Cal Poly to Host No. Illinois in Opener of 18-Game Homestand Tuesday
3/10/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (11-3), ranked No. 8 by Perfect Game, No. 11 in the Baseball America poll and No. 12 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper this week, opens an 18-game home stand Tuesday night, hosting Northern Illinois (1-12-1) in the opener of a three-game non-conference series.
All three games Tuesday through Thursday in Baggett Stadium will start at 6 p.m. and will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280. Links for live stats as well as audio and video streams are available at www.GoPoly.com.
Cal Poly won three of four games last week to inch up one to three positions in the polls. The Mustangs blanked Santa Clara last Tuesday 6-0 in a game called in the seventh inning due to fog, then won a series at Seattle over the weekend, earning 4-0 and 2-1 victories sandwiched around a 15-14 loss.
Cal Poly has won three weekend series against Kansas State, UCLA and Seattle, split two games in a rain-shortened series at USC and has won its three midweek games so far, including two shutouts against Santa Clara.
Fourteen games into the season, the Mustangs are hitting .285 and have outscored the opposition 81-45 while the pitching staff has compiled a 3.05 ERA with 130 strikeouts and 47 walks in 121 innings. Cal Poly gave up 16 runs to USC on March 2, 15 to Seattle on March 8 and 14 in all of its remaining 12 games combined.
Northern Illinois dropped four games at Oregon State over the weekend. The Huskies' lone victory of the season was a 1-0 triumph over Southern Illinois on Feb. 28.
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 went on to capture 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 (2-1, 4.50 ERA), among others.
Northern Illinois, 22-34 a year ago and 16-11 for first place in the Mid American Conference's West Division, returns 21 letter winners, including five position starters and nine pitchers. Top returnees include catcher/infielder Tommy Hook (.298, 22 RBI in 2013), infielder Alex Klonowski (.292, 31 RBI) and utility player Micah McCulloch (.269) along with pitchers Eli Anderson (9-4, 2.18 ERA), Jordan Ruckman (2-10, 4.74 ERA) and Klonowski (4-7, 4.97 ERA).
Coached by Ed Mathey (12th season, 278-347-2, North Central '86), Northern Illinois sports a .179 team batting average, led by infielder Brian Sisler (.263), infielder Chris Divarco (.250), Klonowski (.226) and outfielder Brandon Mallder (.220, 4 RBI). The Huskies have compiled a 6.28 staff ERA and have committed 12 errors in 14 games for a .976 fielding percentage.
Northern Illinois has played baseball since 1900 and has earned an NCAA regional berth twice, the last time in 1996.
Cal Poly and Northern Illinois have met twice before in baseball, both in 2010. The Mustangs won both games by scores of 13-3 and 12-5 in Baggett Stadium.
Cal Poly's top hitters after 14 games are junior right fielder Nick Torres (.389, four home runs, 19 RBI), sophomore designated hitter Brian Mundell (.313, three home runs, 15 RBI), senior third baseman Jimmy Allen (.305, nine RBI) and junior center fielder Jordan Ellis (.313, four RBI).
Cal Poly's pitching rotation will be adjusted as the Mustangs are playing six games in six days, all in Baggett Stadium. Freshman right-hander Justin Calomeni (pictured above) (3-0, 1.69 ERA) will start Tuesday night, followed by junior right-hander Danny Zandona (0-0, 5.00 ERA) on Wednesday night and sophomore righty Casey Bloomquist (3-0, 0.92 ERA) on Thursday night.
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 (360-275-2) 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 continues the long home stand this weekend by hosting Wagner from Long Island, N.Y., for a three-game series in Baggett Stadium. Game times are 6 p.m. both Friday and Saturday and 1 o'clock Sunday.
