Cal Poly Seeks First Victory With Midweek Game at Fresno State
2/16/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | FRESNO STATE | BIG WEST
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Defending Big West Conference baseball champion Cal Poly (0-3), swept by Baylor in the opening series of the 2015 season at Waco, Texas, tries to get back on the winning track Tuesday night with a single non-conference game against Central California rival Fresno State (3-0) at Beiden Field (cap.: 3,575).
First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m. PST. 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.
Cal Poly returned 19 lettermen, including six position starters and seven pitchers (three of the four starters), off the 2914 squad which posted a school-record 47 victories, claimed its first Big West Conference title and earned its third NCAA regional appearance in the last six years, hosting a regional for the first time.
And the Mustangs carried a national ranking as high as No. 13 into its opening series at Baylor, but the unranked Bears earned 8-6, 8-6 and 6-0 victories at Baylor Ballpark, handing Cal Poly its first series sweep since the end of the 2011 campaign and only its second shutout since 2013.
This week, the Mustang coaching staff will try to find ways to reduce the number of walks (22) and wild pitches (6) issued by Mustang pitchers along with the seven errors committed by the Cal Poly defense. In addition, the three Mustang starting pitchers failed to complete five innings of work as Casey Bloomquist was removed after pitching to one batter in the fifth Friday, Slater Lee went just two innings Saturday and Justin Calomeni tossed three innings Sunday.
Fresno State opened its 2015 campaign by sweeping Big West member UC Irvine by scores of 5-4, 7-5 and 7-5. In each game, the Bulldogs rallied in the late innings for the victories, scoring a run in the ninth to snap a 4-4 tie Friday, tallying six runs in the seventh inning to turn a 5-1 deficit into another win Saturday and erupting for two runs in the seventh and five in the eighth to erase a 5-0 deficit in another 7-5 triumph Sunday.
Head coach Mike Batesole's Bulldogs hit .368 in the series and won all three games despite striking out 28 times. Fresno State turned eight double plays and the Bulldog pitching staff hit eight UC Irvine batters in three games.
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 and will miss the first two weeks of the season. He will be limited to a designated hitter's role, perhaps as early as next week, 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 (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.
Fresno State returns 17 players, including six position starters and seven pitchers, off a team which finished 28-29 a year ago and fifth in the Mountain West Conference. Topping the list of veterans are catcher Taylor Ward (.320, six home runs, 41 RBI in 2014), senior third baseman Manny Argomaniz (.253, six home runs, 25 RBI) and junior right-hander Tim Borst (4-5, 3.02 ERA).
Center fielder Brody Russell, a .236 hitter a year ago, went 7-for-12 with five RBI in the UC Irvine series while Ward was 5-for-12 with three RBI. Argomaniz, designated hitter Kevin Viers and shortstop Ryan Dobson each had four hits in the series.
Batesole is in his 13th season as head coach at Fresno State after seven seasons at Cal State Northridge. He is 414-326 with the Bulldogs and 671-484-1 overall. The Bulldogs have made 33 NCAA tournament appearances, including four in the College World Series and capturing the national title in 2008. The last of Fresno State's 34 conference championships was in 2012.
Cal Poly and Fresno State are meeting for the 177th time Tuesday night, but did not face each other in the 2013 or 2014 seasons. The Bulldogs own a 113-63 advantage, though the Mustangs have enjoyed some recent success. In 2005 Cal Poly swept Fresno State in a three-game series for the first time in the then-60-year history of the rivalry and duplicated the feat opening the 2006 campaign in Baggett Stadium and again in 2007 at Pete Beiden Field. The Mustangs have won 18 of their last 24 games against the Bulldogs, including three of five games during Fresno State's national championship season in 2008.
Starting pitchers for Tuesday's game will be freshman right-hander Andrew Bernstein (pictured above) from Claremont High School for Cal Poly and freshman southpaw Ricky Thomas from Mira Mesa High School in San Diego for Fresno State. Bernstein did not pitch in the Baylor series while Thomas gave up one run and three hits in two innings of work in the finale against UC Irvine.
Zehner and Van Gansen both went 5-for-12 in the Baylor series, Zehner driving in four runs and Van Gansen adding a pair. Mundell was 4-for-11, junior third baseman John Schuknecht 4-for-13 and sophomore left fielder Brett Barbier 4-for-13 as well. Both Zehner and Barbier had home runs in the series while Schuknecht went 4-for-5 in the series opener, his first four-hit game as a Mustang.
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 won 32 of 43 series, including 18 sweeps, over the last three years and have 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 (396-287-2), in his 13th season with the Mustangs, has guided Cal Poly to 10 finishes in the upper half of the Big West standings in the last 12 years. He 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.
Cal Poly opens the home portion of its 2015 schedule Friday night with the first of three games against Grand Canyon.
Photo above of Andrew Bernstein courtesy of Ray Ambler | RA Photos
