Cal Poly Clinches Series Against UC Riverside With 7-4 Victory

Saturday, May 18

1 pm

26-26, 15-5

UC Riverside

17-34, 6-14

UC Riverside

Cal Poly

Cal Poly Clinches Series Against UC Riverside With 7-4 Victory

5/18/2019 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — First baseman Tate Samuelson and center fielder Bradlee Beesley combined for six hits and three RBI while Bobby Ay earned his eighth win as Cal Poly clinched its Big West Conference baseball series against UC Riverside with a 7-4 victory Saturday afternoon inside Baggett Stadium.

Samuelson collected his fourth three-hit game of the 2019 season, driving in two runs, and Beesley (pictured above) added three hits and an RBI for the Mustangs, who evened their overall record for the fifth time this season, at 26-26, and held onto second place in the Big West at 15-5.

UC Riverside fell to 17-34 and 6-14.

Ay (8-1) scattered six hits over 6 2/3 innings, allowing two runs (one earned) with one walk and nine strikeouts, one shy of his career high. Michael Clark secured one out and Taylor Dollard, who earned the victory with three innings of work on the mound Friday, garnered his third save with two scoreless innings of one-hit baseball.

Cal Poly exploded out of the gate with three runs on five hits in the first inning and never looked back. UC Riverside twice pulled to within one run but the Mustangs stayed in front the rest of the way, improving their record at home to 16-13.

Samuelson, Myles Emmerson and Nick DiCarlo all produced RBI singles in the first inning for a 3-0 Mustang lead.

A safety squeeze bunt single by Travis Bohall and a sacrifice fly by Dean Miller accounted for two UC Riverside runs in the third.

Cal Poly tallied insurance runs in the fifth (Conagher Sands RBI single) and seventh frames (Samuelson RBI single) to rebuild its three-run cushion at 5-2.

The Highlanders against pulled to within a run with two in the eighth on an RBI single by Dylan Orick and a groundout by Jacob Shanks. DiCarlo prevented UC Riverside from tying the game with a diving stop and a tag of third base for the first out of the inning.

Cal Poly built the lead back up to three in the bottom of the eighth on run-scoring singles by Jack Kuzma and Beesley.

Nathan Webb opened the ninth with a single, but Dollard secured the final three outs on two fly balls and a strikeout.

The loss went to UC Riverside starter Jeremiah Priddy (0-7) as he allowed four runs and seven hits over five innings with one walk and a pair of strikeouts.

Sands, whose 23-game hitting streak came to an end Friday night, singled twice Saturday for Cal Poly. All 12 Mustang hits were singles.

Miller, Webb and Brendan Avventino, who had just two hits all year, each had two of UC Riverside's nine hits.

Cal Poly has won five of its seven Big West series with one more to go at UC Santa Barbara next weekend.

Final game of this weekend's series and Cal Poly's final home game of the year will be played Sunday at 1 o'clock with Cal Poly sophomore southpaw Andrew Alvarez (1-2, 4.50 ERA) to face UC Riverside sophomore right-hander Abbott Haffar (3-2, 3.71 ERA).

Cal Poly's three seniors — shortstop Dylan Doherty and pitchers Jarred Zill and Michael Clark — will be honored in a pregame ceremony at 12:38 p.m.

Photos courtesy of Owen Main | www.fansmanship.com