielder Dominique Taylor (.295, 29 RBI, eight steals). The Anteaters' pitching staff is paced by right-handers Andrew Morales (9-0, 1.96 ERA) and Andrew Thurman (4-3, 3.21 ERA) along with southpaw Matt Whitehouse (4-5, 3.33 ERA). UC Irvine's closer is righty Race Parmenter (2-3, 3.72 ERA, seven saves).
UC Irvine is hitting .285 as a team with 77 doubles, 13 triples and 18 home runs, while the pitching staff has a 3.43 earned run average. The Anteaters have committed 32 errors in 44 games for a .981 fielding percentage, best in the Big West.
UC Irvine has qualified for the NCAA regionals 12 times (seven in Division I), compiling a 19-14 win-loss record in Division I postseason competition and qualifying for the College World Series in 2007. The Anteaters, who discontinued baseball from 1993-2001, won the Big West title in 2009.
Cal Poly and UC Irvine have met 36 times on the baseball field since the series began when both teams were Southern California Baseball Alliance members back in 1977. The Anteaters hold a 20-16 advantage, though Cal Poly swept the Anteaters a year ago in Baggett Stadium by scores of 6-0, 3-2 and 8-1.
Cal Poly, which climbed two spots to No. 22 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll Monday and six positions to No. 22 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll, moved back into the USA Today Coaches Poll at No. 24 after a one-week absence. Baseball America and Perfect Game dropped the Mustangs from their polls two weeks ago. 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 nine times in the last 14 seasons, has posted its 11th winning season since 2000 and has finished in the upper half of the conference standings nine times in the last 11 years.
Next week Cal Poly plays its final four home games of the season, hosting CSU Bakersfield on Tuesday night and second-place Cal State Northridge for a three-game Big West Conference series Friday through Sunday.
