Cal Poly Concludes 2013 Regular Season With Big West Series at Pacific
5/22/2013 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | PACIFIC | BIG WEST
STEWART HONORED BY BIG WEST CONFERENCE
MUSTANGS RETURN TO TWO MAJOR DIVISION I POLLS
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SENIOR DAY CEREMONY VIDEO
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (37-16, 15-9 Big West), seeking its second NCAA Division I regional playoff berth, finalizes its postseason resumé -- currently ranked as high as No. 22 in both the USA Today Coaches and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association polls with an RPI of 23 -- with its final regular season series Thursday through Saturday against Pacific (14-36, 6-18 Big West) at Klein Family Field (2,500) in Stockton, Calif.
First pitch is set for 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday. 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 capped by a sweep of a doubleheader at Kansas State on March 8.
Cal Poly swept UC Davis to open Big West play in late March, but won just eight of its next 16 games before sweeping UC Riverside three weeks ago. After losing two of three games at UC Irvine, the Mustangs returned home and posted a 4-0 week with a 10-4 win over CSU Bakersfield on Tuesday and 5-1, 6-2 and 7-2 triumphs in a weekend sweep of Cal State Northridge, moving into a tie for second place with the Matadors in the Big West.
Pacific has won four of its last nine games, including a 3-2 triumph Saturday at UC Santa Barbara.
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 21 games above the .500 mark for the first time in their 19-year Division I history, have posted a 12-5 mark in one-run games and are 23-6 at home this season.
Cal Poly has hit over the .300 mark in six of its 14 weekend series, including a .358 mark in the non-conference series against UC Santa Barbara and .342 against UC Davis. The Mustangs, however, hit a season-low .172 in the UC Irvine series two week ago but bounced back with a .309 mark against Cal State Northridge last weekend, the team batting average inching up to .277.
Senior second baseman Denver Chavez leads the Mustangs and is among the top five in the Big West with his .365 batting average. He also is among the conference leaders in hits (80), runs scored (49), on-base percentage (.426), doubles (14), steals (17) and total bases (101). Sophomore right fielder Nick Torres sports a .328 mark with six home runs and leads the team in RBI with 43 and the Big West with seven sacrifice flies.
Sophomore center fielder Jordan Ellis is hitting .311 and leads the team and Big West in triples with five while freshman designated hitter Brian Mundell has a .275 average with 37 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. Junior left fielder David Armendariz is hitting .280 with 21 RBI and 10 steals.
Cal Poly's three starting outfielders -- 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 (11-3, 2.99 ERA), sophomore southpaw Matt Imhof (6-3, 2.49 ERA) and freshman righty Casey Bloomquist (6-1, 4.24 ERA) has allowed just 79 earned runs in 53 games while relievers Reed Reilly, Michael Holback, Chase Johnson and Taylor Chris have combined for 17 saves. With his 14 saves, Reilly has tied the all-time single-season school record previously set by Mike Bille in 2005.
Lee earned his 300th win last May 5 in a 12-7 decision at UC Davis. Lee (346-269-2) 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.
Pacific, coached by former Major League standout Ed Sprague (10th season (209-313), Stanford '88), returned 17 lettermen, including six position starters and six pitchers, off a team which went 16-40 a year ago and finished ninth in the Big West at 6-18.
Though the Tigers are just 14-30, they were not swept in a series until the opening weekend of Big West play when Cal State Fullerton outscored Pacific 45-8 in late March. The Tigers have wins over Long Beach State, UC Irvine, Hawaii, UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara. Pacific won four of its first 10 games and has won four of its last nine entering Tuesday's non-conference game at Stanford.
Top hitters so far in 2013 for the Tigers are first baseman Erik Lockwood (.298, 12 doubles, 17 RBI), shortstop Tyler Sullivan (.291, 11 doubles, 16 RBI, nine steals) and third baseman Dustin Torchio (.287, 11 doubles, 25 RBI). The pitching staff is led by right-handers Jake Jenkins (1-8, 6.60 ERA) and Mike Hager (1-5, 6.05 ERA) and southpaw John Haberman (2-5, 4.83 ERA).
Pacific is hitting .255 this season with 73 doubles, eight triples and 16 home runs, has compiled a 5.47 staff ERA and has committed 66 errors in 50 games for a .966 fielding percentage. The Tigers will move to the West Coast Conference beginning with the 2013-14 school year.
Cal Poly and Pacific have met 72 times on the baseball field since the series began in 1946. The Mustangs hold a 42-30 advantage, beating the Tigers 23 of the last 29 times and 29 of 39, taking the series 13 straight years.
Last year in San Luis Obispo, the Mustangs swept the Tigers by scores of 7-1, 15-4 and 6-4. In Cal Poly's last trip to Stockton in 2011, the Mustangs bounced back from a 6-1 loss in the opener with 3-2 and 21-0 triumphs. Cal Poly is 33-18 against Pacific since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season.
Cal Poly, which climbed five positions to No. 22 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll this week and re-entered the USA Today Coaches Poll at No. 22 as well as the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll at No. 23, is still unranked by Baseball America and Perfect Game for the fourth straight week but receiving votes. 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.
NCAA regional sites will be released Sunday at 6 p.m. at NCAA.com as well as on the ESPN scroll while pairings for the 64-team field will be announced Monday, May 27, at 9 a.m. PDT on ESPNU.
