Cal Poly Travels to San Jose State on Tuesday to Cap Road Trip
3/9/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | SAN JOSE STATE | BIG WEST
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Defending Big West Conference baseball champion Cal Poly (4-8), which claimed its first series win of the season by taking two of three games at Pacific last weekend, visits San Jose State (5-10) for a non-conference game Tuesday night at Municipal Stadium (cap.: 5,000).
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. Tuesday's contest 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 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, 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.
Swept by Loyola Marymount to open the season, San Jose State won three of four games against Northern Colorado at home but has lost six of seven since, swept by San Diego State two weeks ago and losing two of three games to Air Force last weekend. The Spartans are hitting just .241 as a team and have committed 20 errors in 15 games.
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 two weeks ago as a designated hitter, going 2-for-4 with a double, one RBI and three runs scored against CSU Bakersfield. Hitting .391 through five games, Mathias is expected to return to defensive duty at second base in about two 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.
San Jose State returned 16 players, including four position starters and six pitchers, off a team which finished 19-38 a year ago and seventh in the Mountain West Conference at 10-20. Topping the list of returning veterans are outfielder Brett Bautista (.313, 17 RBI in 2014), outfielder Andre Mercurio (.280, 13 RBI) and infielder Alec de Watteville (.245, 21 RBI). The pitching staff is led by right-hander Kalei Contrades (5-2, 2.50 ERA in 2014), southpaw Jonathan Hernandez (0-7, 5.32 ERA) and righty Logan Handzlik (2-3, 5.92 ERA). Closer is Myles Richard (2-4, 4.82 ERA, five saves) also returns.
Coached by Dave Nakama (third year, 41-89, Willamette '84), San Jose State has a .241 team batting average through 15 games, led by Mercurio (.364, eight doubles, 10 RBI), Bautista (.341, six RBI) and de Watteville (.261, 12 RBI). The Spartans sport a 5.33 staff ERA and .965 fielding percentage with 20 errors in 15 games.
San Jose State has made four NCAA appearances, the last time in 2002 at the Stanford Regional; the Spartans earned Western Athletic Conference regular-season titles in 2000 and 2009 and are now members of the Mountain West Conference. The Spartans' lone College World Series appearance was in 2000.
Nakama was associate head coach at Washington from 2010-12 before he was hired as head coach at San Jose State in September 2012. He also served as an assistant at Stanford from 1997-98 and 2002-09. Nakama was head coach at Mission College in San Jose from 1992-96 as well as at San Francisco State from 1999-2001; he was an infielder at Willamette and began his coaching career at Northern Colorado in 1984; he also has worked at Iowa, Yavapai College and DeAnza College.
Cal Poly and San Jose State have played 90 baseball games against each other since the series began in 1947. The Spartans hold a 47-42-1 advantage, though the Mustangs won by 5-3 and 12-5 scores in a pair of midweek games a year ago. Cal Poly and San Jose State resumed the series in 2013 after a three-year hiatus and Cal Poly has won four straight games against the Spartans.
Cal Poly is 19-21-1 against San Jose State since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Larry Lee is 12-5-1 against San Jose State while Nakama is 0-4 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 (pictured above) 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 .453 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 12 games and has reached base safely in all 12 contests. Ellis is hitting .340 with four doubles and six RBI while senior right fielder Zack Zehner sports a .298 average with 15 RBI in 12 games. In five games, Mathias is hitting .391 while Pluschkell has a .348 mark in six starts.
Tuesday's starting pitchers will be freshman right-hander Jarred Zill (0-0, 2.70 ERA) for Cal Poly against San Jose State freshman right-hander Hilario Tovar (0-0, 14.40 ERA).
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 (400-292-2), 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, and his 400th 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.
Cal Poly opens 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.
