Cal Poly Returns Home to Host Santa Clara on Tuesday Night
3/2/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | SANTA CLARA | BIG WEST
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Defending Big West Conference baseball champion Cal Poly (2-6), a perfect 2-0 in Tuesday games after being swept by Baylor and Grand Canyon, will host Santa Clara (6-5) for a single non-conference game Tuesday night in Baggett Stadium (cap.: 2,800).
First pitch is set for 6 p.m. 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 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 last Tuesday, but its entire three-game series at TCU over the weekend was wiped out by a record three-inch snowfall and icy conditions. The series will not be made up.
Santa Clara sprinted to a 6-3 start before losing both games of a Sunday doubleheader at home against Eastern Michigan, 5-4 and 11-7. The Broncos have defeated Vanderbilt once, Cincinnati (three times) and Eastern Michigan (twice).
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 returned to the lineup last Tuesday as a designated hitter, going 2-for-4 with a double, one RBI and three runs scored. He is expected to return to defensive duty at second base in about a month.
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.
Santa Clara returned 20 players, including eight position starters and 11 pitchers, off a team which finished 26-30 a year ago and tied for fourth place in the West Coast Conference at 16-11. The Broncos are in their 133rd year of competition in baseball, earning 2,216 wins with 12 NCAA regional appearances (the last in 1997) and one trip to the College World Series (1962). Topping the list of returning veterans are shortstop Jose Vizcaino Jr. (.323, 28 RBI, 11 steals in 2014), catcher Stevie Berman (.322, 23 RBI) and left fielder TJ Braff (.309, 21 RBI). The pitching staff is led by Peter Hendron (6-4, 4.34 ERA in 2014), Reece Karalus (6-2, 2.25 ERA, 11 saves) and Jacob Steffens (2-5, 3.90 ERA).
Santa Clara's top hitters so far this spring are second baseman Austin Fisher (.474, four RBI), Vizcaino (.394, 10 RBI) and catcher Kyle Cortopassi (.333, eight RBI). The Broncos are hitting .282 as a team, have stolen eight of 16 bases, have committed 14 errors in 11 games (.966 fielding percentage) and sport a 4.78 staff ERA.
Coached by Dan O'Brien (fourth season at Santa Clara (72-102), 19th season overall (526-385-1), UC San Diego '95), Santa Clara has finished first in the West Coast Conference four times, the last in 2001.
O'Brien, who earned his 500th career win last season, was head coach at UC San Diego for 14 seasons, compiling a 454-283-1 record, before he was hired as Santa Clara's head coach on June 30, 2011, replacing Mark O'Brien. The Tritons qualified for the NCAA Division II West Regional five times in the last eight seasons under Dan O'Brien, making two trips to the Division II College World Series.
Cal Poly and Santa Clara have played 79 baseball games against each other since the series began in 1956. The Broncos hold a 41-38 advantage, though Cal Poly won both meetings in midweek games a year ago -- 8-0 on Feb. 18 at Steven Schott Stadium and 6-0 at Baggett Stadium on March 4. Cal Poly has won the last four meetings.
Larry Lee is 15-13 against Santa Clara while O'Brien is 2-4 against Cal Poly.
Tuesday's starting pitchers will be freshman right-hander Andrew Bernstein (2-0, 1.46 ERA) for Cal Poly and sophomore southpaw Kevin George (0-0, 3.68 ERA) for Santa Clara. Bernstein has started in Cal Poly's previous two midweek games, earning victories at Fresno State and at home against CSU Bakersfield.
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. Against CSU Bakersfield last Tuesday, Van Gansen went 4-for-6 with three RBI, extending his season-opening hitting streak to eight games and lifting his batting average to .444. He also leads the Mustangs with five multiple-hit contests. Senior right fielder Zack Zehner sports a .323 average with seven RBI in eight games.
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 (398-290-2), 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.
This weekend, Cal Poly goes back out on the road for a three-game weekend series Friday through Sunday at former Big West rival Pacific.
