Cal Poly Baseball to Visit Seattle for Three-Game Weekend Series
3/5/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | SEATTLE | BIG WEST
CAL POLY BLANKS SANTA CLARA 6-0 IN THE FOG
LIVE STATS | AUDIO STREAM: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (9-2), ranked No. 9 by Perfect Game, No. 11 in the Baseball America poll and No. 13 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper this week, plays its third consecutive weekend series on the road, visiting Seattle (5-8) for a three-game set. Friday's game will be played at 6:45 p.m. at Meridian Park, followed by single games Saturday at Edmonds Community College at 11 a.m. and Sunday at Meridian Park at 11:30 a.m.
All three games will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Eric Burdick calling the play-by-play. Links for live stats as well as an audio stream are available at www.GoPoly.com.
Following rainouts Friday and Saturday, Cal Poly and USC split a Sunday doubleheader at Dedeaux Field. The Mustangs won the opener 5-1 as junior southpaw Matt Imhof struck out seven and allowed one run and five hits in seven innings. Senior catcher Chris Hoo belted a pair of RBI doubles. USC earned a split of the twinbill with a 16-0 triumph in the nightcap, holding the Mustangs to just two singles.
On Tuesday night, freshman right-hander Justin Calomeni pitched six scoreless innings, allowing one walk and four hits and striking out six, for his third victory and sophomore shortstop Peter Van Gansen celebrated his 20th birthday with three singles as the Mustangs blanked Santa Clara 6-0 in a game called in the seventh inning due to fog. Hoo drove in three runs with a two-run bases-loaded double and an RBI single.
Off to a 9-2 start, Cal Poly scored 18 runs on 33 hits for a .324 team batting average in sweeping 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 en route to two wins in the three-game series at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
Eleven games into the season, the Mustangs are hitting .286 and have outscored the opposition 61-29 while the pitching staff has compiled a 2.56 ERA with 101 strikeouts and 31 walks in 95 innings.
Seattle, which reinstated baseball in 2010, dropped a pair of games to No. 14 Oregon in Eugene on Tuesday by scores of 10-2 and 4-3. The Redhawks opened the season by winning three of four games at UC Davis, then split four games at Cal State Northridge before dropping all three games against Brigham Young in St. George, Utah.
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 (pictured above) (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.
Seattle, 21-33 a year ago and 10-16 for ninth place in the Western Athletic Conference, returns 16 letter winners, including five position starters and seven pitchers. Top returnees include outfielder Landon Cray (.313, 24 RBI), utility player Ryan Somers (.279, 24 RBI) and catcher Brian Olson (.258, 20 RBI) along with pitchers Andrew Olson (7-5, 4.18 ERA), Garrett Anderson (2-8, 5.72 ERA) and Ted Hammond (3-5, 6.16 ERA).
Senior southpaw Mac Acker (2-1, 4.12 ERA) is expected to start Friday's game, followed by right-hander, Austin Hansen (0-0, 7.94 ERA) on Saturday and lefty Connor Moore (1-2, 2.79 ERA) on Sunday.
Coached by Donny Harrel (fifth season, 81-140-1, Cal State Bakersfield '95), Seattle sports a .243 team batting average, led by Cray (.351), Olson (.286, 11 RBI) and designated hitter Michael McCann (.256, six RBI). The Redhawks have compiled a 4.46 staff ERA and have committed 18 errors in 13 games for a .964 fielding percentage.
Seattle played its first three seasons of baseball as an independent before joining the Western Athletic Conference last season. Harrel was an assistant coach at Washington for four years before heading to Seattle and was an assistant at Oregon State during the 2003-04 season ... he was head coach for seven seasons at Lane Community College in Eugene, Ore., where he compiled a 220-90 record and led the team to the NWAACC title in 1999. Seattle became a full-fledged NCAA Division I member -- for the second time -- on July 1, 2012 and its mascot was the Chieftains when the school was in Division I from 1952-80.
Cal Poly and Seattle met for the first time on the baseball field last year, with the Mustangs sweeping the Redhawks by scores of 2-1, 1-0 and 4-1. Cal Poly struggled offensively against Seattle, hitting just .175 in the first two games and .234 for the series. Mundell was 5-for-8 in the series with one RBI while the Mustang pitching staff compiled a 0.33 ERA in the series.
Cal Poly's top hitters after 11 games are junior right fielder Nick Torres (.405, three home runs, 14 RBI), sophomore designated hitter Brian Mundell (.351, three home runs, 12 RBI), senior third baseman Jimmy Allen (.318, seven RBI) and senior catcher Chris Hoo (.303, five doubles, eight RBI).
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 (358-274-2) 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).
After playing 10 of 11 games on the road, Cal Poly opens an 18-game home stand Tuesday night, hosting Northern Illinois for a three-game midweek series. The Mustangs also host Wagner for three games next weekend.
