Cal Poly Resumes Big West Play This Weekend at No. 9 UCSB
4/15/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | UC SANTA BARBARA | BIG WEST
MUSTANGS BEAT BULLDOGS TO WRAP UP 5-0 HOME STAND
DROBNY NAMED BIG WEST FIELD PLAYER OF THE WEEK
AUDIO STREAM: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
LIVE STATS: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly (15-18, 4-2 Big West), which moved into a tie for third place in the Big West Conference by sweeping Hawai'i over the weekend and extended its winning streak to five games with a 10-6 win over Fresno State on Tuesday, returns to Big West play Friday with the opener of a three-game series at Blue-Green and Central Coast rival UC Santa Barbara (26-8, 4-2 Big West) in Caesar Uyesaka Stadium (cap.: 1,000).
First pitch is set for 3 p.m., followed by a 2 p.m. start Saturday and a 1 o'clock finale Sunday. All three games of the series will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Tom Barket providing the play-by-play. Links for live stats as well as an audio stream 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 (14-12) since the 1-6 start. A three-game series at TCU was wiped out by a record three-inch snowfall and icy conditions at the end of February, but 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, claimed a series win at No. 19 Oregon State and won one of three games at Cal State Fullerton before avenging a 10-inning 9-8 walk-off loss at Pepperdine on March 31 with a 9-1 triumph last Wednesday in Baggett Stadium. Cal Poly swept Hawai'i over the weekend by scores of 7-5, 3-2 and 12-5, overcoming early deficits in each contest, and turned 5-1 and 6-2 deficits into a 10-6 win over Fresno State on Tuesday night in Baggett Stadium, ending a 5-0 home stand.
UC Santa Barbara, ranked Nos. 9-11 in the six major NCAA Division I polls this week, has opened Big West play with series wins over Long Beach State and CSUN sandwiched around a four-game non-conference sweep against Fresno State. A 13-inning 3-2 loss at CSUN last Sunday snapped a nine-game winning streak. The Gauchos have never lost more than two games in a row and opened their season with a four-game sweep against BYU and two of three wins against Kentucky. UCSB also owns series wins over Sacramento State and Wichita State and its only series loss was two games to one at home against Oregon at the end of February.
Cal Poly, which opened defense of its 2014 Big West title two weeks ago by winning one of three games at Cal State Fullerton, returned home and posted a 4-0 week for the first time last week with a single win over Pepperdine and three victories against Hawai'i.
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 in the third week of the season as a designated hitter, going 2-for-4 with a double, one RBI and three runs scored against CSU Bakersfield on Feb. 24. Hitting .333 through 26 games with hits in each of his first 11 games, Mathias started at second base for the first time two weeks ago at Pepperdine.
Junior Peter Van Gansen (pictured above) 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 are 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, and senior right-hander Danny Zandona (4-0, 3.49 ERA).
UC Santa Barbara, coached by Andrew Checketts (123-78-1, Oregon State '98), returned 24 players, including six position starters and 10 pitchers (three of four starters), off a team which finished 34-17-1 a year ago and tied for fifth in the Big West Conference at 12-12. Topping the list of veterans are utility player Robby Nesovic (.325, five steals, 33 RBI in 2014), center fielder Andrew Calica (.310, 10 steals, 20 RBI) and pitchers Dillon Tate (0-2, 12 saves, 1.45 ERA), southpaw Justin Jacome (8-2, 2.61 ERA) and Shane Bieber (3-4, 3.76 ERA).
Second baseman Woody Woodward leads all Gaucho hitters with a .373 average, seven doubles and 11 RBI while Nesovic sports a .339 average, eight doubles and 29 RBI. Left fielder Luke Swenson is hitting .337 (five doubles, four triples, 17 RBI), Calica .336 (six doubles, two triples, 12 RBI, 12 steals) and left fielder Cameron Newell .325 (six doubles, three homers, 20 RBI). The Gauchos are hitting .292 as a team with 45 steals in 65 attempts, has compiled a 2.13 staff ERA and has committed 30 errors in 34 games for a .978 fielding percentage.
Jacome (6-1, 2.08 ERA) will start Friday's game, followed by Bieber (5-2, 2.05 ERA) on Saturday and Tate (5-3, 1.73 ERA), the closer last year, will start Sunday. Cal Poly counters with Casey Bloomquist (3-2, 3.20 ERA) and freshman southpaw Kyle Smith (3-5, 3.51 ERA) the first two days. Sunday's Mustang starter is undecided.
UCSB claimed Big West titles in 1972 and 1986 and has qualified for the NCAA Division I regionals eight times, including 2013, compiling a 7-20 win-loss record in Division I postseason competition.
Checketts spent three seasons as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator under George Horton at Oregon before coming to UC Santa Barbara. He was on the UC Riverside staff for seven years and began his coaching career at Riverside Community College, where he served as pitching coach and helped the team to their second consecutive California State championship in 2001. Checketts played one season at Florida and three at Oregon State.
Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara have met 217 times on the baseball field since the series began when both teams were California Collegiate Athletic Association members back in 1942. The Gauchos hold a 117-100 advantage. In last year's series, Cal Poly bounced back from a 7-6 loss in the opener to earn 8-7 and 1-0 victories in Baggett Stadium.
Cal Poly is 46-42 against UCSB since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Larry Lee is 30-21 against UC Santa Barbara while Andrew Checketts is 5-8 against Cal Poly.
Junior first baseman Ryan Drobny went 6-for-11 in the Hawai'i series with two hits in each game, doubling twice, driving in two runs and scoring four times en route to Big West Field Player of the Week honors. Sophomore catcher Brett Barbier, junior second baseman Mark Mathias and senior outfielder Zack Zehner each had four hits -- Barbier knocking in six runs, all in the Sunday contest with a single, triple and home run. Barbier added five more RBI in Tuesday's win over Fresno State with two singles, a double and a triple, his second four-hit game of the season.
Mundell currently sports a .326 batting average, sixth in the Big West, with five doubles, five home runs and 20 RBI. Shortstop Peter Van Gansen has a .341 average and has collected a hit in 25 of Cal Poly's 33 games, has reached base safely in 31 of 33 contests and has produced 11- and eight-game hitting streaks. Mathias has a .333 mark while Zehner sports a .295 average with five home runs and a team-leading 29 RBI in 32 games. Senior outfielder Jordan Ellis has a .286 mark with seven doubles, 12 RBI and a pair of four-hit games this season while Barbier is hitting .280 with 17 RBI.
Cal Poly was 29-5 at home last season and has won 103 of its last 137 home games for a winning percentage of 75.2 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.
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.
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.
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.
Lee (411-302-2), 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 visits Santa Clara for a midweek game Tuesday night at 6 and returns home to host Long Beach State for a Big West series Friday through Sunday. Game times are 6, 6 and 1 p.m.
