First Pitch for Cal Poly vs. Bakersfield Baseball Game Changed to 2 p.m.
3/31/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | BAKERSFIELD | BIG WEST
AUDIO STREAM | LIVE STATS
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (23-4), which has won 16 of 17 home games this season and is in the top 10 in all five major NCAA Division I polls this week, continues an 18-game home stand Tuesday night by hosting Bakersfield (11-15) in Baggett Stadium (cap.: 1,734).
The non-conference game will start at 2 p.m. (a change due to weather) and will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Tom Barket providing the play-by-play. Links for live stats as well as audio and video streams are available at www.GoPoly.com.
Ranked No. 5 by Perfect Game and Baseball America and No. 7 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper this week, Cal Poly earned its fourth series sweep of the season last weekend, opening Big West Conference play with 8-0, 5-3 and 9-1 victories over UC Davis. Cal Poly has won seven series of three games or more this season and split two games in a rain-shortened series at USC. The Mustangs also have won their three midweek games so far, including two shutouts against Santa Clara.
Twenty-seven games into the season, the Mustangs are hitting .298 and have outscored the opposition 177-86 while the pitching staff has compiled a 2.99 ERA with 252 strikeouts and 91 walks in 238 innings. Cal Poly is No. 1 in the NCAA in strikeouts per nine innings, No. 7 in winning percentage and No. 15 in fielding percentage.
Cal Poly won 18 consecutive home games, including the final seven of the 2013 season, before Cal snapped the streak March 22. The Mustangs have won 86 of their last 110 home games for a winning percentage of 78.2 percent. At 17-3 two weeks ago, Cal Poly posted the program's second-best 20-game start in its 110-year history. The 1997 Mustangs opened the year 18-2.
Bakersfield opened its 2014 season by sweeping a three-game series against Milwaukee, but has lost 15 of 23 games since, dropping two of three Western Athletic Conference contests at Utah Valley last weekend. The Roadrunners are 4-5 in conference games, losing two of three against Grand Canyon and winning two of three versus North Dakota.
Cal Poly, 40-19 a year ago for its first 40-win season in Division I and third overall, returned 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) (pictured above) 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 were 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 were 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.
Bakersfield, 37-22 a year ago and 18-9 for a first-place tie in the Western Athletic Conference, returned 11 letter winners, including four position starters and five pitchers. Top returnees include infielders Oscar Sanay (.362, 45 RBI in 2013) and Mylz Jones (.333, 37 RBI) and outfielder Jordie Hein (.275, nine steals). Top returning pitchers are southpaw Taylor Aikenhead (5-2, 3.11 ERA in 2013) and righties James Barragan (0-2, 4.70 ERA) and Hayden Carter (2-3, 5.36 ERA).
Coached by Bill Kernen (sixth season, 145-156, Redlands '70), Bakersfield sports a .255 team batting average, led by second baseman Max Carter (.388, 12 RBI), designated hitter Allen Gwynn (.351) and left fielder Garrett Pierce (.303, nine RBI). The Roadrunners have compiled a 3.72 staff ERA and have committed 23 errors in 26 games for a .977 fielding percentage.
Freshman right-hander Stephen Gee (1-0, 3.52 ERA) from Taft High School in Taft will start Tuesday on the mound for Bakersfield, facing Cal Poly freshman righty Slater Lee (2-1, 7.18 ERA).
Bakersfield played its first season of baseball in 2009 and played its first season in the WAC a year ago.
Kernen was a pitching coach at Cal State Fullerton from 1978-82, then left to take over the family's business interests when his father fell ill; after his father's passing, he returned for the 1987 season before following Titan head coach Augie Garrido to Illinois in 1988. He left Illinois for Cal State Northridge, where he was head coach from 1989-95 and posted a 240-154-3 record; he led the Matadors to the NCAA Division II title game in 1990 and a berth in the NCAA Division I regional finals in 1991. Kernen stepped away from baseball in 1995 and enrolled in the prestigious dramatic writing graduate program at Columbia University, where he wrote and produced full-length plays; he returned to baseball in 2002, serving as an assistant coach at North Carolina State. Kernen returned to Fullerton in 2007 as a volunteer assistant coach before he was hired at Bakersfield in 2008. He was a pitcher at Redlands before graduating cum laude in 1970.
Cal Poly and Bakersfield have met 15 times on the baseball field since the series began in 2009. The Mustangs hold an 11-5 advantage in the series, winning six of the first seven and capturing last year's pair of midweek games by 5-2 and 10-4 scores. Casey Bloomquist was the winning pitcher in both games a year ago. Larry Lee is 11-5 against Bakersfield while Bill Kernen is 15-22 against Cal Poly, including a 10-11 mark while at Cal State Northridge from 1989-95.
Cal Poly's top hitters after 27 games are sophomore second baseman Mark Mathias (.378, 23 RBI, 17-game hitting streak), junior right fielder Nick Torres (.355, nine doubles, four home runs, 28 RBI, 11-game hitting streak), senior third baseman Jimmy Allen (.327, 10 doubles, 23 RBI) and junior center fielder Jordan Ellis (.300, 11 RBI). Senior first baseman/outfielder Tim Wise (.299, five doubles, 12 RBI) and sophomore designated hitter Brian Mundell (.297, eight doubles, three home runs, 24 RBI) are near the .300 mark.
The Mustangs have won five straight games and 13 of their last 14. Cal Poly is 6-3 against the Pac-12 and 3-0 against the Big 12 this season.
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 (372-276-2) 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 with a three-game Big West Conference series against Central Coast and Blue-Green rival UC Santa Barbara (19-5, 1-2 Big West). Game times are 6 p.m. both Friday and Saturday and 1 o'clock Sunday.
