No. 8 Cal Poly to Host Wagner College, Continuing 18-Game Homestand
3/14/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (14-3), ranked No. 8 by Perfect Game, No. 11 in the Baseball America poll and No. 12 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper this week, continues an 18-game home stand and a stretch of six games in six days, hosting Wagner College (8-2) for a three-game non-conference series in Baggett Stadium (cap.: 1,734).
Games on Friday and Saturday will start at 6 p.m. followed by Sunday's finale at 1 o'clock. The games will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 and/or the Internet at www.GoPoly.com. 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 swept Northern Illinois by scores of 4-2, 10-1 and 11-9 earlier this week as senior first baseman/outfielder Tim Wise (pictured above) went 7-for-11 with three RBI.
Cal Poly has won four series against Kansas State, UCLA, Seattle and Northern Illinois, 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.
Seventeen games into the season, the Mustangs are hitting .292 and have outscored the opposition 106-57 while the pitching staff has compiled a 3.16 ERA with 162 strikeouts and 61 walks in 148 innings. Cal Poly gave up 16 runs to USC on March 2, 15 to Seattle on March 8 and 26 in all of its remaining 15 games combined.
Wagner opened its season by losing three games each to Elon and Texas State, then won one of three games against Army, earning a 2-1 victory in the middle game of the series last weekend in Brooklyn. The Seahawks opened their home schedule Tuesday with a 3-2 win over Rider at Coney Island, scoring three times in the seventh inning to overcome a 2-0 deficit.
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.
Wagner, 24-31 a year ago and 16-16 for fifth place in the Northeast Conference, returns 23 letter winners, including five position starters and 11 pitchers. Top returnees include catcher/third baseman Nick Dini (.312, 46 RBI in 2013), designated hitter Chris Smith (.299, 32 RBI) and first baseman Tommy Mazurkiewicz (.275, 28 RBI). Top returning pitchers are southpaws Matt Morris (4-4, 1.97 ERA in 2013) and Paul Mammino (6-2, 3.53 ERA) and righty Ryan Casey (5-5, 4.33 ERA).
Coached by Jim Carone (third season, 48-72, Monmouth '03), Wagner sports a .213 team batting average, led by left fielder Shaun Flynn (.306), right fielder Chris Smith (.278) and Mazurkiewicz (.324). The Seahawks have compiled a 5.27 staff ERA and have committed 14 errors in 10 games for a .961 fielding percentage.
Casey (0-2, 4.76 ERA) will start Friday's game, followed by Morris (1-2, 5.62) on Saturday and Mammino (0-2, 4.97) on Sunday. Morris allowed one unearned run and four hits in 7 1/3 innings with three walks and three strikeouts in the win over Army last Saturday.
Wagner, located on Staten Island, inaugurated its baseball program in 1945 and became a member of the Northeast Conference in 1987. The Seahawks have made one NCAA regional appearance, in 2000.
Cal Poly and Wagner are meeting in baseball for the first time this weekend.
Cal Poly's top hitters after 17 games are junior right fielder Nick Torres (.365, four home runs, 22 RBI), senior Tim Wise (.328, seven RBI), sophomore designated hitter Brian Mundell (.293, three home runs, 17 RBI), senior third baseman Jimmy Allen (.319, 11 RBI) and junior center fielder Jordan Ellis (.317, six RBI).
Cal Poly's pitching rotation has been adjusted as the Mustangs are in the midst of playing six games in six days, all in Baggett Stadium. Junior southpaw Matt Imhof (3-1, 1.33) will start as usual Friday night, with sophomore right-hander Casey Bloomquist (3-0, 0.89 ERA) moving from Sunday to the Saturday slot. Freshman right-hander Justin Calomeni (4-0, 1.61 ERA) will get the start Sunday after allowing one earned run and five hits in 6 1/3 innings in Tuesday's 4-2 win over Northern Illinois.
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 (363-275-2) 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 next weekend with a four-game series against California (10-5 entering this weekend's home Pac-12 series against UCLA). Game times are 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 1 p.m. Sunday and 3 p.m. Monday.
