Cal Poly third baseman Tate Samuelson owns Cal Poly career records for games played and at-bats and is third in hits and six RBIs short of the school record for RBIs.
Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics
Cal Poly to Visit Cal State Fullerton for Three-Game Big West Series
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (28-20, 14-7 Big West), which snapped a six-game losing streak by sweeping a Big West Conference series at home against CSU Bakersfield over the weekend and scored a season-high 16 runs in a win over Pepperdine on Tuesday, plays two of its final three Big West Conference series on the road, beginning with a visit to Cal State Fullerton (19-27, 11-10 Big West) at Goodwin Field (cap.: 3,500).
First pitches are set for 7 p.m. Friday, 6 p.m. Saturday and 1 o'clock Sunday. All three games will be broadcast on ESPN Radio (1280 AM and 101.7 FM) with Chris Sylvester on the mic. The games also will be video streamed on ESPN+. Links for video and audio streams as well as live stats are available on the baseball schedule page at www.GoPoly.com.
After a 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 slipped into third place in the Big West following 10-7 (11 innings), 8-3 and 7-3 losses to No. 13 UC Santa Barbara at home on April 29-May 1, but climbed back into second place by sweeping CSU?Bakersfield by scores of 14-1, 6-2 and 4-2. Ryan Stafford went 8-for-11 at the plate with a home run, five runs scored and six RBIs en route to Big West Field Player of the Week honors while Joe Yorke was 7-for-14 with two doubles and three RBIs, including a five-hit game in the opener.
The Mustangs also scored nine times in the first inning and defeated Pepperdine 16-4 in their final home midweek game Tuesday as Yorke produced his second five-hit game in five days with two doubles, three singles and three RBIs, extending his hitting streak to 14 games. Yorke is 14-for-24 (.583) in his last five games with four doubles and six RBIs. During the hitting streak, the Mustang first baseman is 30-for-65 (.462) with five doubles, one home run and 11 RBIs, lifting his average for the season 76 points from .252 to .328. Yorke accumulated Cal Poly's 19th game of five or more hits and is the first to do it twice in the Mustangs' 28-year Division I history.
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 won 11 of 12 contests. 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 six 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 20-11 since the start of Big West play March 18.
Joe Yorke has produced a pair of five-hit games over the last
five days, has hit in 14 consecutive games, going 30-for-65 (.462)
with five doubles, one home run and 11 RBIs,
and has lifted his average 76 points from .252 to .328.Cal State Fullerton lost nine of its first 12 games, losing two of three games at Stanford and swept by Gonzaga and Pepperdine at home. The Titans won a series versus Loyola Marymount but have lost five of seven Big West series, sweeping UC Riverside and UC Davis while falling to UC Santa Barbara, CSU Bakersfield, CSUN, Hawai'i and UC San Diego. Cal State Fullerton is tied for fifth place in the conference with UC Irvine and UC San Diego, all 11-10. The Titans lost two of three games at UC San Diego last weekend before routing No. 15 UCLA 9-2 on Tuesday and have dropped seven of their last 11 contests.
Cal State Fullerton is hitting .284 as a team, No. 1 in the Big West, with 79 doubles, 13 triples and 28 home runs, scoring 258 runs in its 46 games so far. The Titans are third in the Big West in doubles (79), fielding percentage (.972), batters hit by their pitchers (58), hits (458), and triples (13). The pitching staff has compiled a 5.54 ERA with 375 strikeouts over 408 innings, and the Titans have committed 49 errors in 46 games.
Cal State Fullerton is coming off a 20-35 campaign, finishing ninth in the Big West at 13-23. Cal State Fullerton has won 30 conference titles in 46 Division I seasons, has appeared in 40 regionals, including 27 consecutive seasons, a streak that ended in 2019, along with 14 Super Regionals and 18 College World Series, capturing national championships in 1979, 1984, 1995 and 2004. The Titans are 651-252 since late 1992 at Goodwin Field and never had a losing season in 47 Division I campaigns (excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season) until last year.
Former Titans who made it to the Major Leagues include Tim Wallach, Phil Nevin, Mark Kotsay and Ricky Romero (all first-round draft picks) along with Kurt Suzuki, Chad Cordero, Jeremy Giambi, Justin Turner, Michael Lorenzen, Dylan Floro, Phil Bickford and Matt Chapman. A total of 71 former Titans have played in the Major Leagues.
Coached by Jason Dietrich (first season, 19-27, Cal State Fullerton '99), the Titans returned 24 letter winners from last year's squad, including six position starters and 10 pitchers. Top returnees include third baseman Zach Lew (.284, 15 RBIs in 2021), first baseman Caden Connor (.325, 22 RBIs) and infielder Deylan Pigford (.277, 18 RBIs). Topping the list of returning pitchers are Cameron Repetti (4-2, 4.50 ERA, five saves in 2021), Michael Weisberg (2-2, 5.30 ERA) and Jake Vargas (0-1, 11.17 ERA), all right-handers.
Second baseman Jackson Lyon tops all Cal State Fullerton hitters so far this season with a .360 average, 11 doubles, seven home runs and 29 RBIs while Lew is hitting .320 with seven doubles and 26 RBIs. Connor sports a .311 mark with 11 doubles, four home runs and 32 RBIs and left fielder Jason Brandow checks in with a .308 average, six home runs and 21 RBIs.
Dietrich, the sixth head coach in the Titans' Division I history, was pitching coach at East Carolina for two seasons before he was named Titans head coach last June 30. He was pitching coach at Cal State Fullerton from 2013-16 and also coached at UC Irvine (2008-12) and Oregon (2017-19). Dietrich has worked under Mike Gillespie, George Horton and Rick Vanderhook, who was the Titans' head coach the last 10 seasons before stepping down following the 2021 campaign.
Dietrich began his coaching career as the pitching coach at Arcadia High School (1999-2001). He became a college pitching coach at Los Angeles City College in 2002 before moving to Irvine Valley College (2003-06) and Cal State Los Angeles (2007). He also spent time as a pitching coach for the Hyannis Mets (2004-05) of the Cape Cod Baseball League and Southern California Fire (2003) of the Western Wood Bat League.
Prior to coaching, he played one year with the New Jersey Jackals of the Northeast Baseball League (1998) and four in the Colorado Rockies organization (1994-98) after being selected in the 19th round of the 1994 MLB Draft out of Pepperdine, where he earned West Coast Conference Honorable Mention accolades. During his professional career, Dietrich posted a 7-2 record with a 2.84 ERA and seven saves in 44 appearances. Dietrich played at Santa Ana Community College from 1991-93, leading the team to the state title in 1993, and is a 1999 Cal State Fullerton graduate.
Cal Poly and Cal State Fullerton have met 120 times on the baseball field since the series began when both teams were California Collegiate Athletic Association members back in 1966. The Titans hold a 72-48 advantage, though Cal Poly swept a four-game series in 2021 at Baggett Stadium by scores of 5-1, 13-3, 10-0 and 9-1. Cal Poly also won two of three games at Baggett Stadium in 2016 and 2017, swept the 2014 series in Baggett Stadium and has enjoyed some recent success against the Titans with 21 victories in the last 43 meetings over the previous 14 seasons, winning series at home in 2007, 2011, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2021. The Mustangs have yet to win a series at Goodwin Field since joining the Big West in 1997.
Cal Poly is 26-60 against Cal State Fullerton since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Lee is 22-33 against Cal State Fullerton while Dietrich is facing Cal Poly for the first time as a head coach.
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 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 36 starts behind the plate and Villegas 11 with 27 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 .374 mark, second in the Big West, which includes 21 doubles, a triple, 10 home runs and 42 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 six weeks ago. Yorke is hitting .328 with nine doubles, 33 RBIs and a 14-game hitting streak while sophomore second baseman Nick Marinconz sports a .321 average with seven doubles, a home run and 15 RBIs and freshman catcher Ryan Stafford .308 with 13 doubles, three home runs and 26 RBIs. Collin Villegas is hitting .297 with 17 doubles, two triples, four home runs and 38 RBIs.
Samuelson, a fifth-year Super Senior, has already broken school records for most games played (223) and at-bats (874) in a career and is No. 3 in hits (239) and RBIs (154) and fifth in hit by pitches (29). Hitting .247 this year, Samuelson is one home run and two walks shy of the top 10 and six RBIs short of the school record (Steve Wood with 160).
Lee (20th season, 605-475-2, Pepperdine '83) reached the 600-victory milestone April 22 with a 9-3 nod over UC 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 1,065-715-5 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 Pepperdine on Tuesday and returns to Baggett Stadium for its final home series of the year, hosting UC Davis for a three-game Big West set (Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday at 1 o'clock).
