Cal Poly Concludes Home Stand by Hosting CSU Bakersfield on Tuesday
2/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | CSU BAKERSFIELD | BIG WEST
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Defending Big West Conference baseball champion Cal Poly (1-6), swept by Baylor and Grand Canyon in the opening two weekends of the 2015 season, sandwiching a 7-6 triumph at Fresno State, concludes a four-game home stand Tuesday night by hosting CSU Bakersfield (3-4) at Baggett Stadium (cap.: 2,800).
First pitch is set for 6 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.
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. Two days after being shut out for only the second time in two years, 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. Over the weekend, however, Grand Canyon took advantage of eight errors and held Cal Poly to a .206 team batting average, posting 10-4, 4-2 and 9-3 triumphs to remain unbeaten and hand the Mustangs their first sweep at home since the 2010 season (Houston).
CSU Bakersfield won three of four games against Northern Kentucky last weekend at home after being swept by Creighton and the Roadrunners will be playing its first road game 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 could return to the lineup Tuesday but will be limited to a designated hitter's role for about a month 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.
CSU Bakersfield returns 22 players, including eight position starters and eight pitchers, off a team which finished 26-33 a year ago and fifth in the Western Athletic Conference at 15-12. Topping the list of returning veterans are second baseman David Metzger (.312, 11 RBI in 2014), right fielder Chance Gusbeth (.309, three home runs, 37 RBI) and shortstop Mylez Jones (.300, two home runs,2 4 RBI). The pitching staff is led by James Barragan (5-6, 4.52 ERA in 2014) and Max Carter (1-2, 4.66 ERA, five saves in 2014).
CSU Bakersfield's top hitters this spring are designated hitter Soloman Williams (.389, six RBI, third baseman Ryan Grotjohn (.375), Gusbeth (.333, five RBI) and Jones (.320). The Roadrunners are hitting .276 as a team, are a perfect 12-for-12 in stolen bases, have committed eight errors in seven games (.972 fielding percentage) and sport a 3.86 staff ERA.
Coached by Bill Kernen (seventh season, 163-178, Redlands '70), CSU Bakersfield played its first season of baseball in 2009 and played its first season in the WAC in 2013. Kernen was a pitching coach at Cal State Fullerton from 1978-82, then left to take over the family's business interests when his father fell ill; after his father's passing, he returned for the 1987 season before following Titan head coach Augie Garrido to Illinois in 1988. He left Illinois for Cal State Northridge, where he was head coach from 1989-95 and posted a 240-154-3 record; he led the Matadors to the NCAA Division II title game in 1990 and a berth in the NCAA Division I regional finals in 1991.
Kernen stepped away from baseball in 1995 and enrolled in the prestigious dramatic writing graduate program at Columbia University, where he wrote and produced full-length plays; he returned to baseball in 2002, serving as an assistant coach at North Carolina State. Kernen returned to Fullerton in 2007 as a volunteer assistant coach before he was hired at CSU Bakersfield in 2008. He was a pitcher at Redlands before graduating cum laude in 1970.
Cal Poly and CSU Bakersfield have met 18 times on the baseball field since the series began in 2009. The Mustangs hold a 13-5 advantage in the series, winning six of the first seven and capturing a pair of midweek games in both 2013 and 2014. Larry Lee is 13-5 against CSU Bakersfield while Bill Kernen is 15-24 against Cal Poly, including a 10-11 mark while at Cal State Northridge from 1989-95.
Tuesday's starting pitchers will be freshman right-hander Andrew Bernstein (1-0, 0.00 ERA) for Cal Poly and sophomore right-hander Garrett Nimmo (0-0, 3.38 ERA) for CSU Bakersfield. In his first collegiate game, Bernstein (pictured above) started, struck out four and allowed two hits in 5 1/3 innings as Cal Poly beat Fresno State 7-6 last Tuesday.
Junior shortstop Peter Van Gansen went 4-for-13 in the Grand Canyon series while senior right fielder Zack Zehner was 3-for-10. No other Mustang starter hit over .300 in the series. Zehner and Van Gansen both went 5-for-12 in the Baylor series a week earlier.
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 126 home games for a winning percentage of 76.2 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, posting a 47-12 mark. 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 (397-290-2), 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 heads back to the Lone Star State for a three-game series against 2014 College World Series participant Texas Christian this weekend. The Horned Frogs are ranked No. 1 this week by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and Nos. 2-7 in the other five major Division I polls. TCU is 6-1 after winning two of three games at Arizona State over the weekend.
Photo above of Andrew Bernstein courtesy of Ray Ambler | RA Photos
