Cal Poly to Visit Former Big West Rival Pacific for Weekend Series
3/4/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | PACIFIC | BIG WEST
AUDIO STREAM: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
LIVE STATS: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
VIDEO STREAM
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Defending Big West Conference baseball champion Cal Poly (2-7), which a year ago did not suffer its seventh loss of the season until April 27, will visit Pacific (0-11) for a non-conference three-game series this weekend at Klein Family Field (cap.: 2,500) in Stockton.
First pitches are set for 6 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. The games Friday and Sunday will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Eric Burdick providing the play-by-play. Saturday's contest will be available 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 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. This week opened with Cal Poly falling at home to Santa Clara, 3-0, held to just three singles and shut out for the second time this season.
Pacific has yet to enter the win column in 2015, losing four games at home to Washington, four games at UNLV and three games at Nevada. Five of the Tigers' losses have been by three runs or less, including Monday's 13-12 setback at Nevada. Pacific was hitting .242 as a team before exploding for 18 hits against the 10-1 Wolf Pack on Monday.
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 week as a designated hitter, going 2-for-4 with a double, one RBI and three runs scored against CSU Bakersfield. He 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, 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.
Pacific returned 20 players, including six position starters and eight pitchers, off a team which finished 26-27 a year ago and sixth in the West Coast Conference at 15-12. The Tigers are in their second year of play in the West Coast Conference after being a member of the Big West Conference for 29 years. Topping the list of returning veterans are shortstop Brett Sullivan (.357, 40 RBI, nine steals in 2014), outfielder Tyler Sullivan (.315, 16 RBI, 11 steals) and utility player JP Yakel (.272, 19 RBI). The pitching staff is led by Jake Jenkins (6-3, 2.55 ERA in 2014), Mike Hager (4-5, 4.19 ERA) and Will Lydon (3-4, 4.45 ERA), all right-handers.
Pacific's top hitters so far this spring are third baseman JJ Wagner (.395, four RBI), second baseman Louis Mejia (.357) and catcher JP Yakel (.294, four RBI). The Tigers are hitting .262 as a team, have stolen two of three bases, have committed 26 errors in 11 games (.940 fielding percentage) and sport a 5.84 staff ERA, the staff allowing foes to hit .310.
Coached by Ed Sprague (12th season, 235-380, Stanford), Pacific never claimed a Big West title. The Tigers posted seven winning seasons and three more .500 campaigns since their entrance into the Big West Conference in 1985.
Sprague was the starting third baseman on the 1987 and 1988 NCAA championship teams at Stanford and won a gold medal as a member of the 1988 U.S. Olympic baseball team ... a first-round selection by Toronto in the 1988 MLB Draft, Sprague played 11 years in the majors and helped the Blue Jays win back-to-back World Series in 1992 and 1993 ... he also played with the Pirates, Red Sox, Athletics, Mariners and Padres, earning a spot in the 1999 All-Star Game ... Sprague's wife, Kristen Babb Sprague, was an Olympic gold medalist in synchronized swimming in 1992.
Cal Poly and Pacific have met 75 times on the baseball field since the series began in 1946. The Mustangs hold a 44-31 advantage, beating the Tigers 25 of the last 32 times and 31 of 42, taking the series 14 straight years. Cal Poly won two of three games against the Tigers in a three-game series ending the 2013 regular season at Klein Family Field, Pacific's last Big West games before moving to the West Coast Conference.
Cal Poly is 35-19 against Pacific since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season.
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 (398-291-2), 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 plays a midweek game Tuesday at San Jose State before opening an eight-game home stand with a four-game series against 2014 San Luis Obispo Regional participant Sacramento State on Thursday through Sunday in Baggett Stadium.
