Cal State Northridge
Cal Poly Earns Big West Title and Automatic Berth in NCAA Regionals
5/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
NORTHRIDGE, Calif. – Junior right-hander Danny Zandona earned his second victory of the week, pitching 3 1/3 scoreless innings in relief, and Reed Reilly, also a junior right-hander, notched a two-inning save, his 10th of the year, as No. 5 Cal Poly clinched its first Big West Conference baseball championship with a 3-2 victory over Cal State Northridge on Sunday at Matador Field.
With its sixth straight win, Coach Larry Lee's Mustangs finish the regular season with a 45-10 record and are first in the Big West with a 19-5 record, earning the automatic bid to the NCAA regionals by virtue of their series win over UC Irvine a week ago.
Twenty minutes after the game, Cal Poly learned that Cal State Fullerton had completed its sweep of UC Irvine with a 4-3 victory at Anteater Ballpark, giving the Mustangs the outright Big West title. The Anteaters have lost five straight Big West games and are 15-6 in conference games, two-and-a-half games behind Cal Poly with three games remaining at Long Beach State.
It will be Cal Poly's third trip to the regionals, all in the last six years, following a trip to Tempe, Arizona, in 2009 and UCLA in 2013.
"It took long enough," the 12-year Mustang head coach said of the school's first Big West title in 18 seasons in the conference. "It feels good to get that first one out of the way and shows how difficult it is to win the Big West.
"I am proud of the way our players went about doing everything we asked of them," Lee added. "This is a good group, they play hard and know how to win. It's a very tight-knit group."
Cal Poly has a bye next week and will be watching on television when the 16 regional hosts are announced next Sunday at 6 p.m. on the bottom scroll of the ESPN family of networks. The full 64-team field will be revealed on Monday, May 26, at 9 a.m. on ESPNU.
Zandona allowed just one hit, no walks and struck out one, retiring nine of the 10 batters he faced, to improve to 4-0 on the year. He pitched five innings for the win Tuesday at Saint Mary's.
Reilly secured the final six outs, but had to fight through a two-out Matador rally in the ninth that produced a run on three hits and a walk before he induced AB Blanchett to ground out to first baseman Ryan Drobny on a 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded, ending the game.
The loss went to Matador right-hander Jordan Johnson (3-5) as he allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings with three walks and three strikeouts.
"Our players deserve all the success they have achieved so far," said Lee. "Hopefully this is just the start of bigger and better things to come."
Cal State Northridge scored first, tallying a run in the second inning on a two-out double by Nick Blaser and an RBI single by Alexis Mercado.
Cal Poly answered with a run in the fourth. Zack Zehner and Chris Hoo singled and Peter Van Gansen's groundout scored Zehner.
The Mustangs snapped the 1-1 tie in the sixth inning. Zehner drew a walk and Jimmy Allen reached base when a bunt to Johnson was thrown into center field. Hoo's groundout to shortstop broke the tie and John Schuknecht singled to left field, scoring Allen.
Cal Poly's last conference title was in its final year in Division II, earning its fourth consecutive California Collegiate Athletic Association crown in 1994. The Mustangs finished second in the Big West three times – 2005, 2012 and 2013 – before breaking through this spring.
Zehner singled three times while Hoo and right fielder Nick Torres each had two of Cal Poly's nine hits. Second baseman Mark Mathias added a double, giving him 41 hits in his last 44 games. Cal State Northridge's seven hits included a single and double by Chester Pak and Brett Balkan.
Cal Poly has won nine of its last 10 games.
