Cal Poly to Host San Jose State for Single Game Tuesday Night
4/21/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | SAN JOSE STATE | BIG WEST
CAL POLY ACHIEVES NO. 1 RANKING FROM BASEBALL NEWS
MATHIAS, REILLY HONORED FOR WEEKEND PERFORMANCES
AUDIO STREAM | VIDEO STREAM | LIVE STATS
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (34-5, 11-1 Big West), which achieved its first and second shutouts ever against Cal State Fullerton and swept the Titans for the first time in 41 years, moving up to No. 1 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll, hosts San Jose State (12-28, 6-15 Mountain West) for a single non-conference game Tuesday night in expanded Baggett Stadium (cap.: 2,472).
First pitch is set for 6 p.m. and the game 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.
Also ranked No. 2 by Baseball America and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and No. 3 by Perfect Game and USA Today/ESPN this week, Cal Poly posted its fourth unbeaten week of the season, going 4-0 last week with a 9-1 midweek win at Bakersfield and sweeping four-time defending Big West Conference champion Cal State Fullerton by scores of 8-0, 4-3 in 13 innings and 3-0 at home over the weekend, marking the first time since 2011 the Titans had been swept (LSU). The Mustangs are the first Big West team to sweep the Titans since UC Riverside in 2007.
Cal Poly has won 10 series of three games or more this season and split two games in a rain-shortened series at USC. The Mustangs also have won each of their six midweek games so far, including two shutouts against Santa Clara, and have not lost back-to-back games this season.
Past the halfway point of the 2014 season, the Mustangs are hitting .303 and have outscored the opposition 243-116 while the pitching staff has compiled a 2.73 ERA with 367 strikeouts and 133 walks in 350 innings. Cal Poly is No. 1 in the NCAA in strikeouts per nine innings, No. 2 in winning percentage and No. 8 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 are 23-2 at home this season and have won 93 of their last 118 home games for a winning percentage of 78.8 percent. At 17-3 four 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. The current squad also produced its best-ever 30-game start at 25-5, exceeding the 23-7 start by the 2009 team, 22-8 opening by the 2013 squad and 21-9 start of the 1997 club.
San Jose State was swept in a series for the first time last weekend, losing all three games against New Mexico in Municipal Stadium by scores of 14-2, 5-2 and 11-6. The Spartans won two straight games for the first time when they edged UNLV 4-3 in 14 innings on April 13 and beat rival Santa Clara 10-7 two days later. Longest losing streak so far this season is five games early in the season and the Spartans have yet to win a series this year.
Two sections of bleachers with 369 seats in each section were installed at Baggett Stadium for the Cal State Fullerton series, raising the seating capacity to 2,472. The bleachers will remain through the end of the season. Cal Poly drew 7,847 fans for the three-game series against the Titans.
Cal Poly's top hitters after 39 games are sophomore second baseman Mark Mathias (.404, 27 RBI, has hit safely in 28 of last 29 games), junior right fielder Nick Torres (.338, 12 doubles, four home runs, 36 RBI), sophomore designated hitter Brian Mundell (.311, 10 doubles, four home runs, 35 RBI), junior outfielder Zack Zehner (.315, four doubles, eight RBI) and senior catcher Chris Hoo (.314, 12 doubles, 30 RBI). Senior third baseman Jimmy Allen (.297, 11 doubles, 26 RBI), and sophomore shortstop Peter Van Gansen (.287, 17 RBI) are near the .300 mark.
Mathias has gone 51-for-111 (.459) during his run of hitting safely in 28 of his last 29 games, including a 17-game hitting streak snapped two weeks ago (he has a current 11-game streak), while Mundell lifted his average 43 points in a recent three-week period by going 16-for-38 (.421).
The Mustangs have won 10 straight, 16 of their last 17 games and 24 of their last 26 contests. Cal Poly is 6-3 against the Pac-12, 3-0 against both the Big 12 and West Coast and 5-1 against the WAC this season.
San Jose State, 17-41 a year ago and 11-17 for eighth place in the Western Athletic Conference, returned 11 letter winners, including five position starters and six pitchers. Top returnees included first baseman Matt Carroll (.341, 40 RBI in 2013), center fielder Andre Mercurio (.315, 22 RBI), second baseman Jacob Valdez (.317, 28 RBI) and catcher/third baseman Sheldon Daquioag (.295, 26 RBI). Starting pitcher Johnny Melero (0-7, 7.82 ERA) and closer Kalei Contrades (2-3, 4.50 ERA, 2 saves) also return.
San Jose State is expected to start southpaw Jake Puckett (0-2, 8.71 ERA) against Cal Poly on Tuesday. The Mustangs will counter with freshman right-hander Slater Lee (2-1, 5.57 ERA) (pictured above).
Coached by Dave Nakama (second year, 29-69, Willamette '84), San Jose State has a .254 team batting average through 40 games, led by designated hitter Brett Bautista (.310, eight doubles, 10 RBI), Mercurio (.293, eight RBI) and outfielder Matt Lopez (.284, eight doubles, two home runs, 21 RBI). The Spartans sport a 5.66 staff ERA and .970 fielding percentage with 47 errors in 40 games.
San Jose State has made four NCAA appearances, the last time in 2002 at the Stanford Regional; the Spartans earned Western Athletic Conference regular-season titles in 2000 and 2009 and are now members of the Mountain West Conference. The Spartans' lone College World Series appearance was in 2000.
Nakama was associate head coach at Washington from 2010-12 before he was hired as head coach at San Jose State in September 2012. He also served as an assistant at Stanford from 1997-98 and 2002-09. Nakama was head coach at Mission College in San Jose from 1992-96 as well as at San Francisco State from 1999-2001; he was an infielder at Willamette and began his coaching career at Northern Colorado in 1984; he also has worked at Iowa, Yavapai College and DeAnza College.
Cal Poly and San Jose State have played 89 baseball games against each other since the series began in 1947. The Spartans hold a 47-41-1 advantage, though the Mustangs won by 6-5 and 5-2 scores in a pair of midweek games a year ago and beat San Jose State 5-3 on Feb. 25 at Municipal Stadium as the last four batters in the Cal Poly lineup collected eight hits, led by senior third baseman Jimmy Allen with a double and two singles, and freshman right-hander Justin Calomeni struck out seven in five innings.
Cal Poly is 18-21-1 against San Jose State since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Larry Lee is 11-5-1 against San Jose State while Nakama is 0-3 against Cal Poly.
Two weeks ago, Cal Poly reached the 30-win mark for the 10th time in the last 15 years and clinched its 12th winning season since 2000. The Mustangs are 29 games above the .500 mark for the first time in their 20-year Division I history.
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 (383-277-2) 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).
Following Tuesday's game, Cal Poly hits the road for seven consecutive contests, starting with a three-game Big West series at Long Beach State on Friday through Sunday. The Mustangs also travel to Pepperdine and UC Riverside next week.
