Wednesday, March 2
San Luis Obispo, CA
6 p.m.
vs
Portland
Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics
Cal Poly to Host Portland for Single Game Wednesday Night
3/1/2022 6:33:00 PM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | PORTLAND | BIG WEST
LIVE STATS | AUDIO STREAM | VIDEO STREAM | TICKETS
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (4-3, 0-0 Big West), in the midst of back-to-back weekend series on the road, will play one home game between the six contests, hosting Portland (6-1, 0-0 West Coast) on Wednesday night inside Baggett Stadium (cap.: 3,138).
LIVE STATS | AUDIO STREAM | VIDEO STREAM | TICKETS
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (4-3, 0-0 Big West), in the midst of back-to-back weekend series on the road, will play one home game between the six contests, hosting Portland (6-1, 0-0 West Coast) on Wednesday night inside Baggett Stadium (cap.: 3,138).
The non-conference game will be broadcast on ESPN Radio (1280 AM and 101.7 FM) with Zachary Anderson-Yoxsimer providing the play-by-play. Links for video and audio streams as well as live stats are available on the baseball schedule page at www.GoPoly.com.
Cal Poly opened the 2022 season by a pair of one-run decisions against Washington, 6-5 and 4-3, before riding a five-run second-inning uprising to victory over the Huskies in the series finale. True freshman catcher Ryan Stafford led the way with a 5-for-11 performance at the plate, including three doubles and one RBI.
Following an 8-4 midweek win over Fresno State — sparked by a two-run home run off the bat of right fielder Matthias Haas in the fifth inning and a three-run double by shortstop Brooks Lee in the sixth — the Mustangs went out on the road for the first time last weekend, taking two of three games from Missouri State in Arlington, Texas. Cal Poly won the opener 5-1, let a 5-0 lead slip away in an 8-5 loss and clinched the series with a 14-12 slugfest triumph. Redshirt sophomore shortstop Brooks Lee was 6-for-11 in the series with a double and a three-run home run.
Portland won its first six games, sweeping a four-game series at home against Creighton and taking the first two games of its next series at San Jose State before falling to the Spartans 4-3 last Sunday. The 6-1 start is Portland's best through seven games since the 2011 season. The Pilots are in the midst of playing 10 of 11 games in California as Portland will play three games at Fresno State this weekend and, after a single game at Oregon on March 8, three more contests at UC Riverside on March 10-11.
Portland is hitting .288 as a team with eight doubles, two triples and five home runs, scoring 60 runs in their season-opening six-game winning streak. The pitching staff has compiled a 3.72 ERA with 67 strikeouts over 58 innings, and the Pilots have committed seven errors for a .968 fielding percentage.
Portland, which first played baseball in 1923, has made five NCAA regional appearances, the last time in 1991. The Pilots qualified for the District 8 playoffs in 1957 and 1958 and played in the NCAA regionals in 1979, 1989 and 1991, all at Fresno State. Portland's postseason record is 4-11. Portland was a member of the Nor-Pac Conference from 1974 through 1981 and the Pacific-10 Northern Division from 1982 through 1995 before joining the West Coast Conference in 1996.
Nine former Pilots played in the Major Leagues, including Steve Wilson with the Chicago Cubs abd Los Angeles Dodgers (1989-93), Bill Krueger with seven teams from 1983-94), Tom Lampkin with six teams from 1988-2002) and Ken Dayley with four teams from 1982-93.
Portland head coach Geoff Loomis was hired in June 2015 and is in his seventh season with the Pilots, compiling a 117-166-1 mark so far. He was head coach at Pacific Lutheran for 13 years (327-197-2) and currently has a career record of 444-363-3. Loomis also was an assistant coach at George Fox for five seasons and served as head coach of the Aloha Knights summer league team which won the 2004 National Baseball Congress World Series title.
Loomis is a member of the Portland Athletic Hall of Fame after a decorated baseball career from 1990-92 as an infielder and still holds the school's career record for batting average (.372) as well as single-season marks for hits (80) and doubles (22). He once drove in a school-record nine runs in a single game and was Pac-10 North Division Player of the Year in 1992.
Picked by West Coast Conference head coaches to finish sixth this year, Portland is coming off a 24-26 campaign, finishing fifth in the WCC at 14-13. A total of 28 letter winners return, including three position starters and 10 pitchers, joined by 10 newcomers. Top returnees include infielder Ben Patascil (.263, 21 RBIs in 2021) and outfielders Jake Holcroft (.262, 23 RBIs) and Briley Knight (.247, 29 RBIs). The pitching staff is paced by southpaw Caleb Franzen (3-3, 4.80 ERA, one save in 2021) and righties Brett Gillis (2-5, 5.08 ERA) and Peter Allegro (2-4, 3.32 ERA, three saves).
Loomis has tabbed sophomore right-hander Brock Gillis (1-0, 1.50 ERA) as his starting pitcher Wednesday. Gillis pitched two scoreless innings in the loss to San Jose State on Sunday. Cal Poly will counter with freshman right-hander Steven Brooks (0-0, 2.45 ERA), who started last week's midweek game against Fresno State and was not involved in the decision, allowing one run and five hits over 3 2/3 innings with no walks and four strikeouts.
Portland and Cal Poly have played just three games against each other in baseball, all in a 2002 series in Baggett Stadium. The Mustangs won the opener 3-2, the Pilots claimed the middle game 9-7 and Cal Poly clinched the series with a 9-1 triumph.
The Mustangs are 2-1 at home against the Pilots and have never played at Portland. Larry Lee is 0-0 versus the Pilots while Geoff Loomis is 0-0 versus Cal Poly.
Lee welcomed back 22 lettermen off last year's squad, including seven position starters and all but three pitchers. The 2022 Mustang roster, bolstered by the addition of three transfers from Boise State and one from Washington State a year ago, has added a pair of graduate students this spring in infielder Brett Borgogno (Cal State Fullerton and Louisiana-Lafayette) and outfielder John Lagattuta (Cal) along with utility player Matthias Haas, a transfer from Brown.
Topping the list of returnees is five-time 2021 All-American Brooks Lee, a preseason All-American five times as well this spring. Projected to be a top-five draft pick in July, Lee hit a team-leading .342 with 10 home runs, 57 RBIs and a school-record 27 doubles as a redshirt freshman in 2021 en route to Big West Co-Field Player of the Year and Co-Freshman Field Player of the Year honors.
The group of returnees also includes designated hitter Matt Lopez, third baseman Tate Samuelson, first baseman Joe Yorke, second baseman Nick Marinconz, utility player Taison Corio and pitchers Drew Thorpe, Travis Weston, Bryce Warrecker, Kyle Scott and Dylan Villalobos, among several others.
The entire infield is back as Yorke made 54 starts at first base, Marinconz (27) and Corio (23) combined for 50 starts at second base, Lee started 54 games at shortstop and Samuelson was in the starting lineup 53 times at third base.
Lopez was second on the team in hitting at .341 with 26 RBIs in 39 games.
The outfield is a work in progress with the loss of Cole Cabrera in center field, Sam Biller in left and Nick DiCarlo in right. Reagan Doss, who started 21 games in the outfield last year and hit .258 with six doubles and 13 RBIs in 37 games, replaces Cabrera in center field. A pair of catchers lead the depth chart in left field — Ryan Stafford of Folsom High School and returnee Collin Villegas — while Haas of Oakland's Bishop O'Dowd High School and Brown and Lagattuta of Davis Senior High School and Cal likely will share duties in right field. Villegas and Stafford are listed 1-2 behind the plate.
On the mound Drew Thorpe was 6-1 with a 3.15 ERA in home games last spring, finishing with a 6-6 mark and 3.79 ERA. He led the squad in strikeouts with 104, which is No. 10 all-time in the Cal Poly record book, and compiled double-digit strikeouts three times in 2021. Travis Weston (5-6, 3.28 ERA) earned three complete games, the most by a Mustang pitcher since Joey Wagman also collected three complete games in 2013. Weston was a starter in Saturday doubleheaders.
Thorpe and Weston will start Friday and Saturday, respectively, for the second year in a row. Sophomore Kaden Sheedy (1-2, 5.40 ERA in 2021) gets the nod Sunday with freshman right-hander Steven Brooks of Cosumnes Oaks High School in Elk Grove, Calif., expected to start in midweek games. Sheedy made four starts in the final six weeks of the 2021 season, including a complete-game three-hitter with six strikeouts in the series finale at UC Davis.
So far this season, Lee leads all Mustang hitters with a .462 mark, which includes three doubles, one home run and nine RBIs. Catcher/left fielder Collin Villegas sports a .357 mark while right fielder Matthias Haas and catcher/left fielder Ryan Stafford both are hitting .333. Haas has two home runs and five RBIs while Stafford has five doubles and two RBIs from the leadoff spot.
The Mustangs have a combined 331-277 conference record (.545 winning percentage) in 24 years as a member of the Big West (no conference games were played in 2020), the last 18 under Lee. Cal Poly has had just three losing seasons since 2000 and has reached the 30-win mark 13 times this century, including 2021. The Mustangs have won 210 of their last 307 home games for a 68.4 winning percentage.
Since and including 2011, Cal Poly is the only Big West team to have a winning or .500 overall record each year (excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season). Also since 2011, Cal Poly is the only Big West team to finish at least fourth or higher every year, including one first place, five seconds, one third and three fourths.
Since 2011, Lee guided the Mustangs to wins in 58 of 91 Big West series with a pair of 2-2 splits for a 63.4 winning percentage. The Mustangs won seven of eight conference series in both 2014 and 2017. Cal Poly is the only Big West team to have a winning overall record in each full season since 2011 and the Mustangs are the only Big West team to finish fourth place or higher every year. Since 2003, Cal Poly has finished below fourth place only twice.
Cal Poly has had 19 MLB draft picks in the top 10 rounds since and including 2011. Only Cal State Fullerton has had more with 22. The next tier are three teams with a total of 10 in that time span. Cal Poly has had a total of 34 top-10 round MLB draft picks in the last 18 years.
Since 2012, Cal Poly has had eight Division I All-Americans. Also, since 2003, Cal Poly has had 11 players make it to the Major Leagues. In the rest of the history of the program, there were nine to have made it to The Show.
Cal Poly is seventh among 25 California Division I schools and 10th in the West Region (47 schools) with 299 wins over the last nine years (not counting 2020).
Lee (581-457-2) surpassed Fresno State's Bob Bennett for the Big West record for overall wins with a 2-1 series-opening win at USC in February 2021. During the UC Davis series in 2019, Lee eclipsed 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 reached the 500-victory milestone on April 20, 2018, with a 5-4 triumph over Long Beach State. He earned 460 wins in 16 seasons at Cuesta College and notched his 460th Mustang victory on March 13, 2017 against Gonzaga and his 1,000th career victory with a 3-0 triumph at UC Santa Barbara on May 23, 2019. He currently has a 1,041-699-5 record over 35-plus seasons as a head coach and coached his 1,000th game as Cal Poly's head coach on April 1, 2021, a 10-1 win over UC San Diego.
Cal Poly goes back out on the road for a three-game non-conference series Friday through Sunday at UNLV.
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