Cal Poly to Host UC Riverside for Big West Weekend Series

Saturday, May 4

6 pm

30-14, 10-7

UC Riverside

18-24, 7-10

UC Riverside

Cal Poly

Cal Poly to Host UC Riverside for Big West Weekend Series

5/3/2013 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- No. 24 Cal Poly (28-14, 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 15-13 mark since and is tied for fifth place in the Big West Conference, resumes Big West Conference play this weekend by hosting UC Riverside (18-22, 7-8 Big West) for a three-game series in Baggett Stadium (1,734).

First pitch Friday and Saturday is set for 6 p.m. followed by Sunday's series finale at 1 o'clock. All three games of the series will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Tom Barket or David Grant 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 against Kansas State on 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 16 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 instituted 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, then fell 5-3 at Pepperdine on Wednesday as they couldn't overcome a 5-0 deficit in the first two innings.

UC Riverside, which lost two of three games at home against UC Santa Barbara last weekend, has lost eight of its last nine games. Two of the losses were by 24-11 and 20-6 decisions against UNLV, the latter on Tuesday in Las Vegas.

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 .377 batting average. He also leads the conference in hits (66) and runs scored (39) and is fifth in on-base percentage (.439), sixth in doubles (11) and fourth in steals (11) and total bases (81). Sophomore right fielder Nick Torres sports a .319 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 .355, leads the team in triples with four and takes a 10-game hitting streak into the weekend series.

Freshman designated hitter Brian Mundell has 30 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. Junior left fielder David Armendariz has hit in seven straight games, lifting his average to .275, while freshman shortstop Peter Van Gansen sports a .272 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 42 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 (337-267-2) 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 Riverside, coached by Doug Smith (ninth season, 250-226, UC Riverside '75), returned 21 lettermen, including 10 position starters and nine pitchers, off a team which went 22-32 a year ago and finished eighth in the Big West Conference at 9-15.

The Highlanders opened the year by losing five of their first eight games, then swept a three-game series against Saint Mary's and were 13-9 after sweeping UC Irvine opening Big West play in late March. The Highlanders also swept Pacific two weeks later but are seventh in the Big West at 7-8.

Top hitters for the Highlanders are catcher Clayton Prestridge (.352, eight doubles, 22 RBI, 12 steals), left fielder Joe Chavez (.333, 12 doubles, 22 RBI, 14 steals), right fielder David Andriese (.329, 33 RBI) and center fielder Devyn Bolasky (.297). The UC Riverside pitching staff is paced by right-hander Dylan Stuart (3-5, 4.71 ERA) and southpaw Ben Doucette (2-4, 4.19 ERA). Righty Jacob Smigelski (1-1, 6.03 ERA) is out with an injury. Trevor Frank (4-0, 1.45 ERA, nine saves), another righty, is the closer.

UC Riverside is hitting .282 as a team with 67 doubles, 17 triples and 11 home runs, while the pitching staff has compiled a 5.27 earned run average. The Highlanders have committed 79 errors in 40 games for a .949 fielding percentage.

UC Riverside, a member of the Big West since 2002, claimed the Big West title in 2007 and has qualified for the NCAA Division I regionals twice -- in 2003 and 2007.

Cal Poly and UC Riverside have met 183 times on the baseball field since the series began when both teams were California Collegiate Athletic Association members back in 1970. The Mustangs hold a 102-81 advantage, sweeping the Highlanders a year ago in Riverside by scores of 11-2, 15-9 and 6-0. It was Cal Poly's first sweep against UC Riverside since 2000. The Mustangs are 23-16 against the Highlanders since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season.

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.

Next week, Cal Poly goes back out on the road for four games -- Tuesday at San Jose State and Friday through Sunday at UC Irvine.