Cal Poly to Host Hawai'i for Big West Conference Series This Weekend
4/9/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | HAWAI'I | BIG WEST
CAL POLY AVENGES PEPPERDINE LOSS WITH 9-1 WIN
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly (11-18, 1-2 Big West), which opened defense of its 2014 Big West Conference championship by dropping two of three games at Cal State Fullerton over the weekend and rebounded with a 9-1 win over Pepperdine on Wednesday, will host Hawai'i (12-20, 3-3 Big West) for a three-game Big West Conference series this weekend in Baggett Stadium (cap.: 2,800).
First pitches are set for 6 p.m. both Friday and Saturday and 1 o'clock 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 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, 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 Wednesday in Baggett Stadium.
Hawai'i was swept at UC Irvine two weeks ago but bounced back by winning all three Big West games against UC Davis at home last weekend, climbing into a tie for fifth place in the Big West Conference standings at 3-3. The Rainbow Warriors opened the season by losing home series against Oregon, Hofstra and Oklahoma and lost three of four games at Pepperdine and two of three games in the Houston College Classic, but has rebounded from their 6-14 start with a 2-2 split against New Mexico State and last weekend's three wins against UC Davis. Hawai'i is 10-11 at home and 2-9 away from Les Murakami Stadium.
Cal Poly opened defense of its 2014 Big West title by winning one of three games at Cal State Fullerton, taking the opener 5-0 behind a combined six-hit shutout by Casey Bloomquist and Danny Zandona before falling 2-1 and 13-2.
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 six 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 .315 through 22 games with hits in each of his first 11 games, Mathias started at second base for the first time last week 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 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).
Hawai'i returned 14 players, including four position starters and seven pitchers, off a team which finished 22-31 a year ago and eighth in the Big West Conference with a 6-18 mark. Hawai'i played its first Big West season in baseball in 2013 after 33 years in the Western Athletic Conference, claiming titles in 1991, 1992 and 2011 and the tournament crown in 2010. Cal Poly also played in the WAC in 1995 and 1996 before joining the Big West. The Rainbow Warriors reached the College World Series in 1980, finishing second, and have made 13 NCAA regional appearances.
Topping the list of returning Rainbow Warrior veterans are outfielder Kaeo Aliviado (.310, 27 RBI in 2014), infielder Stephen Ventimiglia (.296) and utility player Marcus Doi (.345 in 18 games). The pitching staff is led by right-hander LJ Brewster (0-0, 11.12 ERA in 2014) and southpaw Jarrett Arakawa (2-1, 2.42 ERA).
Hawai'i is hitting .251 as a team, led by first baseman Eric Ramirez (.291, four doubles, 22 RBI), Aliviado (.290, six doubles, four home runs, 22 RBI) and designated hitter Alex Sawelson (.282, three doubles, 10 RBI). The Rainbow Warriors have stolen 16 of 17 bases, sport a 4.11 staff ERA and have committed 40 errors in 32 games for a .968 fielding percentage.
Trapasso has led the Rainbows to winning records in eight of the last 11 seasons and 30 or more wins eight times in his 13-year tenure. He was named WAC Coach of the Year three times. Trapasso was an assistant coach at Georgia Tech for seven years and at Missouri and South Florida for three seasons each. He was a pitcher at Oklahoma State from 1984-86 and, drafted four times, pitched briefly for two years in the minor leagues.
Cal Poly has a 12-7 advantage over Hawai'i in the series dating back to 1995, sweeping the Rainbow Warriors a year ago in Honolulu by scores of 3-2, 4-3 and 8-3. The Mustangs won two of three games against the Rainbow Warriors in a Big West series two years ago in Baggett Stadium, winning the first two by scores of 8-3, 3-2 and falling 7-6 in the finale. Larry Lee is 5-1 against Hawai'i while Trapasso is 1-5 against Cal Poly.
Hawaii's pitching rotation for the weekend includes right-handers Brewster (4-3, 2.21 ERA) on Friday and Tyler Brashears (4-3, 2.49 ERA) on Saturday and southpaw Arakawa (2-0, 2.01 ERA) on Sunday. Cal Poly will counter with Bloomquist (3-2, 2.56 ERA) on Friday, freshman southpaw Kyle Smith (2-5, 3.76 ERA) on Saturday and sophomore righty Justin Calomeni (1-3, 5.84 ERA) on Sunday. Bloomquist has won his last three starts against USC, Oregon State and Cal State Fullerton.
Junior first baseman/designated hitter Brian Mundell (pictured above) went 5-for-12 in the Cal State Fullerton series while senior third baseman Tommy Pluschkell and senior outfielder Zack Zehner both had four hits. The Mustangs hit .282 in the series and outhit Cal State Fullerton 29-24, but compiled a 5.04 staff ERA and stranded 23 runners on the basepaths.
Van Gansen currently sports a .350 batting average, third in the Big West, with six doubles, two triples and 15 RBI. He has collected a hit in 22 of Cal Poly's 29 games, has reached base safely in 27 of 29 contests and has produced 11- and eight-game hitting streaks. Mathias has a .315 mark while Mundell is hitting .356 with five doubles, four home runs and 16 RBI. Zehner sports a .282 average with a team-leading five home runs and 27 RBI in 27 games, while senior outfielder Jordan Ellis has a .303 mark with six doubles, 11 RBI and a pair of four-hit games this season.
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.
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 (407-302-2), 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 concludes a five-game home stand with a Tuesday night encounter against rival Fresno State at 6 p.m., followed by a three-game Big West series at UC Santa Barbara. Game times at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium are 3 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 o'clock Sunday.
Photo courtesy of Ray Ambler | RA Photos
