Cal Poly to Visit CSU Bakersfield in Final Road Midweek Game Tuesday
4/27/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | CSU BAKERSFIELD | BIG WEST
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly (19-21, 7-5 Big West), which climbed into fourth place in the Big West Conference by winning two of three games at home against Long Beach State (the Mustangs' first series win over the Dirtbags since 2010), plays its final road midweek game Tuesday night, visiting CSU Bakersfield (25-16-1, 12-5-1 Western Athletic) at Hardt Field (cap.: 2,000).
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. 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 Mustangs were swept by the Bears as well as Grand Canyon the following week. Cal Poly is 18-15 since the 1-6 start and is just one game behind UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton and UC Santa Barbara in the loss column atop the Big West standings.
Cal Poly owns series wins over Pacific, Oregon State, Hawaii and Long Beach State and are 9-3 since falling eight games below the .500 mark April 4. Last weekend at Baggett Stadium, the Mustangs beat the 49ers 6-1 in Friday's opener and 4-3 in 12 innings on Zack Zehner's leadoff home run in the 12th inning Saturday before letting a 9-2 lead evaporate in a 10-inning 12-11 setback Sunday.
CSU Bakersfield knocked off Seattle twice in a three-game WAC series at Hardt Field over the weekend, losing the finale 4-0 Sunday. The Roadrunners are third in the WAC standings at 12-5-1, not far behind Grand Canyon (13-4) and Seattle (13-5). CSU Bakersfield was 13-14-1 after losing a series against Utah Valley in late March but has won 12 of its last 14 games to vault back into the WAC race. The Roadrunners own series wins over Northern Kentucky, Wagner, North Dakota, Texas-Pan American, Sacramento State and Seattle.
Cal Poly's 2015 roster is led by junior second baseman Mark Mathias (pictured above), 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 .360 through 33 games with hits in each of his first 11 games as well as his last 10 contests, Mathias started at second base for the first time four weeks ago at Pepperdine. He is hitting .456 (26 of 57) over his last 15 games to lift his average 58 points.
Junior Peter Van Gansen returned to anchor the middle infield at shortstop while junior Brian Mundell, Cal Poly's designated hitter the last two years, took over at first base this spring. Senior Jordan Ellis returned for another season in center field while senior Zack Zehner, drafted in the seventh round by Toronto last June, moved from left field to right field this spring to replace Torres.
Mundell is now Cal Poly's designated hitter while Zehner is back in left field.
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).
CSU Bakersfield returned 22 players, including eight position starters and eight pitchers, off a team which finished 26-33 a year ago and fifth in the Western Athletic Conference at 15-12. Topping the list of returning veterans are second baseman David Metzger (.312, 11 RBI in 2014), right fielder Chance Gusbeth (.309, three home runs, 37 RBI) and shortstop Mylez Jones (.300, two home runs,2 4 RBI). The pitching staff is led by James Barragan (5-6, 4.52 ERA in 2014) and Max Carter (1-2, 4.66 ERA, five saves in 2014).
CSU Bakersfield's top hitters this spring are Metzger (.376, 12 doubles, 27 RBI, seven steals), designated hitter Max Carter (.370, four doubles, 17 RBI), third baseman Joey Sanchez (.322, six doubles, 18 RBI) and left fielder Ryan Grotjohn (.307, three home runs, 20 RBI, six steals). The Roadrunners are hitting .278 as a team, are 41-for-53 in stolen bases, have committed 36 errors in 42 games (.978 fielding percentage) and sport a 3.35 staff ERA.
Coached by Bill Kernen (seventh season, 185-190-1, Redlands '70), CSU Bakersfield played its first season of baseball in 2009 and became a member of the WAC in 2013. Kernen was a pitching coach at Cal State Fullerton from 1978-82, then left to take over the family's business interests when his father fell ill; after his father's passing, he returned for the 1987 season before following Titan head coach Augie Garrido to Illinois in 1988. He left Illinois for Cal State Northridge, where he was head coach from 1989-95 and posted a 240-154-3 record; he led the Matadors to the NCAA Division II title game in 1990 and a berth in the NCAA Division I regional finals in 1991.
Kernen stepped away from baseball in 1995 and enrolled in the prestigious dramatic writing graduate program at Columbia University, where he wrote and produced full-length plays; he returned to baseball in 2002, serving as an assistant coach at North Carolina State. Kernen returned to Fullerton in 2007 as a volunteer assistant coach before he was hired at CSU Bakersfield in 2008. He was a pitcher at Redlands before graduating cum laude in 1970.
Cal Poly and CSU Bakersfield have met 19 times on the baseball field since the series began in 2009. The Mustangs hold a 14-5 advantage in the series, winning six of the first seven, capturing a pair of midweek games in both 2013 and 2014 and posting a 13-2 victory Feb. 24 in Baggett Stadium as Mark Mathias singled and doubled, driving in one run and scoring three times in his season debut and freshman right-hander Andrew Bernstein earned his second win in as many starts, allowing two runs and three hits in seven innings with eight strikeouts. Nick Suniga and Jarred Zill each pitched a scoreless inning in relief.
Larry Lee is 14-5 against CSU Bakersfield while Bill Kernen is 15-25 against Cal Poly, including a 10-11 mark while at Cal State Northridge from 1989-95.
Zill (2-1, 4.12 ERA, who has won his last two starts against Fresno State and Santa Clara, will start Tuesday's game for Cal Poly, facing CSU Bakersfield sophomore southpaw Alec Daily (2-3, 4.25 ERA).
Mathias went 6-for-15 in the Long Beach State series with two RBI and three runs scored while Zehner was 5-for-14 with a double, triple, home run, four RBI and four runs scored. Senior third baseman Tommy Pluschkell and senior center fielder Jordan Ellis each had four hits. As a team, Cal Poly is hitting .299 over its last 18 games since losing to Dartmouth on March 23.
Junior shortstop Peter Van Gansen is second on the team behind Mathias in hitting, sporting a .333 mark with 10 doubles, two triples, a pair of three-run home runs (his first two homers as a Mustang) and 25 RBI. Van Gansen has reached base safely in 38 of Cal Poly's 40 games and has produced 11- and eight-game hitting streaks.
Zehner has a .293 average and leads the team with six home runs and 34 RBI while Mundell currently sports a .291 batting average with eight doubles, five home runs and 24 RBI. Ellis has a .286 mark with seven doubles, four triples, 16 RBI and a pair of four-hit games this season.
Cal Poly was 29-5 at home last season and has won 106 of its last 144 home games for a winning percentage of 73.6 percent. At 17-3 on March 16, 2014, 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.
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.
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.
Lee (415-305-2), 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.
Cal Poly returns home to host CSUN for a three-game Big West series this weekend at Baggett Stadium. Game times for the Big West series are 6 (Friday), 6 (Saturday) and 1 p.m. (Sunday).
