No. 5 Cal Poly to Host No. 13 UCSB for Big West Showdown This Weekend
4/2/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (24-4, 3-0 Big West), which has won 17 of 18 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 and resumes Big West Conference play this weekend with a three-game series against Central Coast and Blue-Green rival UC Santa Barbara (19-5, 1-2 Big West) in Baggett Stadium (cap.: 1,734).
First pitch is set for 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 1 o'clock Sunday. All three games 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, No. 6 by the NCBWA and No. 7 by both Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and USA Today/ESPN 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 four midweek games so far, including two shutouts against Santa Clara as well as a 6-1 victory over Bakersfield.
Twenty-eight games into the season, the Mustangs are hitting .298 and have outscored the opposition 183-87 while the pitching staff has compiled a 2.91 ERA with 263 strikeouts and 92 walks in 247 innings. Cal Poly is No. 1 in the NCAA in strikeouts per nine innings, No. 3 in winning percentage and No. 13 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 87 of their last 111 home games for a winning percentage of 78.4 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.
UC Santa Barbara has put together eight- and six-game winning streaks en route to its second-best start in program history (the 1984 team started 19-3). With an RPI of 35, the Gauchos are in the top 25 in all major Division I polls this week, but slipped a few notches by losing two of three Big West games at home against Hawai'i last weekend.
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) 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.
UC Santa Barbara 35-25 a year ago and 17-10 for a second-place tie with the Mustangs in the Big West, earning an NCAA regional berth, returned 22 letter winners, including nine position starters and 11 pitchers. Top returnees include second baseman Woody Woodward (.320, eight steals, 34 RBI in 2013), third baseman Robby Nesovic (.326, 33 RBI) and left fielder Joey Epperson (.324). Top returning pitchers are right-hander Austin Pettibone (10-3, 2.98 ERA) and southpaws Justin Jacome (5-4, 3.78 ERA) and Greg Mahle (7-5, 4.28 ERA).
Coached by Andrew Checketts (third season, 82-58, Oregon State '98), UCSB sports a Big West-leading .307 team batting average, led by Epperson (.478, 10 steals, 18 RBI), center fielder Andrew Calica (.372, eight steals, 15 RBI) and catcher Jackson Morrow (.306, 11 RBI). The Gauchos have compiled a 3.31 staff ERA and have committed 32 errors in 24 games for a .965 fielding percentage.
Pettibone (2-0, 1.12 ERA), recovering from an injury, will make his third start Friday night, followed by Jacome (4-1, 2.41 ERA) on Saturday and right-hander Shane Bieber (1-0, 3.54 ERA) on Sunday. Cal Poly counters with southpaw Matt Imhof (6-1, 1.05 ERA, 77 strikeouts in 51 2/3 innings) (pictured above) and righties Justin Calomeni (5-1, 3.19 ERA) and Casey Bloomquist (6-0, 1.48 ERA), respectively.
UCSB claimed Big West titles in 1972 and 1986 and has qualified for the NCAA Division I regionals eight times, compiling a 7-20 win-loss record in Division I postseason competition.
Checketts spent three seasons as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator under George Horton at Oregon before coming to UC Santa Barbara. He was on the UC Riverside staff for seven years and began his coaching career at Riverside Community College, where he served as pitching coach and helped the team to their second consecutive California State championship in 2001. Checketts played one season at Florida and three at Oregon State.
Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara have met 214 times on the baseball field since the series began when both teams were California Collegiate Athletic Association members back in 1942. The Gauchos hold a 116-98 advantage, splitting six games against the Mustangs a year ago. Cal Poly is 44-41 against UCSB since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Larry Lee is 28-20 against UC Santa Barbara while Andrew Checketts is 4-6 against Cal Poly.
Cal Poly's top hitters after 28 games are sophomore second baseman Mark Mathias (.356, 24 RBI, 17-game hitting streak snapped by Bakersfield on Tuesday), 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), junior outfielder Zack Zehner (.311) and junior center fielder Jordan Ellis (.301, 12 RBI). Senior first baseman/outfielder Tim Wise (.295, five doubles, 13 RBI) and sophomore designated hitter Brian Mundell (.295, eight doubles, three home runs, 25 RBI) are near the .300 mark.
The Mustangs have won six straight games and 14 of their last 15. 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 (373-276-2) 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 wraps up the long home stand next Tuesday, hosting Saint Mary's for a 3 p.m. single non-conference game. The Mustangs hit the road for the first time in more than a month next weekend, visiting Hawai'i for a three-game Big West Conference series.
