Cal Poly Closes Out 18-Game Home Stand Tuesday Versus Saint Mary's
4/7/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | SAINT MARY'S | BIG WEST
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (26-5, 5-1 Big West), which has won 19 of 21 home games this season and moved up one position in four of the five major NCAA Division I polls this week, concludes an 18-game home stand Tuesday with a matinee non-conference affair against Saint Mary's (13-17, 5-4 West Coast) in Baggett Stadium (cap.: 1,734).
First pitch is set for 3 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.
Ranked No. 4 by Perfect Game and Baseball America and No. 6 by the NCBWA, Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and USA Today/ESPN this week, Cal Poly posted another 3-1 week, defeating Bakersfield 6-1 on Tuesday followed by a Big West series win over rival UC Santa Barbara, bouncing back from an 8-6 loss in the opener with 8-7 and 1-0 triumphs. Cal Poly has won eight 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, and have not lost back-to-back games this season.
Past the halfway point of the 2014 season, the Mustangs are hitting .297 and have outscored the opposition 198-102 while the pitching staff has compiled a 3.09 ERA with 285 strikeouts and 102 walks in 274 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 are 19-2 at home this season and have won 89 of their last 114 home games for a winning percentage of 78.1 percent. At 17-3 three 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.
Saint Mary's opened its season by losing three of four games to New Mexico State and went winless in four games last week, getting swept at home by Pepperdine. In between, the Gaels won two of three against Penn State, earned one win against Cal State Fullerton, swept Portland and won two of three against Brigham Young.
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.
Saint Mary's, 21-34 a year ago and 11-13 for seventh place in the Big West, returned 19 letter winners, including five position starters and four pitchers. Top returnees include shortstop Ricky Boas (.248, seven steals, 21 RBI in 2013), first baseman Collin Ferguson (.293, 31 RBI) and third baseman Anthony Villa (.286, 32 RBI). The pitching staff is led by southpaw Ryan Brockett (5-5, 3.70 ERA in 2013) and righties Thomas Cortese (1-0, 9.58 ERA) and Jacob Valdez (1-0, 3.32 ERA).
Coached by Eric Valenzuela (first season, 13-17, Pepperdine '01), Saint Mary's sports a .269 team batting average, led by outfielder Anthony Gonsolin (.347, 16 RBI), second baseman Connor Hornsby (.315) and Ferguson (.283, 16 RBI). The Gaels have compiled a 4.39 staff ERA and have committed 43 errors in 30 games, a .962 fielding percentage.
Saint Mary's has not announced a starting pitcher for Tuesday's game. Cal Poly will go with freshman right-hander Justin Calomeni (5-1, 4.05 ERA) from Bellarmine Prep in San Jose.
Saint Mary's is still seeking its first West Coast Conference title in baseball and initial NCAA regional appearance. First Gael baseball team took the field in 1968 and the program's best record was 41-13 in 1977.
Valenzuela, a former San Diego State pitching coach and recruiting coordinator, was hired as Saint Mary's head coach last July 31. He served two seasons as an assistant at Saint Mary's from 2002-03 and spent six seasons as pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of San Diego before moving across town to San Diego State for the next four years. Valenzuela was an All-American performer at Bishop Amat High School, began his collegiate career at Arizona State, was a member of the Sun Devils' 1998 team that reached the College World Series and eventually transferred to Pepperdine, serving as a team captain in 2001 as the Waves went 42-18 and won the WCC title. Valenzuela graduated from Pepperdine in 2001 with a bachelor of arts degree in Criminal Justice.
Cal Poly holds a 29-12 advantage in its series against Saint Mary's. The teams have not met since 2011, when they split a pair of midweek games. Cal Poly is 12-4 against Saint Mary's since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Larry Lee is 8-2 against Saint Mary's while Eric Valenzuela is 0-0 against Cal Poly.
Cal Poly's top hitters after 31 games are sophomore second baseman Mark Mathias (.374, 25 RBI, 17-game hitting streak snapped by Bakersfield last week), junior right fielder Nick Torres (.328, nine doubles, four home runs, 29 RBI, 11-game hitting streak snapped by UC Santa Barbara last week), senior third baseman Jimmy Allen (.317, 10 doubles, 25 RBI), sophomore designated hitter Brian Mundell (.314, nine doubles, three home runs, 26 RBI) and junior center fielder Jordan Ellis (.301, 14 RBI). Senior catcher Chris Hoo (.295, 10 doubles, 26 RBI) and junior outfielder Zack Zehner (.292, eight RBI) are near the .300 mark.
Mathias has gone 33-for-74 (.446) during his run of hitting safely in 20 of his last 21 games while Mundell has lifted his average 32 points in the last two weeks by going 9-for-20 (.450).
The Mustangs have won eight of their last nine games and 16 of their last 18. 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 (375-277-2) 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).
Cal Poly hits the road for the first time in more than a month this weekend, visiting Hawai'i for a three-game Big West Conference series.
