Cal Poly to Visit UC Irvine for Pivotal Weekend Big West Series
5/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | UC IRVINE | BIG WEST
AUDIO STREAM: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
LIVE STATS: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
VIDEO STREAM: SUNDAY
CAL POLY BEATS SAN JOSE STATE | VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly (22-23, 9-6 Big West), which maintained its fourth-place standing in the Big West by winning two of three games at home against CSUN last weekend and completed its schedule of midweek games with a 5-1 win over San Jose State on Tuesday night, visits UC Irvine (29-16, 11-4 Big West) for a pivotal Big West Conference series this weekend at Anteater Ballpark (cap.: 3,200).
First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. Friday, 7 p.m. Saturday and 1 o'clock Sunday. All three games will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Tom Barket providing the play-by-play. Saturday's game also will be televised by Prime Ticket (Christian Miles, John Jackson) while Sunday's game is available on ESPN3 (Sam Farber, Wes Clements). 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 21-17 since the 1-6 start and is two games behind tri-leaders UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton and UC Santa Barbara in the Big West standings.
Cal Poly owns series wins over Pacific, Oregon State, Hawaii, Long Beach State and CSUN and is 12-5 since falling eight games below the .500 mark April 4. Last weekend at Baggett Stadium, the Mustangs beat the Matadors 6-2 and 7-1 before losing to CSUN for the first time in nine games, 6-4, in Sunday's finale. Trailing 6-0, Cal Poly scored four times in the seventh inning, three on Zack Zehner's home run, but left the bases loaded in the ninth. Zehner added a solo shot Tuesday and freshman right-hander Jarred Zill scattered four hits over six innings for his third win in the Mustangs' home victory over San Jose State.
UC Irvine lost its first six games of the year -- three each to Fresno State and Cal -- before turning its season around, thanks in part to a 15-game winning streak from March 14 through April 11 with series wins over San Jose State, CSU Bakersfield, Hawai'i, UC Riverside and Long Beach State. The Anteaters swept Minnesota in a non-conference series last weekend by scores of 3-2, 6-5 and 6-2 and stretched their current winning streak to five games with a 10-inning, 8-5 victory at USC on Tuesday.
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 .373 through 38 games with hits in each of his first 11 games as well as his last 15 contests, Mathias started at second base for the first time five weeks ago at Pepperdine. He is hitting .456 (36 of 79) over his last 20 games to lift his average 71 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).
UC Irvine returned 20 players, including four position starters and nine pitchers, off a team which finished 41-25 a year ago and third in the Big West Conference at 15-9. The Anteaters won the Corvallis Regional and Stillwater Super Regional to reach the College World Series for the second time, posting a 1-2 mark.
Topping the list of returning veterans are first baseman Jonathan Munoz (.281, 10 doubles, 18 RBI in 2014), catcher Jerry McClanahan (.304, 36 RBI), infielder Grant Palmer (.268, 13 RBI) and shortstop Mikey Duarte (.241). The pitching staff is led by southpaws Elliot Surrey (8-5, 2.32 ERA in 2014) and Evan Manarino (4-4, 2.66 ERA). Closer Sam Moore (0-3, 1.85 ERA, 23 saves) also returns.
Coached by Mike Gillespie (eighth year at UC Irvine (28th overall), 303-160 (1,066-631-2 overall), USC '62), UC Irvine has a .281 team batting average through 45 games, led by left fielder Keston Hiura (.341, 17 doubles, five home runs, 46 RBI), Duarte (.339, 15 doubles, 13 RBI) and first baseman Mitchell Holland (.323, 12 doubles, 26 RBI). The Anteaters have stolen 20 of 38 bases and sport a 4.02 staff ERA and .974 fielding percentage with 46 errors in 45 games.
Southpaw Elliot Surrey (5-4, 3.23 ERA) is expected to start Friday, followed by righty Matt Esparza (7-1, 3.03 ERA) on Saturday and lefty Evan Manarino (5-2, 4.01 ERA) on Sunday. Moore is 5-3 with a 1.53 ERA and three saves so far this season.
UC Irvine has qualified for the NCAA regionals 13 times (eight in Division I), compiling a 26-17 win-loss record in Division I postseason competition and qualifying for the College World Series in 2007 and 2014. The Anteaters, who discontinued baseball from 1993-2001, won the Big West title in 2009.
Gillespie was 763-471-4 in 20 seasons as head coach at USC (1987-2006) with five Pac-12 championships, five College World Series appearances, including the 1998 national title, and 15 regional appearances. He is one of only two men to both play for and coach an NCAA championship baseball team (Arizona State's Jerry Kindall is the other). Gillespie was head coach at College of the Canyons for 16 seasons with 11 conference titles and three state championships. He played left field on USC's 1961 national championship team.
Cal Poly and UC Irvine have met 42 times on the baseball field since the series began when both teams were Southern California Baseball Alliance members back in 1977. The Anteaters hold a 23-19 advantage, though Cal Poly won two of three games a year ago in Baggett Stadium.
When the two teams met a year ago, UC Irvine was 14-1 in Big West games while Cal Poly was 14-4. After the Anteaters won the opening game of the series 3-2, Cal Poly bounced back with 1-0 (combined two-hitter by Justin Calomeni, Taylor Chris and Reed Reilly, Jimmy Allen RBI single in sixth inning, game completed in 1 hour, 48 minutes) and 10-3 (Casey Bloomquist 11th win, Nick Torres and Chris Hoo combined for six hits and five RBI) wins and swept CSUN the following weekend to capture its first Big West title while UC Irvine lost its final eight conference games of the year.
Cal Poly is 16-23 against UC Irvine since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Larry Lee is 15-21 against UC Irvine while Mike Gillespie is 14-9 against Cal Poly, including a 2-0 mark while at USC.
Mathias went 6-for-13 in the CSUN series with a triple and two RBI while Zehner and senior center fielder Jordan Ellis each produced five hits. Sophomore Brett Barbier and junior Peter Van Gansen both had four hits in the series. As a team, Cal Poly is hitting .299 over its last 24 games since losing to Dartmouth on March 23.
Van Gansen (pictured at left) is second on the team behind Mathias in hitting, sporting a .321 mark with 10 doubles, two triples, a pair of three-run home runs (his first two homers as a Mustang) and 26 RBI. Van Gansen has reached base safely in 42 of Cal Poly's 45 games and has produced 11- and eight-game hitting streaks.
Zehner (pictured above) has a .303 average and leads the team with eight home runs and 39 RBI while Ellis is hitting .298 with eight doubles, five triples and 19 RBI. Mundell currently sports a .274 mark with nine doubles, five home runs and 26 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.
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.
Lee (418-307-2), 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 plays its final three home games next week, hosting UC Riverside for a Big West Conference series. Game times are 6 p.m. Friday and 1 o'clock both Saturday and Sunday.
