Cal Poly (5-7) to Host Harvard (4-3) for Four-Game Weekend Series

Freshman right-hander Steven Brooks, who has compiled a 2.53 ERA with no decisions in three midweek starts, is expected to make a start this weekend as Cal Poly hosts Harvard for a four-game series.

Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics

Cal Poly (5-7) to Host Harvard (4-3) for Four-Game Weekend Series

3/9/2022 1:32:00 PM | Baseball

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (5-7, 0-0 Big West), which has lost four of its last five games following a 4-3 start, continues an eight-game home stand this weekend by hosting Ivy League member Harvard (4-3, 0-0 Ivy) for a four-game series inside Baggett Stadium (cap.: 3,138).

All four games 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 dropping 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 with 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 and took two of three games from Missouri State in Arlington, Texas, before losing two of three contests at UNLV. Cal Poly fell 3-1 to San Jose State on Tuesday, committing a pair of errors in a three-run sixth-inning Spartan rally that erased a 1-0 deficit.

In each of its first 12 games this season, Cal Poly held a lead or was tied in the sixth inning or later.

Harvard has played all of its seven games on the road so far this season and will play 12 more away from home before hosting Brown for its home opener April 2. After the series at Cal Poly, the Crimson will play one game at Fresno State on March 15 followed by a weekend series at UCLA?on March 18-20 before returning to the East Coast for an Ivy League series at Cornell on March 26-27 and a single game at Holy Cross on March 29.

Harvard, which opened its season by winning one of three games at Miami (Florida) two weeks ago and claiming three of four contests at Rice last weekend, is hitting .236 as a team with 11 doubles and five home runs, scoring 29 runs in their seven games so far. The pitching staff has compiled a 4.50 ERA with 62 strikeouts over 56 innings, and the Crimson has committed seven errors for a .969 fielding percentage.

Harvard played its first baseball game in 1863, defeating Brown 27-17. The Crimson first played at Fenway Park in 1912 and, in the summer of 1934, went on a 60-day tour to Honolulu, Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka, winning 10 of 15 games. In 1993, James Irving pitched five innings right-handed in a 16-7 win over Yale. The next day he threw a complete game left-handed in a 4-3 Crimson triumph. Harvard stunned No. 4 UCLA 7-2 in the 1997 NCAA?regionals at Stillwater, Okla., and finished the year ranked No. 27.

Harvard has made 15 NCAA appearances, the last time in 2019 at the Oklahoma City Regional, and has compiled a 2,573-1,825-36 record over 155-plus seasons. The  Crimson have earned 19 Ivy League titles since the league was formed in 1933, including the 2019 championship after defeating Columbia in a three-game series, and played in the College World Series in 1968, 1971, 1973 and 1974.

Most recent Major Leaguers from Harvard are Tanner Anderson with Pittsburgh and Oakland from 2018 to the present, Brent Suter with Milwaukee since 2016 and Sean Poppin with Minnesota since 2019. Frank Herrmann played seven seasons with Cleveland and Philadelphia from 2010-16.

Cal Poly and Harvard are playing each other in baseball for the first time this weekend. The Mustangs have played other Ivy League teams, owning a 9-0 record against Columbia, 2-0 versus Cornell, 8-3 against Dartmouth and 1-0 versus Penn.

Bill Decker (10th season at Harvard (129-174), 34th season overall (666-431), Ithaca '85) was introduced as the Joseph J. O'Donnell '67 Head Coach for Harvard Baseball on September 26, 2012. The 2008 ABCA National Coach of the Year, Decker spent 22 seasons as head coach of the Trinity College (Conn.) baseball team before coming to Harvard. Trinity's all-time winningest coach, he owned a 529-231 (.696) record while winning five conference championships and advancing to nine NCAA Tournament appearances and winning one national title.

All told, Decker owns 666 wins as a head coach at the collegiate level, including one year at Macalester College in 1990. He got his college coaching start in 1989 as an assistant coach at Wesleyan (Conn.) and served single years in assistant roles at Deerfield Academy (Mass.) and Phillips Exeter Academy (N.H.). He also served as a graduate assistant coach in football at his alma mater, Ithaca College (N.Y.).

Decker's baseball career was cut short due to injury in college but the two-sport star was a team captain and an All-America defensive back for the football team at Ithaca.

Picked by Ivy League head coaches to finish fourth this year, Harvard did not play baseball in 2021 and  was 1-5 before the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 18 letter winners return, including four position starters but no pitchers. Top returnees include pitcher/outfielder Pryor Thomas (.375 in 2020), utility player Hunter Baldwin (.263) and catcher Zachary Brown (.217). RBIs). The pitching staff is paced by right-handers Joseph O'Connell (0-0, 0.00 ERA in 2020) and Jack Mahala (0-0, 6.00 ERA) along with southpaw Tim Williamson (1-0, 1.35 ERA in 2020).

Seven games into the 2022 season, left fielder Chris Snopek leads all Harvard regulars with a .391 average, driving in five runs, while catcher Sawyer Feller is hitting .348 with six RBIs. Right-handers Adam Stone (1-0, 2.00 ERA) and Jaren Zinn (1-1, 14.29 ERA) and the southpaw Williamson (1-0, 2.00 ERA)?all have made two starts on the mound.

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) got the nod for the first three Sunday games this season with freshman right-hander Steven Brooks of Cosumnes Oaks High School in Elk Grove, Calif., starting 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 .457 mark, which includes eight doubles, two home runs and 16 RBIs. Freshman catcher/left fielder Ryan Stafford is hitting .367 with eight doubles and a pair of home runs while sophomore first baseman Joe Yorke sports a .308 average with three doubles and eight RBIs. Yorke has gone 7-for-18 in his last five games.

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 309 home games for a 68.1 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 (582-462-2) 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 1,042-703-5 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.

Next week, Cal Poly opens Big West Conference play by hosting CSUN for a three-game weekend series (Friday at 6, Saturday at 4, Sunday at 1 p.m.).