Cal Poly Continues 10-Game Road Trip With Weekend Set at Grand Canyon
3/9/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES:
CAL POLY | GRAND CANYON | BIG WEST
AUDIO STREAM: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
LIVE STATS: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
SCHUKNECHT HONORED BY BIG WEST
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly (10-3, 0-0 Big West), which won 10 of its first 12 games for the second time in three years and built a five-game winning streak before falling at Pepperdine on Tuesday, continues its 10-game road trip this weekend, visiting Western Athletic Conference member Grand Canyon (8-4, 0-0 WAC) for a three-game series at Brazell Stadium (cap.: 1,500).
First pitches are set for 6 p.m. PST both Friday and Saturday and noon PDT on Sunday. All three games of the series will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Eric Burdick 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 16 lettermen (two position starters) and eight pitchers (four with six or more starts in 2015), but more than two-thirds of the 34-man roster are freshmen or sophomores. The nine returning position players, starters and reserves, hit a combined .230 a year ago and, while eight of last year's 13 pitchers return, their win-loss record combined was 15-18 with an 8.70 ERA.
Despite all the youth, Cal Poly swept Pacific three weeks ago, split four games against a pair of nationally ranked teams -- No. 19 Michigan and No. 14 UCLA -- defeated Pepperdine 6-5 on Kevin Morgan's ninth-inning one-out single to right field, scoring Kyle Marinconz from second base, and swept San Francisco over the weekend by scores of 2-1, 10-5 and 7-6. Pepperdine snapped the Mustangs' five-game winning streak Tuesday with a 12-4 triumph, scoring 11 runs in the second inning to overcome an early 2-0 deficit.
Grand Canyon opened its season by losing two of three games against Gonzaga, then won three of four games in the GCU Classic, falling only to Tennessee. Last weekend, the Antelopes won two of three games against Nebraska-Omaha. Grand Canyon has won five of its last six games following Tuesday's 6-5 victory at San Francisco, its first road game of the season. The Antelopes are playing 15 of their first 16 games at home.
Cal Poly opened the 2015 season 1-6 and was eight games under the .500 mark before turning things around. The Mustangs hit .303 over their final 23 games, improved their defense by fielding at a .980 clip, won 17 of their final 26 games (including 13 of 15 at home) and made a run for the Big West title.
Grand Canyon, under fifth-year head coach Andy Stankiewicz (137-91, Pepperdine), claimed first place in the Western Athletic Conference a year ago but was ineligible for NCAA regional competition as the Antelopes were in their second year of transition to Division I.
Grand Canyon returns 16 players, including six position starters and seven pitchers, off a team which finished 32-22 a year ago. Topping the list of returning veterans are infielder Paul Panaccione (.376, 36 RBI in 2015) and outfielders Garrison Schwartz (.357, 40 RBI) and Brandon Smith (.348, 38 RBI, 10 steals). The pitching staff is paced by southpaw Jake Repavich (8-2, 4.74 ERA in 2015) and right-handed closer Mick Vorhof (5-0, 3.02 ERA, five saves).
Left fielder Preston Pavlica has driven in nine runs in Grand Canyon's last three games and sports a .389 batting average with two doubles and 11 RBI for the season. Second baseman Austin Bull is hitting .387 while Schwartz is hitting .362 with eight RBI and Panaccione .357 with nine RBI. Grand Canyon is hitting .291 as a team with 10 steals in 15 attempts and a .973 fielding percentage with 13 errors in 12 games. The pitching staff, however, has a 6.00 team ERA and opponents are hitting .312 against the Lopes.
Stankiewicz, an infielder at Pepperdine in the mid-1980s, was minor league field coordinator for the Seattle Mariners prior to his hiring at Grand Canyon in 2012. Before his stint with the Mariners, Stankiewicz was a member of the Arizona State baseball coaching staff from 2007-09. He helped guide the Sun Devils to three Pac-10 championships and two appearances in the College World Series. He also served as manager for the New York Yankees New York-Penn League team in Staten Island. Stankiewicz was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 12th round of the 1986 First-Year Player Draft and made his Major League debut with the Yankees on April 11, 1992. He played in parts of seven Major League seasons, with the Yankees (1992-93), Houston Astros (1994-95), Montreal Expos (1996-97) and the inaugural season of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 1998.
One of his assistant coaches at Grand Canyon, Nathan Choate, was a pitcher at Cal Poly in 2000 and 2001.
Cal Poly and Grand Canyon, which played a fall series at Baggett Stadium in 2013, are meeting officially for their second series this weekend. Last year in San Luis Obispo, the Antelopes swept the Mustangs by scores of 10-4, 4-2 and 9-3.
Cal Poly's 2016 roster is led by catcher/first baseman Brett Barbier (.253, nine doubles, four triples, three home runs, 34 RBI in 2015) and outfielder John Schuknecht (.237, six home runs, 24 RBI). The Mustangs' lineup in the Pacific series included 11 freshmen (nine true freshmen and a pair of redshirts) as well as three community college transfers. Five of the freshmen were pitchers while the other six frosh and all three transfers were position players.
The starters in a Cal Poly uniform for the first time in the Pacific series were Michael Sanderson (Feather River College) at third base, Kyle Marinconz (Valley Christian High School of San Jose) at second base, Cooper Moore (Huntington Beach High School) at first base, Alex McKenna (Alemany High School) in center field, Nick Meyer (Santa Margarita Catholic High School) behind the plate and Jake Mavropoulos (Oxnard College) as designated hitter along with pitcher Cam Schneider (El Toro High School).
In addition to Schneider, Cal Poly's pitching staff is led by sophomore southpaw Kyle Smith (5-7, 3.95 ERA in 2015), sophomore righty Erich Uelmen (0-1, 7.08 ERA) and junior right-hander Slater Lee (1-1, 6.27 ERA). Also challenging for a spot in the starting rotation is junior right-hander Justin Calomeni (1-3, 5.00 ERA), who earned two wins and a save, all in relief, in his first week of action last week following his recovery from a knee injury.
Topping the list of relievers are freshman southpaws Thomas Triantos (Livermore High School) and Justin Bruihl (Casa Grande High School in Petaluma) along with sophomore right-hander Andrew Bernstein (3-3, 5.01 ERA) and redshirt freshman Austin Dondanville.
Through 13 games, Barbier is Cal Poly's top hitter with a .426 average and eight RBI, followed by Marinconz (pictured above) (.362, four RBI) and McKenna (.340, two home runs, nine RBI), the Big West Field Player of the Week following the Pacific series.
Also hitting above the .300 mark are Schuknecht (.327, Big West-leading 18 RBI), the Big West Field Player of the Week for his performance in the San Francisco series, Sanderson (.326, nine RBI) and sophomore left fielder Josh George (.314, eight RBI).
Cal Poly owns a .291 team batting average, has stolen five of 10 bases, sports a .961 fielding percentage with 20 errors in 13 games and has compiled a 4.00 staff ERA.
Cal Poly has produced 12 winning seasons since 2000. The Mustangs were 17-11 at home last season and have won 123 of their last 160 home games for a winning percentage of 76.9 percent. Cal Poly won each of its four Big West series at home in 2015, compiling a 10-2 mark, but lost all four conference road series, two games to one, despite winning the opener each time.
Cal Poly has finished fourth or higher in the Big West 12 times in its last 14 seasons and has posted ten 30-victory campaigns since 2000. The Mustangs have produced 13 non-losing seasons in the last 16 years.
Lee (431-312-2), in his 14th season with the Mustangs, has guided Cal Poly to 11 finishes in the upper half of the Big West standings in the last 13 years. He earned his 400th win March 7, 2015, 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 continues its 10-game road trip by travelling to the state capital for a three-game weekend set (Saturday-Monday, March 19-21) against Sacramento State.
