No. 4 Cal Poly Clinches Hawai'i Series With 4-3 Victory

Saturday, April 12

Manoa, HI

9:35 pm

28-5, 6-1

Hawai'i

14-17, 2-5

Cal Poly

Hawai'i

No. 4 Cal Poly Clinches Hawai'i Series With 4-3 Victory

4/12/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

HONOLULU, Hawai'i – Cal Poly scored single runs in four different innings and four pitchers made them stand up as the No. 4 Mustangs held on to beat Hawai'i 4-3 and clinch the three-game Big West Conference baseball series Saturday night before 3,743 in Les Murakami Stadium.

Cal Poly improves to 29-5 overall with its ninth series win of the season. The Mustangs have won five straight, 11 of 12 and 19 of their last 21 games, remaining tied for first place with UC Irvine in the Big West, both with 7-1 records.

Hawai'i falls to 14-18 and 2-6.

Mustang starter Slater Lee did not allow a hit in the first four innings but left the game in the fifth after surrendering a run and two hits. For the game, Lee walked five Hawai'i batters.

Bryan Granger (1-0) secured three outs before he ran into trouble in the sixth and lefty Taylor Chris (pictured at right) was able to keep Hawai'i quiet until the Rainbow Warriors rallied for unearned runs in the eighth and ninth frames to close the gap to a single run.

Closer Reed Reilly battled Juliene Jones for nine pitches before striking out the Hawai'i third baseman for his seventh save of the season and second of the series.

Cal Poly held 2-0 and 4-1 leads before Hawai'i made it close in the final two innings.

The Rainbow Warriors scored an unearned run in the eighth on a dropped fly ball in the outfield and, after scoring another unearned run on a two-out infield error in the ninth to pull to within one, had runners at first and third before Reilly struck out Jones to end the game.

Sophomore second baseman Mark Mathias doubled twice in the game and sophomore first baseman Ryan Drobny added a pair of singles as Cal Poly outhit Hawai'i 10-5.

Mathias doubled to open the game and scored on Brian Mundell's groundout in the first inning. Senior left fielder Tim Wise singled leading off the second frame and scored on senior catcher Chris Hoo's safety squeeze bunt.

In the sixth, Hoo doubled with one out and came home on a single by junior center fielder Jordan Ellis. The Mustangs added an unearned run in the seventh as junior right fielder Nick Torres reached base on an error and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Wise.

Both teams stranded 12 runners on base.

Cal Poly has won all nine of its series of three games or more this season and will go for its fifth series sweep of the year in Sunday's finale. Sophomore right-hander Casey Bloomquist (7-0, 1.25 ERA) will face Hawai'i junior southpaw Scott Squier (2-2, 3.04 ERA).