Redshirt junior southpaw Travis Weston earned his third career shutout as a Mustang, striking out nine, as Cal Poly defeated UC Davis 7-0 on Saturday in Baggett Stadium.
Photo by: Photo by Connor Lau
Weston Earns Third Shutout as Cal Poly Clinches UC Davis Series
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Travis Weston earned his second complete-game shutout of the 2022 season and third of his Cal Poly career Saturday, scattering five hits and striking out nine in a 7-0 victory over UC Davis inside Baggett Stadium.
Weston (6-3), pitching in his final home game as a Mustang, lowered his ERA from 4.50 to 4.03 as he did not walk a batter and retired the side in order six times in his eighth quality start of the year.
With its 10th straight victory, the longest Mustang winning streak in eight years, Cal Poly improved to 34-20 for the season and 19-7 in Big West games, two games ahead of Hawai'i in the battle for second place. UC Davis fell to 6-31 and 5-21.
UC Santa Barbara, four games ahead of the Mustangs at the start of play Saturday, faced UC Riverside later Saturday needing one more win to claim the conference's automatic qualifying bid for the NCAA regionals.
Ryan Stafford tags out Nick Leehey for a double play in the fifth inning.Cal Poly, now 23-3 against UC Davis in Baggett Stadium since the Mustangs played their first Division I game in 1995, scored twice in the second, fourth and eighth frames and once in the seventh.
Tate Samuelson and Reagan Doss produced RBI singles for a 2-0 lead in the second and Joe Yorke, who extended his hitting streak to 20 games with a single in the first inning, belted his fourth home run of the season, a two-run shot to right field in the fourth inning, as Cal Poly doubled its lead to 4-0.
The third single of the game by Matt Lopez plated another run in the seventh and Brooks Lee smashed his 14th home run of the season, also a two-run shot to right field, in the eighth.
For Lee, he is tied for seventh place with Marty Camacho and Scott Kidd in Cal Poly's record book for most home runs in a single season. Both Camacho and Kidd hit 14 homers in 1997. Lee has homered in three straight games, five of seven and seven of his last 13 games.
UC Davis had two runners on base in the fifth and seventh innings, but was turned away by Cal Poly double plays both times. Weston also gave up a two-out double in the ninth before striking out the final Aggie batter of the game for the win.
The transfer from Boise State shut out Dixie State 9-0 on a two-hitter earlier this season and blanked Utah Valley 6-0 with a four-hitter in 2021. His three career shutouts tie him for seventh place in Cal Poly's record book.
Weston finished two strikeouts shy of his career high of 11 against Utah Valley in 2021. He also struck out 10 versus UNLV earlier this year. Weston threw 109 pitches, including 10 or fewer pitches in six of the nine innings. He now has five complete games in his Cal Poly career.
With Friday's 11-0 victory, Cal Poly has recorded back-to-back shutouts for the first time since blanking UC Riverside 1-0 and 5-0 late in the 2017 season.
Yorke, Lopez and Doss each had three of Cal Poly's 15 hits and Ryan Stafford added two singles. The Mustangs produced double-digit hits for the seventh time in their last 10 games and are now 23-0 when outhitting the opposition.
Playing its quickest game of the year -- two hours and 10 minutes -- by three minutes, Cal Poly, also 26-7 when scoring first, is 5-0 in shutouts this season, the most since earning 10 shutouts in the 2014 Big West championship season.
Yorke, the reigning Big West field player of the week, is 29-for-51 (.569) in his last 11 games with seven doubles, two home runs and 18 RBIs. During his current 20-game hitting streak, the Mustang first baseman is 45-for-92 (.489) with eight doubles, three home runs and 24 RBIs, lifting his average for the season 105 points from .252 to .357.
The run by Yorke includes a pair of five-hit games (May 6 versus CSU Bakersfield and May 10 against Pepperdine), the first to do it twice in the Mustangs' 28-year Division I history, and a four-hit game Tuesday in the rematch at Pepperdine.
Yorke is one of five Mustangs in the Division I era to produce a hitting streak of 20 or more games. The school record of 26 is held by Ryan Lee in 2009 and the others are Brandon Roberts (25 in 2004), Matt Jensen (23 in 2009) and Conagher Sands (23 in 2019).
Marinconz, who had one hit Saturday, has elevated his batting average 56 points to .323 over his last 38 games, going 47-for-143 (.329) with 13 multiple-hit contests, while Lopez has gone 15-for-37 (.405) over his last 11 games, lifting his average 45 points to .298.
Tate Samuelson, a fifth-year Super Senior who has already broken school records for most games played (232) and at-bats (895) in a career, contributed a run-scoring single in the second inning and is No. 2 in hits (246, six shy of the record set by Jimmy Allen), tied for No. 2 in RBIs (158, two short of the mark held by Steve Wood) and fifth in hit by pitches (29). Hitting .253 this year, Samuelson is one home run and two walks shy of the top 10.
Final game of the series and the last home game of the 2022 season will be played Sunday at 1 o'clock with Cal Poly senior right-hander Dylan Villalobos (0-2, 3.25 ERA) to face UC Davis freshman righty Carson Seeman (0-2, 8.53 ERA).
