Cal Poly to Open 2015 Campaign With Three-Game Series at Baylor
2/10/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | BAYLOR | BIG WEST
VIDEOS: LARRY LEE | BRIAN MUNDELL | SEASON PREVIEW
LIVE STATS: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
AUDIO STREAM: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
VIDEO STREAM (ALL THREE GAMES)
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly, coming off its most successful baseball season in school history -- school-record 47 victories, first Big West Conference title, third NCAA regional appearance in the last six years, including hosting a regional for the first time -- opens the 2015 campaign this weekend with a three-game non-conference series against the Baylor Bears inside Baylor Ballpark at Ferrell Field (cap.: 5,000) in Waco, Texas.
First pitch Friday is set for 4:30 p.m. PST, followed by a 1 p.m. contest Saturday and a 10 a.m. finale Sunday. All three games will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Eric Burdick providing the play-by-play. Links for live stats as well as audio and video streams are available at www.GoPoly.com.
Though Cal Poly returns 19 lettermen, including six position starters and seven pitchers (three of the four starters), there are some questions that the Mustang coaching staff headed by 13th-year head mentor Larry Lee hopes will be answered this weekend.
• Who will replace All-American southpaw Matt Imhof and his 10 wins in the pitching rotation?
• Who fills the third spot in the outfield vacated by Nick Torres, a .322 hitter with six home runs and a team-leading 52 RBI?
• Who takes over behind the plate for Chris Hoo, a national Gold Glove winner a year ago with just one passed ball and who threw out 21 of 47 would-be base stealers?
• Cal Poly needs a new third baseman to replace Jimmy Allen, who started 183 consecutive games and was a career .307 hitter.
• Who will close out the games this season as Reed Reilly and his 10 career wins and school-record 27 career saves has departed?
"Last year was last year," said Lee. "We accomplished some great things and the expectations of our returning and new players is at a higher level. We want to keep pushing that bar higher and higher and continue to break down more barriers.
"Having said that, it's a new season and we have to go out and earn everything again," Lee added. "We haven't done anything in 2015 yet. We have a very challenging schedule and play some quality programs on the road, such as Baylor, Oregon State and TCU. In addition, three of our toughest conference opponents are road series as well.
"Our goal each and every year is to get to a regional," Lee said.
Cal Poly's 2015 roster is led by junior second baseman Mark Mathias, the 2014 Big West Field Player of the Year with a .386 batting average who has earned numerous preseason All-America honors. Mathias underwent labrum surgery on his right shoulder Dec. 2, likely will miss the first two weeks of the season and will be limited to a designated hitter's role in March before returning to defensive duty.
Junior Peter Van Gansen returns to anchor the middle infield at shortstop while junior Brian Mundell, Cal Poly's designated hitter the last two years, will take over at first base this spring. Senior Jordan Ellis returns for another season in center field while senior Zack Zehner, drafted in the seventh round by Toronto last June, will move from left field to right field this spring to replace Torres.
Cal Poly's pitching staff is led by junior Casey Bloomquist (pictured above) (12-2, 1.56 ERA a year ago), another preseason All-American, along with sophomores Justin Calomeni (8-2, 3.68 ERA) and Slater Lee (3-2, 6.20 ERA). All are right-handers. Replacing Reilly as the Mustangs' closer is senior southpaw Taylor Chris (4-1, 1.61 ERA, 5 saves), who allowed just one earned run in 27 Big West innings a year ago.
Baylor, playing Cal Poly for the first time, was 26-31 a year ago, finishing seventh in the Big 12 with an 8-15 mark. The Bears have won five conference titles and has made 18 NCAA regional appearances and four super regionals. Last time for all three was 2012. Baylor also has qualified for the College World Series three times, the last in 2005.
Like Cal Poly, Baylor also returns 19 letter winners, including seven position starters and four pitchers who started at least seven games in 2014. Topping the list of veterans are senior outfielder Adam Toth (.296, 26 RBI, 13 steals in 2014), senior right-hander Austin Stone (3-4, 2.28 ERA) and southpaws Brad Kuntz (4-2, 3.32 ERA), a senior, and Daniel Castano (5-4, 3.34 ERA), a sophomore.
Baylor is coached by Steve Smith, who has compiled a 721-491-1 record in 20 seasons at the helm of the Bears. The 1986 Baylor graduate is an accomplished pitching coach, tutoring eight pitchers in the last 20 years who were selected in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft. Smith has coached 83 players who have signed professional contracts, including 74 in the past 18 years as a head coach. Thirty-six of those 83 were pitchers. A football and baseball standout at Gulfport (Miss.) High School, Smith went on to Mississippi College for two seasons and was a pitcher at Baylor in 1982 and 1983. After four seasons in the minor leagues, Smith returned to Baylor to obtain his degree and was an assistant coach at Mississippi State for seven seasons. Two of Smith's sons are on the Baylor baseball roster this season.
Cal Poly and Baylor are meeting for the first time and the Bears are not scheduled to visit San Luis Obispo in the near future. The Mustangs' last trip to the state of Texas was for a series at Houston in 2009. Cal Poly also played a series at Rice in 2007.
Ranked No. 13 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's preseason poll, No. 23 by the NCBWA and No. 24 by USA Today/ESPN, Cal Poly won 13 of 14 series of three games or more a year ago, including seven sweeps, split two games in a rain-shortened series at USC and won nine of its 10 midweek games, shutting out Santa Clara twice.
Cal Poly was 29-5 at home last season and has won 97 of its last 123 home games for a winning percentage of 78.9 percent. At 17-3 on March 16, Cal Poly posted the program's second-best 20-game start in its 110-year history. The 1997 Mustangs opened the year 18-2. Last year's squad also produced the school's 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.
The Mustangs had a 12-game winning streak -- longest in a single season in Cal Poly history -- snapped in the Long Beach State series. A 14-game winning streak was compiled by the 2012 (last seven games of season) and 2013 (first seven games) squads at Cal Poly. The Mustangs were 6-3 against the Pac-12, 3-0 against the Big 12, 5-3 against the West Coast, 7-1 against the WAC and 2-0 versus the Mountain West last season.
Cal Poly has produced 12 winning seasons since 2000. The Mustangs have won 32 of 43 series, including 18 sweeps, over the last three years and has the third-most victories over the last three seasons in the West Region -- 123 -- exceeded only by Oregon (138) and Oregon State (137). Last year's squad was the fourth in Cal Poly history to win 40 or more games. The 1977 and 1992 Mustang squads each won 41 games while the 2013 team finished 40-19.
Cal Poly was ranked throughout the 2014 season, reaching the top 20 in all five major Division I polls after splitting a doubleheader at USC on March 2, moving into the top 10 following its 3-1 series win over Cal on March 24 and attaining a program-first No. 1 ranking by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper on April 21 after its sweep of Cal State Fullerton. The Mustangs finished Nos. 18-20 in the five polls with their 47-12 mark.
Lee, in his 13th 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 in 2013 and Kansas State last season. The Mustangs have finished in the upper half of the conference standings 10 times in the last 12 years.
Lee (396-284-2) earned his 300th win on May 5, 2012, in a 12-7 decision at UC Davis. He 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).
Next week Cal Poly visits Fresno State on Tuesday before opening the home portion of its 2015 schedule Friday night with the first of three games against Grand Canyon.
