Cal Poly Baseball to Visit San Jose State for Single Game Tuesday Night
5/7/2013 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- No. 22 Cal Poly (31-14, 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, visits San Jose State (14-33, 8-13 WAC) for a single non-conference game Tuesday night in Municipal Stadium (5,200).
First pitch is set for 6 p.m. The game 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, 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, earned 4-1, 3-1 and 4-3 victories to surpass the 30-win mark and clinch its 11th winning season since 2000.
Sophomore center fielder Jordan Ellis extended his hitting streak to 13 games by going 6-for-14 in the series while freshman designated hitter Brian Mundell went 5-for-12, including his ninth home run of the year Friday as well as a walkoff RBI single Sunday. Senior right-hander Joey Wagman earned his 10th win with a complete-game five-hitter and seven strikeouts Friday.
San Jose State was swept by New Mexico State 17-1, 9-0 and 8-5 and enters Tuesday's game against Cal Poly with a four-game losing streak. San Jose State also has lost seven of its last eight contests.
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 .366 batting average. He also leads the conference in hits (68) and runs scored (42) and is fifth in on-base percentage (.433), ninth in doubles (11) and fourth in steals (11) and total bases (83). Sophomore right fielder Nick Torres sports a .320 mark with six home runs and leads the team in RBI with 36 and the Big West with seven sacrifice flies while Ellis is hitting .362, leads the team and Big West in triples with five and takes a 13-game hitting streak into Tuesday's game.
Freshman designated hitter Brian Mundell has 32 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 (pictured above) has hit in 10 straight games, lifting his average to .281. Freshman shortstop Peter Van Gansen sports a .278 average and junior third baseman Jimmy Allen .274 with 30 RBI. 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 (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 45 games while relievers Reed Reilly, Michael Holback, Chase Johnson and Taylor Chris have combined for 14 saves in the first 12 weeks of the season.
Lee earned his 300th win last May 5 in a 12-7 decision at UC Davis. Lee (340-267-2) 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.
San Jose State, coached by Dave Nakama (first season, 14-33, Willamette '84), returned 14 lettermen, including seven position starters and eight pitchers, off a team which went 22-29 a year ago and finished seventh in the Western Athletic Conference at 5-13.
The Spartans won two of three games against Pacific to open the season, but lost nine straight and 17 of 21 before winning two of three games at Texas-San Antonio. San Jose State also won two of three games against Texas State and Louisiana Tech.
Top hitters for the Spartans after 47 games are first baseman Matt Carroll (.349, 35 RBI), third baseman Sheldon Daquioag (.324, 23 RBI), center fielder Andre Mercurio (.323, 18 RBI, six steals) and left fielder Tim Quiery (.322, 18 RBI, six steals). The Spartans' pitching staff is paced by right-hander D.J. Slaton (3-6, 4.46 ERA) and southpaws David Wayne Russo (4-7, 6.35 ERA) and Johnny Melero (0-6, 7.65 ERA).
Cal Poly will start freshman right-hander Casey Bloomquist (3-1, 5.06 ERA) against the Spartans. San Jose State will counter with freshman right-hander Ross Slaney (0-0, 16.00 ERA).
San Jose State is hitting .291 as a team with 76 doubles, nine triples and eight home runs, while the pitching staff has surrendered 6.42 earned runs per game. The Spartans have committed 44 errors in 47 games for a .974 fielding percentage.
San Jose State has made four NCAA appearances, the last time in 2002 at the Stanford Regional; the Spartans earned Western Athletic Conference regular-season titles in 2000 and 2009. The Spartans' lone College World Series appearance was in 2000.
Cal Poly and San Jose State have played 87 baseball games against each other since the series began in 1947. The Spartans hold a 47-39-1 advantage, falling 6-5 in 10 innings to Cal Poly in Baggett Stadium on March 12 as freshman designated hitter Brian Mundell hit a walkoff solo home run. .
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.
Cal Poly resumes Big West Conference play Friday through Sunday at UC Irvine, ranked No. 23 in both the USA Today Coaches and NCBWA polls this week. The Mustangs and Anteaters are tied for third place in the Big West at 11-7.
