Cal Poly Hosts UC Santa Barbara With Top Spot in Big West at Stake

Friday, April 29

San Luis Obispo, CA

6 p.m.

UC Santa Barbara

Cal Poly shortstop Brooks Lee attempts to turn a double play against Stanford on April 19. Cal Poly hosts first-place UC Santa Barbara this weekend in Baggett Stadium.

Photo by: Photo by Connor Lau

Cal Poly Hosts UC Santa Barbara With Top Spot in Big West at Stake

4/27/2022 8:37:00 PM | Baseball

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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (24-16, 11-4 Big West), ranked No. 30 by Collegiate Baseball this week and winner of 17 of its last 24 games after a 7-9 start, opens the second half of its Big West Conference schedule by hosting first-place and 13th-ranked UC Santa Barbara (27-10, 16-2 Big West) 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 of the series will be broadcast on ESPN Radio (1280 AM and 101.7 FM) with Zachary Anderson-Yoxsimer providing the play-by-play. The games also will be available on ESPN+ with Chris Sylvester at the mic. Links for video and audio streams as well as live stats are available on the baseball schedule page at www.GoPoly.com.

After the 7-9 start, Cal Poly put together five- and six-game winning streaks, moving 10 games above the .500 mark for the first time since the 2016 season by taking two of three games in back-to-back Big West series on the road at UC Irvine and UC Riverside.

The Mustangs took the first two games from the Highlanders 9-3 and 4-3 before falling 8-3 in the finale. Drew Thorpe pitched to within one out of his second complete-game shutout of the season in the opener, striking out 11 with no walks, while Mark Armstrong's RBI double down the right-field line broke a 3-3 tie in the 11th inning of the middle game. Joe Yorke had a pair of three-hit games in the series and went 7-for-15 with three RBIs.

Also last week, Cal Poly fell to Nos. 6/7/8 Stanford 10-8 in front of 2,738 fans, the largest crowd for a midweek game in Baggett Stadium history. The Mustangs dropped a 9-1 decision at Santa Clara on Tuesday night.

Cal Poly opened the 2022 season by dropping a pair of one-run decisions against Washington, 6-5 and 4-3, before claiming the series finale. Following an 8-4 midweek win over Fresno State, 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.

The early season slide continued as Cal Poly fell 3-1 to San Jose State and split a four-game weekend set against the Ivy League's Harvard. That series included Drew Thorpe's three-hit shutout in the opener, a grand slam by Brett Borgogno and Brooks Lee's first four-hit game as a Mustang.

On March 18, Cal Poly rallied from a 4-0 deficit with a decisive five-run eighth-inning outburst for a 6-4 Big West-opening triumph over CSUN, providing a turning point for the Mustangs as they have lost just five times since. Cal Poly completed the sweep against the Matadors, earned a series win at UC San Diego highlighted by a combined 20-strikeout effort from Thorpe and Jason Franks, won all five games versus Santa Clara and Dixie State four weeks ago and won Big West series against Long Beach State, defending conference champion UC Irvine and UC Riverside, all two games to one, to stay within striking distance of the first-place Gauchos.

The Mustangs are back above the .500 mark after the 0-2, 4-5, 5-7 and 7-9 starts, going 17-7 since the start of Big West play March 18.

UC Santa Barbara has yet to lose a series this season. Lone blemish is a 2-2 split with Oregon on the first weekend of March. The Gauchos swept series versus UC Davis, CSUN, UC San Diego and Long Beach State, have won nine straight conference games and took two of three against Cal State Fullerton and Hawai'i. Non-conference series wins have been posted against San Francisco, Nevada and UC San Diego.

UC Santa Barbara is hitting .277 as a team with 72 doubles, 11 triples and 50 home runs, scoring 259 runs in its 37 games so far. The Gauchos are first in the Big West in ERA (3.94), hits allowed per nine innings (8.21), home runs (50), on-base percentage (.379), runs scored (259), scoring (7.0 per game), slugging percentage (.470), stolen bases (58), strikeouts per nine innings (10.0) and win-loss percentage (.730). The pitching staff has compiled a 3.94 ERA with 366 strikeouts over 329 innings, and the Gauchos have committed 39 errors for a .971 fielding percentage.

Eleventh-year head coach Andrew Checketts (357-210-4, Oregon State '98) welcomed back 25 lettermen from last year's 41-20 club (second in the Big West at 29-11), including eight starting position players and 11 pitchers. Top returnees include shortstop Jordan Sprinkle (.353, seven home runs, 32 RBIs, 26 steals in 2021), utility player Jason Willow (.282, six home runs, 45 RBIs, 16 steals) and  outfielder Broc Mortensen (.296, 15 home runs, 54 RBIs). Top returning pitchers include right-handers Cory Lewis (7-4, 3.38 ERA in 2021) and JD Callahan (3-4, 6.00 ERA) and southpaw Carter Benbrook (7-1, 3.02 ERA, five saves).

Top Gaucho hitters so far in 2022 are catcher John Newman Jr. (.347, 15 RBIs), third baseman Bryce Willits (.345, 10 doubles, five home runs, 22 RBIs), designated hitter Blake Klassen (.333, seven home runs, 14 RBIs), left fielder Christian Kirtley (.313, seven doubles, seven home runs, 26 RBIs) and center fielder Nick Vogt (.305, nine doubles, four home runs, 31 RBIs). Right fielder Mortensen (.220), a former Cal Poly football player who played two seasons of baseball at Cuesta College before transferring to UC Santa Barbara, leads the club in home runs with nine and RBIs with 31.

The Gaucho pitching staff is paced by Ryan Gallagher (4-0, 2.90 ERA), Lewis (6-0, 3.13 ERA) and Michael Gutierrez (5-1, 3.25 ERA). Closer Ryan Harvey has 10 saves with an 0-2 mark and 4.50 ERA.

UCSB claimed Big West titles in 1972, 1986 and 2019 and has qualified for the NCAA Division I regionals 12 times, including 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2021, compiling a 15-28 win-loss record in Division I postseason competition, including 6-2 in 2016 en route to regional and super regional triumphs and a berth in the College World Series and a 2-2 mark in the 2021 Tucson Regional.

Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara have met 236 times on the baseball field since the series began when both teams were California Collegiate Athletic Association members back in 1942. The Gauchos hold a 123-113 advantage following last year's 3-1 series win in San Luis Obispo. The Mustangs swept UC Santa Barbara three straight years (2016-18). Needing another sweep in 2019 to claim a share of the Big West title and the automatic qualifying spot in the postseason, Cal Poly won the first two games by 3-0 and 4-3 scores at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium before the Gauchos clinched the title and playoff berth with a 7-0 victory in the series finale. The two Blue-Green rivals did not play each other in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cal Poly is 59-48 against UCSB since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Larry Lee is 43-27 against UC Santa Barbara while Andrew Checketts is 11-21 against Cal Poly.

Checketts spent three seasons as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator under George Horton at Oregon before coming to UC Santa Barbara. He was on the UC Riverside staff for seven years and began his coaching career at Riverside Community College, where he served as pitching coach and helped the team to their second consecutive California State championship in 2001. Checketts played one season at Florida and three at Oregon State.

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, 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.

As the team's designated hitter, Lopez was second on the team in hitting at .341 with 26 RBIs in 39 games.

The outfield continues to be 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. Stafford has made 27 starts behind the plate and Villegas nine with 19 additional starts in the outfield.

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 four Sunday games this season with freshman right-hander Steven Brooks of Cosumnes Oaks High School in Elk Grove, Calif., starting the midweek contests. 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 .375 mark, second in the Big West, which includes 19 doubles, a triple, seven home runs and 37 RBIs. He is on pace to surpass his own school doubles record (27) set last year as well as his 57 total RBIs in 2021, and had a career-long 19-game hitting streak snapped by Long Beach State four weeks ago. Sophomore second baseman Nick Marinconz sports a .343 average with six doubles, a home run and 10 RBIs while Yorke is hitting .287 with 25 RBIs, Villegas .284 with 14 doubles, two triples, three home runs and 31 RBIs and catcher Ryan Stafford .282 with 12 doubles and 16 RBIs.

The Mustangs have a combined 342-281 conference record (.549 winning percentage) in 24-plus years as a member of the Big West (no conference games were played in 2020), the last 18-plus 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 222 of their last 325 home games for a 68.5 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 has guided the Mustangs to wins in 63 of 96 Big West series with a pair of 2-2 splits for a 65.6 winning percentage. The Mustangs won seven of eight conference series in both 2014 and 2017 and is 5-0 so far this spring. 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 (2012-21, not counting 2020).

Lee (20th season, 601-471-2, Pepperdine '83) 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 and earned win No. 600 last Friday with a 9-3 nod over U Riverside. 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 1,061-712-5 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 visits Fresno State on Tuesday for a rematch with the Bulldogs and resumes Big West play over the weekend by hosting CSU Bakersfield (Friday at 6 p.m Saturday at 4 and Sunday at 1).