Cal Poly Returns Home This Weekend to Host UC Irvine in Big West Series
5/11/2016 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: BIG WEST | MUSTANG NEWS
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly (26-21, 7-8 Big West), tied for first place with Cal State Fullerton in the Big West Conference standings two weeks ago before getting swept at Long Beach State and CSUN, resumes Big West play this weekend with a three-game series against UC Irvine (27-19, 7-8 Big West). The two teams share fourth place with UC Riverside in the Big West.
First pitches inside Baggett Stadium (cap.: 2,800) are set for 6 p.m. PDT both Friday and Saturday and 1 o'clock on Sunday. All three games of the series will be aired live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Dave Grant 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.
Ranked No. 19 two weeks ago by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper before losing seven of their next eight games, 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 was 15-18 with an 8.70 ERA.
Despite all the youth, Cal Poly has won seven of 12 weekend series, including victories over No. 14 UCLA and No. 19 Michigan and a sweep of No. 11 UC Santa Barbara. The Mustangs hit just .180 against Long Beach State and .177 against CSUN. The Matadors overcame early deficits in all three games for 7-2, 5-3 and 2-1 victories at Matador Field last weekend. The Mustangs also had an early 2-0 lead at Fresno State before falling 9-5 Tuesday night.
UC Irvine split a four-game season-opening series against San Jose State but has been above the .500 mark ever since, sweeping Nevada and Seattle and winning Big West series against UC Riverside and UC Davis. The Anteaters lost five of their last six games prior to Tuesday's 9-3 non-conference win at home against San Diego.
UC Irvine returned 19 letter winners, including seven starting position players and six pitchers, off a team which finished 33-23 a year ago and placed third in the Big West with a 15-9 mark. Top returnees include designated hitter Keston Hiura (.330, 52 RBI in 2015), infielder Mikey Duarte (.345, 17 doubles, 19 RBI) and infielder Mitchell Holland (.325, 14 doubles, five home runs, 35 RBI). Top returning pitchers include right-handers southpaw Elliot Surrey (6-6, 4.02 ERA in 2015) and right-hander Cameron Bishop (2-0, 4.55 ERA, two saves).
Coached by Mike Gillespie (ninth year at UC Irvine (29th overall), 334-186 (1,097-657-2 overall), USC '62), UC Irvine has a .279 team batting average through 46 games, led by Hiura (.400, 10 doubles, seven home runs, 36 RBI), left fielder Grant Palmer (.346, five doubles, 19 RBI) and center fielder Evan Cassolato (.309, seven doubles, 13 RBI). The Anteaters have stolen 37 of 63 bases and sport a 3.93 staff ERA and .972 fielding percentage with 49 errors in 46 games.
Southpaw Surrey (3-4, 3.18 ERA) is expected to start Friday, followed by right-hander Alonzo Garcia (4-4, 4.33 ERA) on Saturday and lefty Bishop (5-4, 4.47 ERA) on Sunday. Closer Calvin Faucher has an 0.83 ERA and eight saves this year.
Cal Poly will country with redshirt freshman right-hander Spencer Howard (2-1, 2.42 ERA) on Friday and freshman righty Craig Colen (0-0, 2.79 ERA) on Saturday. Sunday's starter is undecided.
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 45 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 25-20 advantage, winning two of three games a year ago in Anteater Ballpark.
Cal Poly is 17-25 against UC Irvine since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Larry Lee is 16-23 against UC Irvine while Mike Gillespie is 16-10 against Cal Poly, including a 2-0 mark while at USC.
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 only two returning starting position players.
The Mustangs have used nine position players and eight pitchers who are wearing a Cal Poly uniform for the first time this season. The Mustangs' lineup in the season-opening Pacific series included 11 freshmen (nine true freshmen and a pair of redshirts) as well as three community college transfers. In the second game of the Grand Canyon series in mid-March, six true freshmen were in the starting lineup along with one transfer.
Cal Poly's pitching staff is led by sophomore southpaw Kyle Smith (5-7, 3.95 ERA in 2015) and sophomore righty Erich Uelmen (0-1, 7.08 ERA). Third spot in the weekend rotation has been filled with junior right-hander Slater Lee (1-1, 6.27 ERA in 2015), freshman right-hander Cam Schneider and, for the last six weeks, sophomore righty Jarred Zill (4-1, 3.18 ERA).
Topping the list of relievers are junior right-hander Justin Calomeni (1-3, 5.00 ERA in 2015), 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 freshmen Austin Dondanville and Spencer Howard.
Through 47 games, junior Brett Barbier is Cal Poly's top hitter with a .361 average, 11 doubles and 23 RBI, followed by freshman middle infielder Kyle Marinconz (.307, 12 doubles, 20 RBI). Barbier had a 16-game hitting streak and a 40-game streak of reaching base safely snapped April 30 by Long Beach State. Sophomore left fielder Josh George is hitting .294 with five doubles and 13 RBI, junior third baseman Michael Sanderson sports a .274 average with nine doubles and 27 RBI, senior right fielder John Schuknecht is hitting .277 with 13 doubles, two triples, four home runs and 35 RBI and freshman catcher Nick Meyer has a .256 mark with six doubles and 18 RBI. Meyer also has thrown out 18 would-be base stealers and has picked off 10 other runners.
Freshman center fielder Alex McKenna (Pacific series) and Schuknecht (San Francisco and UC Santa Barbara) have earned Big West Field Player of the Week honors this season while Uelmen (Sacramento State) and Kyle Smith (UC Santa Barbara) have been named Big West Pitcher of the Week. McKenna went 8-for-14 and hit for the cycle in the San Jose State series, bumping his average up 41 points, while Schuknecht was 6-for-12 in the UC Santa Barbara series with five RBI and four runs scored.
Cal Poly owns a .262 team batting average, has stolen 27 of 40 bases, sports a .963 fielding percentage with 66 errors in 47 games and has compiled a 3.94 staff ERA.
Cal Poly has produced 12 winning seasons since 2000. The Mustangs were 17-11 at home last season and have won 132 of their last 173 home games for a winning percentage of 76.3 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.
One year after capturing its first Big West title, 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 another Big West title.
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 (449-332-2), 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.
After playing eight of their last nine games on the road prior to this weekend's series, Cal Poly goes back out on the road for four games next week, visiting CSU Bakersfield on Tuesday and UC Riverside for a three-game Big West Conference series Friday through Sunday.
