Cal Poly Continues Road Trip With Single Game Tuesday at San Jose State
2/24/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | SAN JOSE STATE | BIG WEST
SLATER LEE NAMED BIG WEST PITCHER OF THE WEEK
MUSTANGS JUMP INTO TOP 20 IN NATIONAL POLLS
LIVE STATS | AUDIO STREAM | VIDEO STREAM
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (6-1), ranked No. 13 in the Baseball America poll and No. 14 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper this week following last weekend's series win at defending national champion UCLA, continues its stretch of 11 of 12 games on the road Tuesday night, visiting San Jose State (2-6) at Municipal Stadium (cap.: 5,200).
Game time is 6 p.m. and the non-conference contest will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Tom Barket calling the play-by-play. Links for live stats as well as audio and video streams will be available at www.GoPoly.com.
UCLA won the series opener Friday night, 5-2, but Cal Poly bounced back with 8-0 and 9-1 victories to earn its first series win over the Bruins since 2005. Freshman right-hander Slater Lee pitched a two-hit shutout Saturday and Brian Mundell and Nick Torres both belted three-run home runs. On Sunday, Mundell and Torres combined for five hits and five RBI as the Mustangs jumped to an 8-1 lead in the first four innings and coasted.
Off to a 6-1 start, Cal Poly scored 18 runs on 33 hits for a .324 team batting average in the Kansas State series while the pitching staff held the Wildcats to just three runs and 11 hits with 33 strikeouts for a 1.00 ERA. Against UCLA, Cal Poly outscored the Bruins 19-6, outhit UCLA 26-19 and the pitching staff posted a 1.73 ERA with just five walks and 19 strikeouts.
In seven games this season, the Mustangs hit .288 and have outscored the opposition 45-9 while the pitching staff has compiled a Big West-leading 1.16 ERA with 67 strikeouts and 14 walks in 62 innings.
San Jose State lost two of three games against UC Santa Barbara at Municipal Stadium last weekend. The Spartans fell 3-2 on Friday, won 7-5 on Saturday and lost 10-1 Sunday.
Cal Poly, 40-19 a year ago for its first 40-win season in Division I and third overall, returns 19 letter winners, including eight position starters and seven pitchers, off its 2013 squad which swept five series and won 10 of 15 weekend series. Coach Larry Lee's Mustangs went 1-2 in the Los Angeles Regional hosted by UCLA, falling to the Bruins 6-4 on the second day. UCLA, which trailed 4-0 before scoring four runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh to turn the game around, went 10-0 in postseason play en route to its first national title.
Cal Poly won its first seven games of the 2013 season and sprinted to a 13-1 start. Never losing more than three games in a row, Cal Poly steadily climbed 17 games over the .500 mark during the next seven weeks of play. A late-season surge with 11 wins in their last 14 games enabled the Mustangs to post their third 40-win season in school history, falling one victory shy of the record of 41 wins in both 1977 and 1992. The Mustangs finished second in the Big West for the second straight year.
Topping Cal Poly's list of returnees are senior third baseman Jimmy Allen (.299, 39 RBI) and junior relief pitcher Reed Reilly (2.29 ERA, 14 saves), both of whom were drafted last June but chose to return to Cal Poly for another season.
Also returning are outfielders Nick Torres (.333, seven home runs, 49 RBI) and Jordan Ellis (.323, 18 RBI), infielders Tim Wise, Peter Van Gansen and John Schuknecht, catcher Chris Hoo and designated hitter Brian Mundell (.265, 11 home runs, 42 RBI).
Joining Reilly on the pitching staff are starters Matt Imhof (7-3, 2.74 ERA), Casey Bloomquist (6-2, 5.02 ERA) and Bryan Granger (5-4, 5.37 ERA) and relievers Taylor Chris (1-0, 2.55 ERA) and Danny Zandona (pictured above) (2-1, 4.50 ERA), among others.
San Jose State, 17-41 a year ago and 11-17 for eighth place in the Western Athletic Conference, returns 11 letter winners, including five position starters and six pitchers. Top returnees include first baseman Matt Carroll (.341, 40 RBI in 2013), center fielder Andre Mercurio (.315, 22 RBI), second baseman Jacob Valdez (.317, 28 RBI) and catcher/third baseman Sheldon Daquioag (.295, 26 RBI). Starting pitcher Johnny Melero (0-7, 7.82 ERA) and closer Kalei Contrades (2-3, 4.50 ERA, 2 saves) also return.
San Jose State is expected to start freshman right-hander Michael Wright against Cal Poly on Tuesday. Wright is 0-2 with a 15.19 ERA over 5 1/3 innings. The Mustangs will counter with freshman right-hander Justin Calomeni (1-0, 0.00 ERA), who opened his collegiate career with five shutout innings at Santa Clara last week, striking out nine and allowing one walk and one hit. Calomeni grew up in the Willow Glen area of San Jose and attended Bellarmine Prep.
Coached by Dave Nakama (second year, 17-41, Willamette '84), San Jose State has a .242 team batting average through eight games, led by Mercurio (.400, six RBI), designated hitter/outfielder Brett Bautista (.381) and catcher Kyle Gallegos (.303, five RBI). The Spartans, who opened the year by losing two of three Mountain West Conference games at home against San Diego State, sport a 5.75 staff ERA and .975 fielding percentage with eight errors in eight games.
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 and are now members of the Mountain West Conference. The Spartans' lone College World Series appearance was in 2000.
Nakama was associate head coach at Washington from 2010-12 before he was hired as head coach at San Jose State in September 2012. He also served as an assistant at Stanford from 1997-98 and 2002-09. Nakama was head coach at Mission College in San Jose from 1992-96 as well as at San Francisco State from 1999-2001; he was an infielder at Willamette and began his coaching career at Northern Colorado in 1984; he also has worked at Iowa, Yavapai College and DeAnza College.
Cal Poly and San Jose State have played 88 baseball games against each other since the series began in 1947. The Spartans hold a 47-40-1 advantage, though the Mustangs won by 6-5 and 5-2 scores in a pair of midweek games a year ago. Cal Poly is 17-21-1 against San Jose State since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Larry Lee is 10-5-1 against San Jose State while Nakama is 0-2 against Cal Poly.
Cal Poly's top hitters after seven games are junior right fielder Nick Torres (13-for-29, .448, 12 RBI), sophomore designated hitter Brian Mundell (10-for-22, .455, 10 RBI) and junior center fielder Jordan Ellis (9-for-29, .310). Both senior third baseman Jimmy Allen (8-for-28, six RBI) and senior catcher Chris Hoo (6-for-21, three RBI) check in with .286 marks.
A year ago, Cal Poly surpassed the 30-win mark for the ninth time in the last 14 years and clinched its 11th winning season since 2000 by sweeping UC Riverside in early May. The Mustangs moved 21 games above the .500 mark for the first time in their 19-year Division I history by sweeping Cal State Northridge on May 17-19. Cal Poly was 13-1 on the year after sweeping a doubleheader at Kansas State by 13-10 and 6-2 scores in early March.
Lee, in his 12th season with the Mustangs, has guided Cal Poly to five 3-0 starts with season-opening series sweeps over San Diego in 2005, Fresno State in 2006, Oklahoma State in 2012, San Francisco last year and Kansas State this season. The Mustangs have finished in the upper half of the conference standings 10 times in the last 12 years.
Lee (355-273-2) earned his 300th win on May 5, 2012, in a 12-7 decision at UC Davis. Lee 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).
Cal Poly plays the second of three consecutive weekend series on the road Friday through Sunday, facing 12-time NCAA champion Southern Cal at Dedeaux Field. Game times are 6, 6 and 1 p.m. The Saturday game originally was scheduled for 2 p.m.
