Cal Poly Wraps Up 2015 Season With Big West Series at UC Davis
5/18/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | UC DAVIS | BIG WEST
AUDIO STREAM: THURSDAY | FRIDAY | SATURDAY
LIVE STATS: THURSDAY | FRIDAY | SATURDAY
CAL POLY-UC RIVERSIDE SERIES VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
MUSTANGS IN THE PROS (2015) (pdf)
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly (26-25, 13-8 Big West), tied for third place with UC Irvine in the Big West Conference, three games behind frontrunner Cal State Fullerton, closes out the 2015 baseball campaign this weekend by visiting UC Davis (28-25-1, 7-14 Big West) for a three-game Big West Conference series inside Dobbins Baseball Stadium (cap.: 3,500).
First pitches are set for 2:30 p.m. both Thursday and Friday and 1 o'clock on Saturday. 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 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 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 at home the following week. Cal Poly is 25-19 since the 1-6 start, moving above the .500 mark for the first time this season with last weekend's sweep of UC Riverside in Baggett Stadium.
Cal Poly owns series wins over Pacific, Oregon State, Hawaii, Long Beach State, CSUN and UC Riverside and is 16-7 since falling eight games below the .500 mark April 4. The Mustangs swept the Highlanders by scores of 6-2, 7-6 and 11-1, winning at home for the 13th time in their last 15 games.
UC Davis raced to an 18-7-1 mark in February and March, winning its first three conference games against UC Riverside, but the Aggies have lost 18 of their last 28 games, falling into a seventh-place tie with CSUN in the Big West. UC Davis is 2-9 in the month of May, including sweeps by UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine sandwiched around a series win over CSUN.
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 .353 through 44 games with hits in each of his first 11 games as well as in 19 consecutive contests ending Saturday, Mathias started at second base for the first time seven weeks ago at Pepperdine. He is hitting .400 (42 of 105) over his last 26 games to lift his average 51 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 seven different starters on Sundays and are 3-10 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 Davis returned 19 players, including four position starters and eight pitchers, off a team which finished 23-31 a year ago and seventh place in the Big West Conference at 7-17. Topping the list of returning veterans are center fielder Kevin Barker (.335, 10 doubles, 21 RBI in 2014), first baseman Nick Lynch (.308, 11 doubles, four home runs, 34 RBI) and right fielder Tanner Bily (.372, 10 RBI). The pitching staff is led by right-handers Spencer Koopmans (4-3, 2.84 ERA in 2014), Max Cordy (1-3, 5.62 ERA) and southpaw Orlando Razo (2-4, 1.34 ERA). Closer Zach Stone (3-4, 3.14 ERA, nine saves) also returns).
Coached by Matt Vaughn (fourth season, 97-123, UC Davis '92), UC Davis sports a .284 team batting average, led by Lynch (.381, 31 doubles, 33 RBI, six steals), catcher Izaak Silva (.318, 18 doubles, 31 RBI) and second baseman Tino Lipson (.311, 12 doubles, 20 RBI, 21 of 26 steals). The Aggies have compiled a 3.88 staff ERA, have committed 65 errors in 54 games for a .970 fielding percentage and have stolen 101 of 144 bases. Their 124 doubles, 287 runs scored, 528 hits, 101 steals and 144 stolen base attempts lead the Big West.
Koopmans (5-4, 3.54 ERA) is expected to start Friday's game, followed by Raul Jacobson (5-4, 4.06 ERA) on Saturday. Both are right-handers. The Aggies' Thursday starter is undecided. Stone, also a righty, has 11 saves, a 3-3 record and 1.21 ERA this spring. Cal Poly will counter with Bloomquist (7-2, 2.80 ERA) (pictured above) on Thursday and freshman southpaw Kyle Smith (5-6, 3.81 ERA) on Friday. Saturday's starter has not been announced, though freshman right-hander Jarred Zill (4-1, 3.03 ERA), making his first weekend start, held UC Riverside to one run and four hits with five strikeouts and one walk through seven innings last Sunday.
UC Davis has appeared in one NCAA Division I regional (2008) and seven in Division II, making two appearances in the Division II College World Series (1995, 2003). The Aggies won the California Collegiate Athletic Association regular-season title in 2004 and nine Northern California Athletic Conference championships.
Vaughn was an assistant at UC Davis for 19 seasons before he was elevated to head coach following the 2011 season. Vaughn pitched for the Aggies from 1989-92, starting 26 games and winning nine. He earned honorable mention All-Northern California Athletic Conference honors as a senior.
Cal Poly and UC Davis have met 36 times on the baseball field since the series began in 1951. Thirty of those meetings are over the last 10 seasons after the Aggies announced their intention to move to Division I, a transfer that was completed in time for the 2008 season. The Mustangs hold a 29-7 advantage in the series after sweeping the Aggies in San Luis Obispo each of the last two years. Cal Poly had won eight consecutive series against UC Davis before the Aggies took two of three games in 2012 in Davis. Cal Poly is 24-6 against UC Davis, including a 17-1 mark in Baggett Stadium, since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Larry Lee is 24-6 against UC Davis while Matt Vaughn is 2-7 against Cal Poly.
Senior third baseman Tommy Pluschkell went 5-for-10 in the UC Riverside series with his first career home run, three runs scored and four RBI while junior shortstop Peter Van Gansen was 4-for-11 with four runs scored. Five other Mustangs had three hits each, with junior right fielder John Schuknecht driving in four runs and sophomore catcher Brett Barbier knocking in five, including three with a bases-loaded double to snap a 4-4 tie in the eighth inning Saturday. Mathias had his 19-game hitting streak snapped during the series against the Highlanders while Jordan Ellis (13) and Zack Zehner (12) also had hitting streaks come to an end. As a team, Cal Poly is hitting .298 over its last 30 games since losing to Dartmouth on March 23.
Van Gansen (pictured at left) is second behind Mathias in hitting, sporting a .314 mark with 10 doubles, two triples, a pair of three-run home runs (his first two as a Mustang) and 26 RBI while Zehner is hitting .307 with 43 RBI and a Big West-leading nine home runs. Ellis is hitting .304 with 11 doubles, a Big West-leading six triples and 23 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 (422-309-2), 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 113 of its last 148 home games for a winning percentage of 76.4 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.
NCAA regional hosts will be announced Sunday night, with pairings released on ESPNU on Monday at 9 a.m.
