SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Taison Corio and Brooks Lee each drove in four runs and Cal Poly exploded for 10 runs in its final two at-bats to turn a 3-3 tie into a mercy-rule 13-3 seven-inning baseball victory over Hawai'i on Friday night inside Baggett Stadium.
Redshirt freshman right-hander Drew Thorpe improved to 6-1 at home with a four-hit complete game for the Mustangs, who clinched at least a .500 mark for the season with their 28th victory.
With eight wins in its last nine games, Cal Poly improved to 28-25 for the year and 18-19 in Big West games. The Mustangs, who remain in seventh place, can still finish as high as a tie for fourth place with three more wins, one CSU Bakersfield loss at UC Santa Barbara and a UC San Diego win over CSUN. Hawai'i fell to 24-23 and 16-21.
Taison Corio watches flight
of the ball in early innings.
Thorpe (6-6) struck out seven and walked just one en route to his sixth victory of the season. The Washington, Utah, native is now 6-1 with a 3.15 ERA at home and 0-5 with a 4.79 ERA in six road starts.
Corio's RBI groundout in the second inning tied the game at 2-2 and his two-run home run to right-center field in the sixth inning, his first in two seasons as a Mustang, shattered a 3-3 tie. He finished off his first four-RBI game as a Mustang with an RBI single up the middle in the seventh.
Lee belted a two-run home run in the sixth inning, his 10th of the year. That's the most round-trippers by a Mustang since Brian Mundell hit 11 homers in 2013.
Lee added a two-run double to left-center field in the seventh, giving him 24 two-baggers for the season, one shy of the school record of 25 set by Taber Maier in 1997.
Lee's four RBIs gave him 54 for the season, four shy of the all-time top 10 for RBIs in a single season.
Nick Marinconz singled three times Friday night.
Both teams scored twice in the second inning. An RBI single by Nick Marinconz broke the tie in the fifth inning and, after Hawai'i tied the game again at 3-3 in the top of the sixth, the two-run home runs by Corio and Lee in the bottom of the sixth snapped the deadlock.
A six-run seventh-inning rally by the Mustangs closed out the game. Corio, Cole Cabrera and Myles Emmerson preceded Lee's two-run double and Tate Samuelson ended the contest with a double of his own to left-center field.
Marinconz singled three times for his fourth three-hit game of the season. The redshirt freshman second baseman has gone 24-for-61 (.393) with 13 RBIs in his last 17 games, lifting his average 161 points to .296.
Cabrera, Emmerson, Lee and Corio each added two hits as Cal Poly outhit Hawai'i 15-4. All nine Mustang starters collected at least one hit in the game. Emmerson and Lee both extended current hitting streaks to 10 games.
Hawai'i's four hits included an RBI double by left fielder Jacob Igawa.
The loss was assessed to Rainbow Warrior redshirt sophomore right-hander Aaron Davenport (3-6) as he allowed seven runs (six earned) and nine hits over 5 2/3 innings. Davenport also suffered the loss in his other collegiate start against the Mustangs two years ago, giving up three runs and seven hits over six innings.
Cal Poly now has recorded six complete games by its pitching staff this season, the most since 2005. The Mustangs had just three complete games total from 2017-20.
The two teams play a 1 p.m. doubleheader Saturday. The opener features Cal Poly redshirt junior southpaw Andrew Alvarez (7-3, 4.05 ERA) against Hawai'i sophomore right-hander Cade Halemanu (5-2, 3.57 ERA).
