Cal Poly Opens Big West Baseball Title Defense at Cal State Fullerton
4/1/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | CAL STATE FULLERTON | BIG WEST
AUDIO STREAM: THURSDAY | FRIDAY | SATURDAY
LIVE STATS: THURSDAY | FRIDAY | SATURDAY
VIDEO STREAM: THURSDAY | FRIDAY | SATURDAY
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly (9-16), which has won or split three of its last four series after a 1-6 start, including series wins over Pacific and No. 19 Oregon State, opens defense of its 2014 Big West Conference championship Thursday night with the first of three games against Cal State Fullerton (14-13) at Goodwin Field (cap.: 3,500).
First pitches are set for 6 p.m. Thursday, 7 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday. All three games will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Tom Barket providing the play-by-play. The first two games also will be broadcast on ESPN3 with Trevor Schlom and Wes Clements. 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 has played near .500 baseball since the 1-6 start, though its entire three-game series at TCU was wiped out by a record three-inch snowfall and icy conditions at the end of February. The Mustangs earned their first series win of the year at Pacific in early March, split a four-game series against Sacramento State, won one of three games against No. 8 USC and claimed a series win at No. 19 Oregon State last weekend. Cal Poly dropped a 10-inning 9-8 decision at Pepperdine on Tuesday as Chris Fornaci homered leading off the bottom of the 10th for the Waves.
Cal State Fullerton, which did not play Tuesday, opened Big West play last weekend by winning two of three games at CSUN. The Titans own series sweeps over Baylor and Texas Tech but have lost series to Stanford, Indiana and Long Beach State, lost two of three games at the Opening Weekend Challenge in Clearwater, Fla., and split two midweek games at Nebraska.
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 five weeks ago as a designated hitter, going 2-for-4 with a double, one RBI and three runs scored against CSU Bakersfield on Feb. 24. Hitting .338 through 17 games with hits in each of his first 11 games, Mathias started at second base for the first time Tuesday at Pepperdine.
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.
Cal State Fullerton returned 18 players, including two position starters and eight pitchers, off a team which finished 34-24 a year ago and fourth in the Big West Conference with a 14-10 mark. The Titans, who went 2-2 in the Stillwater Regional a year ago, have won 27 conference titles in 40 Division I seasons, have appeared in 36 regionals, including each of the last 23 years, along with 11 Super Regionals and 16 College World Series, capturing national championships in 1979, 1984, 1995 and 2004. Cal State Fullerton is 537-172 since late 1992 at Goodwin Field and have never had a losing season in 40 Division I seasons.
Topping the list of returning veterans are first baseman Tanner Pinkston (.298, 19 RBI in 2014), designated hitter David Olmedo-Barrera (.273, 14 RBI) and shortstop Timmy Richards (.215). The pitching staff is led by right-handers Thomas Eshelman (8-3, 1.89 ERA in 2014) and Justin Garza (5-4, 3.22 ERA).
Coached by Rick Vanderhook (fourth season, 135-68, Trinity '03), Cal State Fullerton has a .255 team batting average through 27 games, led by Olmedo-Barrera (.301, five triples, 15 RBI), first baseman Josh Estill (.301, five doubles, four home runs, 19 RBI) and second baseman Jake Jefferies (.298, four doubles, six RBI). The Titans have stolen 24 of 32 bases and sport a 3.40 staff ERA and .971 fielding percentage with 29 errors in 27 games.
Eshelman (3-2, 1.92 ERA) will start Thursday's game on the mound for the Titans, followed by Garza (1-2, 2.51 ERA) on Friday and freshman southpaw John Gavin (3-1, 4.79 ERA), a graduate of St. Francis High School in Mountain View, on Saturday. Cal Poly will counter with junior right-hander Casey Bloomquist (2-2, 3.08 ERA), freshman southpaw Kyle Smith (2-4, 4.41 ERA) and freshman righty Andrew Bernstein (3-2, 3.26 ERA), respectively. After an 0-2 start, Bloomquist has earned back-to-back wins against No. 8 USC and No. 19 Oregon State.
Vanderhook returned home to Cal State Fullerton on June 24, 2011, where he spent the better part of a quarter century as a player and assistant coach under head coaches Augie Garrido, Larry Cochell and George Horton; he was also an assistant coach along side now-departed head coach Dave Serrano from 1997-2004 and spent three seasons as an assistant coach to John Savage at UCLA from 2009-11.
Cal Poly and Cal State Fullerton have met 101 times on the baseball field since the series began when both teams were California Collegiate Athletic Association members back in 1966. The Titans hold a 63-38 advantage, though Cal Poly swept last year's series in Baggett Stadium by scores of 8-0, 4-3 (13 innings) and 3-0. The Mustangs have enjoyed some recent success with 11 victories in the last 24 meetings over the last eight seasons, winning series at home in 2007, 2011 and 2014.
Cal Poly is 16-51 against Cal State Fullerton since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Larry Lee is 12-24 against Cal State Fullerton while Rick Vanderhook is 4-5 as a head coach against Cal Poly.
Sophomore catcher Brett Barbier, junior first baseman Brian Mundell and senior center fielder Jordan Ellis all had five hits in the Oregon State series. Senior right fielder Zack Zehner added a pair of home runs while junior right fielder John Schuknecht hit a grand slam and knocked in six runs in the series. The Mustangs hit 294 in the series, outhit Oregon State in each game, compiled a 2.08 staff ERA and did not commit an error.
Van Gansen currently sports a .382 batting average, second in the Big West, with six doubles, two triples and 14 RBI and also leads the Mustangs with nine multiple-hit contests. He has collected a hit in 20 of Cal Poly's 25 games, has reached base safely in 24 of 25 contests and takes a 10-game hitting streak into Thursday's game. Mathias has a .338 mark while Mundell is hitting .362. Zehner sports a .255 average with a team-leading five home runs and 25 RBI in 25 games, while senior outfielder Jordan Ellis has a .296 mark with a five-game hitting streak and a pair of four-hit games this season.
Cal Poly was 29-5 at home last season and has won 102 of its last 136 home games for a winning percentage of 75 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.
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 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 (405-300-2), 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 March 7 at Pacific and surpassed Berdy Harr (297-249-6 from 1973-83) as Cal Poly's winningest head baseball coach during the Pacific series in 2011.
Next week, Cal Poly opens a five-game home stand with a single game Tuesday against Pepperdine and a weekend Big West series against Hawai'i in Baggett Stadium.
