Cal Poly to Host Santa Clara on Tuesday, Seeking to Snap Losing Streak
5/2/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES:
CAL POLY | SANTA CLARA | BIG WEST
AUDIO STREAM | VIDEO STREAM | LIVE STATS
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly (25-17, 7-5 Big West), which won 10 of its first 12 games for the second time in three years but fell out of a tie for first place with Cal State Fullerton in the Big West Conference by losing all three games at Long Beach State, plays its final home midweek game Tuesday night, hosting Santa Clara (19-22, 6-12 West Coast).
First pitch inside Baggett Stadium is set for 6 p.m. PDT. The non-conference game 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 last week by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, before getting swept by the Dirtbags, 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 11 weekend series, including victories over No. 14 UCLA and No. 19 Michigan and a sweep of No. 11 UC Santa Barbara, and is eight games above the .500 mark for the seventh time. The Mustangs hit just .180 and fell into a fourth-place tie with UC Riverside in the Big West by dropping 14-3, 2-0 and 4-1 decisions to Long Beach State at Blair Field.
Santa Clara has been hovering near the .500 mark all year -- never more than two games above or four games below. Longest winning streak is three games (twice) and the losing streak has never been more than three games as well. The Broncos own one series win over Notre Dame, split four games against Hawai'i and are 5-1 in midweek games, including a 10-1 triumph over Cal Poly on April 5 at Stephen Schott Stadium.
Santa Clara returned 24 letter winners, including eight starting position players and 11 pitchers, off a team which finished 26-28 a year ago and placed seventh in the West Coast Conference at 12-15. Top returnees include catcher Stevie Berman (.336, four home runs, 27 RBI in 2015) and outfielders Grant Meylan (.259, 13 RBI, five steals) and TC Florentine (.246, 15 RBI, four steals). Top returning pitchers include Mitchell White (3-2, 3.62 ERA, five saves in 2015), Steven Wilson (3-4, 3.94 ERA) and Eric Lex (4-4, 4.42 ERA), all right-handers.
Santa Clara's top hitters so far this spring are Florentine ).307, 11 doubles, two triples, 20 RBI), third baseman Kyle Cortopassi (.285, eight doubles, two triples, 15 RBI), right fielder Tyler Meditz (.275, four home runs, 17 RBI) and Meylan (.269, two doubles, nine RBI). The Broncos are hitting .246 as a team, have stolen 31 of 52 bases, have committed 69 errors in 41 games (.956 fielding percentage) and sport a 4.00 staff ERA.
Coached by Dan O'Brien (fifth season at Santa Clara (111-147), 20th season overall (565-430-1), UC San Diego '95), Santa Clara has finished first in the West Coast Conference four times, the last in 2001. The Broncos are in their 134th year of competition in baseball, earning 2,236 wins with 12 NCAA regional appearances (the last in 1997) and one trip to the College World Series (1962).
O'Brien, who earned his 500th career win in 2014, was head coach at UC San Diego for 14 seasons, compiling a 454-283-1 record, before he was hired as Santa Clara's head coach on June 30, 2011, replacing Mark O'Brien. The Tritons qualified for the NCAA Division II West Regional five times in the last eight seasons under Dan O'Brien, making two trips to the Division II College World Series.
Cal Poly and Santa Clara have played 82 baseball games against each other since the series began in 1956. The Broncos hold a 43-39 advantage, including the 10-1 triumph on April 5. The two teams split a pair of midweek games a year ago -- Santa Clara winning 3-0 on March 3 in Baggett Stadium and Cal Poly answering with a 10-6 triumph on April 21 at Steven Schott Stadium. Cal Poly has won five of the last seven meetings.
Larry Lee is 16-15 against Santa Clara while O'Brien is 4-5 against Cal Poly. Tuesday's starting pitchers will be freshman right-hander Bobby Ay (0-0, 4.70 ERA) for Cal Poly and freshman right-hander Travis Howard (2-2, 5.03 ERA) for Santa Clara. Ay pitched five innings at Cal last Tuesday, giving up just one run and three hits with no walks and three strikeouts. H was not involved in the decision.
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 five 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 42 games, Barbier is Cal Poly's top hitter with a .369 average, 11 doubles and 22 RBI, followed by freshman middle infielder Kyle Marinconz (.298, 10 doubles, 20 RBI). Barbier had a 16-game hitting streak and a 40-game streak of reaching base safely snapped Saturday.
Sophomore left fielder Josh George is hitting .294 with five doubles and 13 RBI, freshman catcher Nick Meyer has a .283 mark with six doubles and 15 RBI, junior third baseman Michael Sanderson sports a .278 average with seven doubles and 24 RBI and senior right fielder John Schuknecht is hitting .273 with 12 doubles, two triples, four home runs and 35 RBI.
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 .266 team batting average, has stolen 23 of 34 bases, sports a .963 fielding percentage with 60 errors in 42 games and has compiled a 3.87 staff ERA.
Cal Poly has produced 12 winning seasons since 2000. The Mustangs were 17-11 at home last season and have won 131 of their last 172 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 (448-328-2), 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.
Cal Poly resumes Big West Conference action Friday through Sunday at CSUN. First pitches are set for 3 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday.
