Cal Poly to Host No. 5 Michigan for Second Weekend Series of Season

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly (3-6), which opened its 2020 baseball season with two wins in three games at the MLB4 Tournament at Scottsdale, Ariz., including a walk-off triumph against defending national champion and No. 1-ranked Vanderbilt, but has dropped five of its last six games, hosts No. 5 Michigan (4-3) for a three-game non-conference series this weekend inside Baggett Stadium (cap.: 3,138).

First pitches are set for 6 p.m. Friday, 4 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. All three games will be broadcast live on ESPN Radio 1280 with Chris Sylvester calling the play-by-play. Links for audio and video streams as well as live stats are available on the baseball schedule page at www.GoPoly.com.

Cal Poly let 3-0 and 7-2 leads slip away, but overcame an 8-7 deficit with sacrifice flies by Cole Cabrera and Tate Samuelson in the bottom of the ninth inning to edge Vanderbilt 9-8. The Mustangs also defeated Connecticut 5-0 as Taylor Dollard (seven innings, 10 strikeouts) and Dylan Villalobos (two innings, two strikeouts) combined on a two-hit shutout. In between, Cal Poly fell to No. 8 Michigan 8-5.

Last week the Mustangs dropped their home opener to Pepperdine, 9-2, then lost three of four games against BYU, winning only the opener of Saturday's doubleheader 10-0 as freshman right-hander Drew Thorpe tossed eight scoreless innings with 13 strikeouts, two shy of the school's Division I record. Cal Poly was held to five singles in a 13-0 loss at Fresno State on Tuesday night.

The win over UConn gave Cal Poly a victory in its season opener for the seventh time in the last nine years. Mustang head coach Larry Lee is 11-7 in the first game of the year.

Michigan, which like Cal Poly went 2-1 in the MLB4 Tournament, lost two of three games to Connecticut last weekend in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The Wolverines dropped 8-7 and 9-2 decisions sandwiched around a 14-2 triumph. Michigan also lost to UConn 7-1 in the MLB4 Tournament.

The Mustangs return 10 of the 11 position players who started 20 or more games in 2019 and eight of last year's 13 pitchers. The group of veterans is paced by junior corner infielder Tate Samuelson, who has led Cal Poly in home runs and RBIs each of the last two years, senior center fielder Bradlee Beesley, who is in or near the all-time top 10 in several offensive categories at Cal Poly, and junior right-hander Taylor Dollard, who was 5-0 with a 2.89 ERA and four saves as a relief pitcher a year ago and is making the switch to the weekend rotation this spring as the Mustangs' Friday night starter.

Junior left fielder Cole Cabrera, Cal Poly's leadoff hitter this year, went 6-for-15 in the MLB4 Tournament with two doubles, a pair of RBIs and four runs scored to lead the Mustangs in Scottsdale. Senior center fielder Bradlee Beesley and freshman third baseman Nick Marinconz each added four hits while junior first baseman Tate Samuelson drove in five runs.

Senior catcher Myles Emmerson was 9-for-18 at the plate in the BYU series and threw out four would-be Cougar base stealers, two in each game of Saturday's doubleheader. Samuelson and Beesley each added seven hits — Samuelson driving in three runs to lift his team-leading season total to nine in eight games.

The Cal Poly pitching staff produced a 3.27 ERA prior to Tuesday's loss at Fresno State. UConn hit just .091 against Dollard, all four runs surrendered by Andrew Alvarez were unearned and he struck out seven over 4 2/3 innings and Thorpe tossed seven solid innings in a no-decision against Vanderbilt, allowing two runs and four hits with six strikeouts. Despite winning three of four games, BYU was held to just a .174 team batting average in the series.

The Mustangs, who committed nine errors in the MLB4 Tournament, including seven in the loss to Michigan, shored up the defense last week with just four errors in five games. Cal Poly is No. 8 in the nine-team Big West, however, with its .956 fielding percentage and only 38 of the 53 runs the Mustang pitching staff has allowed so far this season are earned.

Michigan won 50 of 72 games and finished second in the Big Ten on its way to a second-place national finish in 2019, losing to Vanderbilt 8-2 in the third and final game of last year's best-of-three championship series at the College World Series.

Eighth-year head coach Erik Bakich has 26 returning lettermen, including five position starters and 13 pitchers, led by outfielders Jordan Nwogu (.321, 12 home runs, 46 RBIs in 2019) and Jesse Franklin (.262, 13 home runs, 55 RBIs) along with right-hander Jeff Criswell (7-1, 2.72 ERA, three saves).

So far this season, Nwogu is the top Wolverine hitter with a .419 average while designated hitter Dominic Clementi is hitting .368 with six RBIs and left fielder Danny Zimmerman .316 with four RBIs. The pitching staff is led by southpaw Steve Hajjar (2-0, 1.64 ERA) and right-handers Blake Beers (1-1, 3.60 ERA) and Jeff Criswell (0-0, 6.35).

Cal Poly is 2-1 in its all-time series against Michigan with a 5-1 win in 2016 at Baggett Stadium and an 8-1 victory in 2018 in the Tony Gwynn Classic at San Diego.

Bakich (eighth season at Michigan (263-163-1), 11th season overall (333-261-1), East Carolina '00) has guided Michigan to three NCAA regional appearances, a Big Ten Conference Tournament title, and seven Big Ten Tournament appearances. During his time at the helm, Michigan has had 31 players selected in the Major League Baseball Draft, along with 41 All-America selections, 49 Big Ten Conference team selections, one Big Ten Player of the Year, and 43 Academic All-Big Ten selections.

Bakich came to Ann Arbor after spending three years as the head coach at the University of Maryland and was an assistant coach at Vanderbilt from 2003-09. He began his college coaching career as a volunteer assistant at Clemson in 2002. Bakich was a third baseman and outfielder at San Jose City College and East Carolina.

Cal Poly's top hitters to date are center fielder Bradlee Beesley with a .364 average, catcher Myles Emmerson with a .333 mark and first baseman Tate Samuelson at .316 with a team-leading nine RBIs. Both Beesley and Samuelson have at least one hit in each of the nine Mustang games so far while Emmerson hit in six straight, including his third career four-hit game in the second game of last Saturday's doubleheader versus BYU, before going hitless at Fresno State.

The Mustangs are playing 35 of their 59 games at home this season, including five consecutive weekend series against BYU, Michigan, Baylor, Oklahoma and San Diego State. Cal Poly hosts UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, Long Beach State and UC Davis for Big West series in April and May.

Cal Poly won the Big West title in 2014 and has placed second six times, third four times and fourth six times since 2000, posting a combined record of 310-258 in 23 years as a member of the Big West.

Cal Poly won seven of its 15 weekend series in addition to a 2-2 split with Saint Mary's in 2019. Along with their sweep of Columbia to halt an early season slide (2-9), the Mustangs swept CSUN, UC Davis and Long Beach State en route to a 12-2 start in Big West play, finishing 17-7 and two games behind UC Santa Barbara. A win on the final day of the season would have resulted in a tie for first place between the Mustangs and Gauchos and Cal Poly would have attained the conference's automatic qualifying berth in the NCAA regionals. The Mustangs won six of their eight Big West series.

Cal Poly has had just three losing seasons since 2000 and has reached the 30-win mark 12 times this century. The Mustangs have won 185 of their last 264 home games for a 70.0 winning percentage.

Lee (544-425-2) reached the 500-victory milestone on April 20, 2018, with a 5-4 triumph over Long Beach State. His 544 wins to date are No. 2 in the conference behind Fresno State's Bob Bennett (547) and, during the UC Davis series last year, Lee surpassed Cal Poly alum and former Long Beach State head coach Dave Snow with his 219th conference win. Snow guided the Dirtbags to 218 Big West wins from 1989-2001.

Lee, who earned 460 wins in 16 seasons at Cuesta College and notched his 460th Mustang victory on March 13, 2017 against Gonzaga, garnered his 1,000th career victory with a 3-0 triumph at UC Santa Barbara on May 23, 2019. He opened the 2020 campaign with a 1,001-660-5 record over 33 seasons.

Next week, Cal Poly plays one game at Santa Clara on Tuesday at 6 p.m. before returning home to face Baylor in a three-game series (Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 4 o'clock and Sunday at 1 p.m.

Photo at top of page of Cal Poly second baseman Connor Gurnik courtesy of Owen Main | www.fansmanship.com

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Cal Poly to Host No. 5 Michigan for Second Weekend Series of Season

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