Cal Poly to Host UC Riverside for Final Three Home Games of Season
5/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | UC RIVERSIDE | BIG WEST
AUDIO STREAM: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
LIVE STATS: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
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VIDEO STREAM FROM MUSTANG NEWS (FRIDAY)
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly (23-25, 10-8 Big West), three games behind Big West Conference co-leaders Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine with six games to play, closes out the home portion of its 2015 baseball schedule this weekend by hosting UC Riverside (13-36, 2-16 Big West) for a three-game Big West Conference series inside Baggett Stadium (cap.: 2,800).
First pitches are set for 6 p.m. Friday and 1 o'clock both Saturday and Sunday. All three games 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 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 22-19 since the 1-6 start and currently fifth in the Big West standings with UC Santa Barbara third and Hawai'i fourth.
Cal Poly owns series wins over Pacific, Oregon State, Hawaii, Long Beach State and CSUN and is 13-7 since falling eight games below the .500 mark April 4. Last weekend at UC Irvine, the Mustangs won the opener 9-6 as Casey Bloomquist earned his sixth straight victory, but dropped the final two games of the series 9-6 and 6-5.
UC Riverside opened its 2015 season by sweeping a four-game series at home against Portland and was 5-1 after a win at San Diego State on Feb. 20, but the Highlanders, under first-year head coach Troy Percival, have lost 35 of 43 contests since the hot start and have not won a series since the opening weekend. UC Riverside was swept by Cal State Fullerton and Hawai'i the last two weekends and will bring a nine-game losing streak to Baggett Stadium following its non-conference 5-1 loss Wednesday at home against San Diego.
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 .362 through 41 games with hits in each of his first 11 games as well as his last 18 contests, Mathias started at second base for the first time six weeks ago at Pepperdine. He is hitting .424 (39 of 92) over his last 23 games to lift his average 60 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 right-hander Casey Bloomquist (12-2, 1.56 ERA a year ago), another preseason All-American, along with freshman southpaw Kyle Smith, Cal Poly's Friday and Saturday starters. The Mustangs have used six different starters on Sundays and are 2-10 in final games of weekend series this year. 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 in 2014).
UC Riverside returned 17 players, including four position starters and eight pitchers, off a team which finished 26-28 a year ago and tied for fifth place in the Big West Conference at 12-12. Topping the list of returning veterans are outfielder Thomas Walker (.328, 27 RBI in 2014), shortstop Joe Chavez (.281, 24 RBI, 22 steals) and catcher Drake Zarate (.277, 19 RBI). The pitching staff is led by right-handers Angel Landazuri (3-2, 3.52 ERA) in 2014) and Jordan Kron (1-5, 6.11 ERA) along with southpaw Kevin Sprague (0-1, 4.39 ERA, 5 saves).
Coached by Troy Percival (first year, 13-36, UC Riverside '91), UC Riverside has a .263 team batting average through 49 games, led by Zarate (.326, 12 RBI), outfielder Robby Witt (.301, 12 doubles, 18 RBI), Chavez (.304, four homers, 13 RBI) and outfielder Vince Fernandez (.304, 15 doubles, two triples, six home runs, 28 RBI). The Highlanders have stolen 36 of 59 bases and sport a 5.40 staff ERA and .953 fielding percentage with 92 errors in 49 games.
Right-hander Joie Dunyon (1-3, 4.67 ERA) is expected to start Friday, followed by righty Sprague (3-6, 4.87 ERA) on Saturday. Cal Poly will counter with Bloomquist (6-2, 2.88 ERA) on Friday and Smith (5-6, 3.80 ERA) on Saturday. Starters for both teams on Sunday are undecided.
UC Riverside, a member of the Big West since 2002, claimed the Big West title in 2007 and has qualified for the NCAA Division I regionals twice -- in 2003 and 2007. The Highlanders also earned NCAA Division II playoff berths nine times, capturing the national title in both 1977 and 1982.
Percival, who replaced Doug Smith on July 29, 2014, was a catcher during his three years with the Highlanders, and was drafted after his junior year by the California Angels in the sixth round of the 1990 Amateur Draft. Following a year as a catcher in the minors, Percival was converted to a relief pitcher, and during his rookie season of 1995, he finished fourth in American League Rookie of the Year balloting, going 3-2 with three saves and a 1.95 ERA, striking out 94 batters in 74.0 innings. The Angels made him their full-time closer in 1996, and he rewarded them by recording 36 saves and striking out 100 batters in 74.0 innings. Percival earned his first of four All-Star nods that season as he finished fourth in the league in saves.
By the time his professional career ended in 2009, Percival had 358 saves on his big-league résumé, ninth on Major League Baseball's all-time career list. Since his retirement from major league baseball, Percival worked as a volunteer pitching coach for Riverside Poly High School in Riverside (2010-12), and as head coach at his high school alma mater, Moreno Valley High School (2013-14). He also spent a year working in the Angels organization as a roving pitching instructor.
Cal Poly and UC Riverside have met 189 times on the baseball field since the series began when both teams were California Collegiate Athletic Association members back in 1970. The Mustangs hold a 107-82 advantage, bouncing back from a 7-3 loss in last year's series opener with 7-5 and 7-2 victories in Riverside. Cal Poly swept the Highlanders in both 2012 and 2013. Cal Poly is 28-17 against UC Riverside since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Larry Lee is 22-14 against UC Riverside while Troy Percival is 0-0 against Cal Poly.
Zehner (above left) went 6-for-11 in the UC Irvine series with one double, one home run and four RBI while senior center fielder Jordan Ellis was 5-for-13 with two doubles, one triple and a pair of RBI. Junior right fielder John Schuknecht was 4-for-13 with a double, home run and two RBI. Mathias has hit in 18 consecutive games, a career best, while Ellis and Zehner both have 12-game hitting streaks. As a team, Cal Poly is hitting .297 over its last 27 games since losing to Dartmouth on March 23.
Zehner is second behind Mathias in hitting, sporting a .317 mark with 11 doubles, three triples, 43 RBI and a Big West-leading nine home runs. Van Gansen is next at .311 with 10 doubles, two triples, a pair of three-run home runs (his first two homers as a Mustang) and 26 RBI. Ellis is hitting .304 with 10 doubles, a Big West-leading six triples and 21 RBI.
Cal Poly has produced 12 winning seasons since 2000. The Mustangs won 32 of 43 series, including 18 sweeps, from 2012 through 2014 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.
Lee (419-309-2), 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 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. Cal Poly was 29-5 at home last season and has won 109 of its last 144 home games for a winning percentage of 75.6 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.
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.
Next week, Cal Poly plays its final three games of the year at UC Davis, starting at 2:30 p.m. both Thursday and Friday and 1 o'clock on Saturday.
