Cal Poly Opens Home Schedule This Weekend, Hosting 4-0 Grand Canyon
2/18/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | GRAND CANYON | BIG WEST
AUDIO STREAM: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
LIVE STATS: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
VIDEO STREAM (Friday/Sunday only) | PREVIEW
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Defending Big West Conference baseball champion Cal Poly (1-3), swept by Baylor in the opening series of the 2015 season at Waco, Texas, followed by a 7-6 triumph at Fresno State on Tuesday night, opens the home portion of its 2015 schedule this weekend with a three-game non-conference series against Grand Canyon (4-0) at Baggett Stadium (cap.: 2,800).
First pitch is set for 6 p.m. both Friday and Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. Games Friday and Sunday will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Saturday's contest on the internet only. 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.
Two days after the shutout, the Mustangs pounded out 16 hits, jumped to a 7-0 lead and held on to beat Fresno State 7-6 at Pete Beiden Field. Senior center fielder Jordan Ellis, junior shortstop Peter Van Gansen and sophomore catcher Jake Lesinski each banged out three hits while freshman right-hander Andrew Bernstein pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings for the win, allowing just two hits and striking out four in his collegiate debut.
Grand Canyon opened its 2015 campaign by winning each of its three games in the GCU Classic, defeating North Dakota State 6-3, Nebraska-Omaha 8-1 and Bradley 30-7 with a 28-hit offensive attack. Senior second baseman Chad De La Guerra, a graduate of Pioneer Valley High School in nearby Santa Maria, went 5-for-6 with a double, two home runs, five runs scored and nine RBI in the finale and was 7-for-13 with three home runs, seven runs scored and 12 RBI over the three games en route to Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week honors as selected by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.
Head coach Andy Stankiewicz's Lopes hit .393 in the GCU Classic while the pitching staff compiled a 1.67 ERA. Grand Canyon blanked UNLV 7-0 on Tuesday.
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. Senior right-hander Danny Zandona (pictured above) earned a save Tuesday at Fresno State by striking out three Bulldogs in the ninth inning.
Grand Canyon returns 14 players, including eight position starters and four pitchers, off a team which finished 30-23 a year ago and second in the Western Athletic Conference at 19-8. Topping the list of returning veterans are De La Guerra (.373, six home runs, 49 RBI, 16 steals in 2014), outfielder David Walker (.360, 16 RBI, 22 steals) and southpaw Andrew Haderer (9-3, 3.26 ERA in 2014).
Designated hitter Garrison Schwartz was 7-for-11 in the GCU Classic with five RBI while right fielder Brandon Smith hit .454 (5-for-11) with three doubles and four RBI. First baseman Charles Wagner contributed five hits and knocked in seven runs for the Antelopes.
Stankiewicz, a graduate of Pepperdine, is in his fourth season as head coach at Grand Canyon, compiling a 97-65 mark in his first three seasons. The 30-7 win over Bradley on Sunday was his 100th as head coach at Grand Canyon. One of his assistant coaches, Nathan Choate, was a pitcher at Cal Poly in 2000 and 2001.
Cal Poly and Grand Canyon are meeting officially for the first time this weekend, though the two clubs played a series in the fall of 2013 at Baggett Stadium.
Cal Poly's pitching rotation for the series includes one change from the opening weekend of play. In the Baylor series, the three Mustang starters on the mound failed to complete five innings. Junior right-hander Casey Bloomquist will start again Friday and sophomore right-hander Justin Calomeni draws the nod Sunday while freshman southpaw Kyle Smith (0-1, 4.15 ERA), who has made two relief appearances, striking out seven in 3 1/3 innings against Baylor, replaces Slater Lee in the rotation Saturday.
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 (397-287-2), 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.
Next week, Cal Poly hosts Bakersfield on Tuesday night at 6 before heading back to the Lone Star State for a three-game series against 2014 College World Series participant Texas Christian. The Horned Frogs are ranked No. 1 this week by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and Nos. 2-8 in the other five major Division I polls.
Photo above of Danny Zandona courtesy of Ray Ambler | RA Photos
