Cal Poly to Host Sacramento State for Four-Game Weekend Series

Note for Cal Poly baseball season-ticket holders: For Thursday's home game against Sacramento State at 6 p.m. in Baggett Stadium, an added game due to the canceled games at TCU, season-ticket holders may pick up their tickets on the day of the game at will call or at the ticket office located on Grand Ave in the Performing Arts Center between the hours of 12 noon and 6 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Defending Big West Conference baseball champion Cal Poly (4-9), which claimed its first series win of the season by taking two of three games at Pacific last weekend, opens an eight-game home stand with a four-game series against 2014 San Luis Obispo regional participant Sacramento State (8-6) in Baggett Stadium (cap.: 2,800).

First pitches are set for 6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. All four games of the series will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Tom Barket or Eric Burdick providing the play-by-play. The entire series also will be available on the internet. Links for live stats as well as audio and video streams are available on the baseball schedule page at www.GoPoly.com.

Cal Poly returned 19 lettermen, including six position starters and seven pitchers (three of the four starters), off the 2014 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 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. After a 7-6 win over host Fresno State on Feb. 17, Cal Poly committed eight errors and was held to a .206 team batting average as Grand Canyon posted 10-4, 4-2 and 9-3 triumphs, handing the Mustangs their first sweep at home since the 2010 season (Houston).

Cal Poly bounced back with a 13-2 win over CSU Bakersfield, but its entire three-game series at TCU over the weekend was wiped out by a record three-inch snowfall and icy conditions. Last week opened with Cal Poly falling at home to Santa Clara, 3-0, held to just three singles, followed by the series win at Pacific, taking Friday's game 11-3 and Saturday's contest 12-4 before losing the finale Sunday 11-8, letting 5-0 and 8-3 leads slip away. On Tuesday, the Mustangs dropped a 5-2 decision at San Jose State, allowing four unearned runs in the second inning.

Sacramento State lost two of three games at home against UC Santa Barbara last weekend. The Hornets opened the year by winning three of four games against both Utah and Portland, then lost the first game of a four-game series at Texas Tech before snow and cold weather wiped out the remaining three contests. Sacramento State also dropped a 6-2 decision at Fresno State last week but defeated William Jesuit 4-1 on Tuesday.

Cal Poly's 2015 roster is led by junior second baseman Mark Mathias (pictured above), 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 returned to the lineup two weeks ago as a designated hitter, going 2-for-4 with a double, one RBI and three runs scored against CSU Bakersfield. Hitting .407 through six games, Mathias is expected to return to defensive duty at second base in about three weeks.

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, takes 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, has moved 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.

Sacramento State returned 17 players, including six position starters and nine pitchers, off a team which finished 40-24 a year ago, claimed the Western Athletic Conference title with a 21-6 mark, won the WAC Tournament and qualified for the NCAA regional hosted by Cal Poly, posting a 1-2 mark.

Topping the list of returning veterans are right fielder Nathan Lukes (.347, 26 RBI in 2014), shortstop Scotty Burcham (.300, 23 RBI) and left fielder Kyle Moses (.330, 18 RBI). The pitching staff is led by right-hander Brennan Leitao (9-4, 2.15 ERA in 2014), southpaw Sam Long (8-2, 3.03 ERA) and righty Justin Dillon (4-2, 3.86 ERA). Closer Sutter McLoughlin (4-2, 1.81 ERA, nine saves) also returns.

Coached by Reggie Christiansen (fifth year, 132-122, Menlo '98), Sacramento State has a .270 team batting average through 14 games, led by Lukes (.442, 11 RBI), Burcham (.300, eight RBI) and utility player Chris Lewis (.310, nine RBI). The Hornets sport a 2.91 staff ERA and .979 fielding percentage with 12 errors in 14 games.

Sacramento State, which moved to Division I in 1990, made its first NCAA regional appearance a year ago. The Hornets qualified for the Division II playoffs four times.

Christiansen was associate head coach under John Smith at Sacramento State in 2009 and 2010. Before that, he was head coach for four seasons at South Dakota State, compiling a 96-113 record. Christiansen was an assistant under former Cal Poly head coach Ritch Price at Kansas for two seasons and coached four seasons at Menlo College, including one as head coach. He earned his bachelor's degree at Menlo in 1998 and his master's at Kansas in 2004.

Cal Poly and Sacramento State have met 60 times on the baseball field since the series began back in 1950. The Mustangs hold a 45-15 advantage, winning both of the meetings between the two teams in the regional. Prior to last year's regional, the two teams had not met since 2009 when Cal Poly swept a three-game series against the Hornets at Baggett Stadium.

Sacramento State was a member of the Big West Conference from 1997-2002. Cal Poly is 33-12 against Sacramento State since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Larry Lee is 9-1 against Sacramento State while Reggie Christiansen is 0-2 against Cal Poly.

Junior shortstop Peter Van Gansen went 8-for-14 in the Pacific series while senior center fielder Jordan Ellis was 8-for-16, senior first baseman Tommy Pluschkell 6-for-9 and junior second baseman Mark Mathias 6-for-15. Cal Poly won two of three games at Pacific for its first series win of the year.

Van Gansen currently sports a .429 batting average, best in the Big West, with five doubles and 11 RBI and also leads the Mustangs with seven multiple-hit contests. He has collected a hit in 11 of Cal Poly's 13 games and has reached base safely in all 13 contests. Ellis is hitting .340 with four doubles and six RBI while senior right fielder Zack Zehner sports a .294 average with 16 RBI in 13 games, including a pair of four-RBI games at Pacific. In six games, Mathias is hitting .407 while Pluschkell has a .360 mark in seven starts.

Ranked No. 13 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's preseason poll, No. 23 by the NCBWA and No. 24 by USA Today/ESPN in this year's preseason polls, 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 (400-293-2), 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 400th win last Saturday at Pacific. 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 weekend, Cal Poly hosts nationally ranked Southern California (15-2 entering this weekend) on Friday through Sunday in Baggett Stadium.

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