24-13, 6-2
UC Santa Barbara
25-9-1, 5-3
Cal Poly Clinches UC Santa Barbara Series With 10-5 Victory
4/23/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
D1BASEBALL.COM:
CAL POLY SHOWS IT IS BIG WEST CONTENDER
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Erich Uelmen overcame a rough start and earned his fifth win of the year while third baseman Michael Sanderson produced three hits and a pair of RBI as Cal Poly clinched its Big West Conference baseball series against No. 9/11/13 UC Santa Barbara with a 10-5 victory Saturday night before 2,269 inside Baggett Stadium.
John Schuknecht (pictured above) belted his fourth home run of the year and Cal Poly played errorless defense for the fourth straight game, extending its winning streak to five games and improving to 24-13, the first time this season the Mustangs are 11 games above the .500 mark.
Cal Poly is 6-2 for second place in the Big West and could move into a first-place tie with Cal State Fullerton, which is playing out of conference this weekend, with a victory Sunday. UC Santa Barbara fell to 25-9-1 and 5-3.
Uelmen (5-0) allowed four runs and six hits in the first two innings, then, after a visit from pitching coach Chal Fanning, retired 10 consecutive Gaucho batters as he settled down and finished seven frames for the win, ending a streak of three no-decisions.
The sophomore right-hander struck out five, walked two and gave up five runs and eight hits. He threw 118 pitches.
Freshman southpaw Justin Bruihl (pictured at right) secured the final six outs, striking out three. He has faced 12 batters in the series, retiring 11 of them, six on strikeouts.
The loss went to UC Santa Barbara freshman right-hander Noah Davis (3-2), who gave up eight runs and eight hits over 4 1/3 innings.
The Gauchos committed four errors in the game, resulting in three unearned Cal Poly runs.
Sanderson had a 3-for-4 night at the plate, scoring twice and knocking in two runs. The Mustang third baseman belted a two-run double to left-center field, highlighting Cal Poly's four-run first-inning rally, and added singles in the third and fifth frames.
Schuknecht smashed a 2-2 pitch from Davis over the wall in left-center field in the fifth inning, giving Cal Poly an 8-4 lead, and also drove in a run with a single in the first frame.
Kevin Morgan had an RBI single while Kyle Marinconz and Brett Barbier both knocked in runs with groundouts. Barbier extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a single and also reached base twice to extend the streak of reaching base safely to 37 games.
Cal Poly outhit UC Santa Barbara 10-8.
The Gauchos were led offensively by catcher Dempsey Grover and first baseman Austin Bush, each with two hits. Both of Bush's hits were run-scoring doubles.
UC Santa Barbara scored a pair of runs in both the first and second innings, but Cal Poly countered with seven runs in the first three innings for a 7-4 advantage. The Mustangs pulled away with single runs in the fifth, sixth and eighth frames, holding the Gauchos to just a run in the seventh.
Final game of the series will be played Sunday at 1 o'clock with Cal Poly sophomore right-hander Jarred Zill (3-1, 2.73 ERA) to face UC Santa Barbara sophomore right-hander Joe Record (4-3, 4.18 ERA).
Cal Poly last swept UC Santa Barbara in Baggett Stadium in 2012.
Photos courtesy of Owen Main | www.fansmanship.com
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Uelmen, Erich (5-0)
L: Davis, Noah (3-2)
Batting:
2B: Bush, Austin 2
RBI: Calica, Andrew 1 ; Bush, Austin 2 ; Fredrick, Billy 1 ; Clark, Ryan 1
SF: Fredrick, Billy 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Calica, Andrew 2 ; Grover, Dempsey 1 ; Gradford, Devon 1 ; Fisher, Clay 1
HBP: Calica, Andrew 1 ; Cumberland, Ryan 1
Batting:
2B: Sanderson, Michael 1 ; Meyer, Nick 1
HR: Schuknecht, John 1
RBI: Marinconz, Kyle 1 ; Barbier, Brett 1 ; Schuknecht, John 2 ; Sanderson, Michael 2 ; Morgan, Kevin 1
SH: Binning, Brett 2
Base Running:
RUNS: George, Josh 1 ; Barbier, Brett 1 ; Schuknecht, John 3 ; Sanderson, Michael 2 ; Meyer, Nick 1 ; Moore, Cooper 2
SB: Sanderson, Michael 1
HBP: Barbier, Brett 1
