Designated hitter Matt Lopez smashed his fourth home run of the season, a three-run shot in the third inning, to spark Cal Poly to a 6-3 victory over UC Davis on Sunday.
Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics
Cal Poly Completes Sweep of UC Davis Series Sunday with 6-3 Win
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Matt Lopez smashed a three-run home run and Brooks Lee added a two-run blast among his three hits as Cal Poly completed its sweep of a three-game Big West Conference baseball series on Senior Day with a 6-3 victory over UC Davis on Sunday inside Baggett Stadium.
One of 10 Mustangs playing their final home game, Lopez's fourth home run of the season, on an 0-1 pitch to left-center field, gave Cal Poly a 4-0 lead in the third inning. Lee made it 6-0 with his 15th home run of the year on a full-count pitch, also to left-center field, in the fourth frame.
Lee's shot moved him into a tie for fifth place with Grant Desme (2007) and Luke Yoder (2010) in Cal Poly's record book for home runs in a single season. Lee also has 25 home runs in his Mustang career, fifth all-time at Cal Poly.
Brooks Lee hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning,
his 15th of the year, tying him for fifth place in the record book.With the win, Cal Poly stretched its winning streak to 11 games, tied for the fourth-longest active streak in the nation with VCU. East Carolina leads with 14 while Stanford and Washington have won 12 straight.
"We just continue to get better throughout the course of the year, especially with our offense," said 20th-year Mustang head coach Larry Lee. "The numbers one through six guys in our lineup have really been on fire and 7-8-9 have contributed in some fashion as well. We've had double digits in hits, have put up a lot of runs and we continue to play our best baseball and are able to hide whatever deficiencies we've had."
The current run coincides with some lineup changes, particularly with the batting order.
"We moved Ryan Stafford out of the leadoff spot," said Lee. "He's been really good since day one, but being a catcher, you kinda get beat up and tired. We thought he may have needed a change of scenery, so we moved him to the No. 5 hole and we moved Nick Marinconz up to the leadoff spot, left Brooks at No. 2, Joe Yorke at No. 3 and Collin Villegas No. 4. A couple weeks ago we moved Stafford up to No. 4, Villegas to No. 5 and Lopez No. 6. That's given us a very stressful lineup going 1 through 6. As soon as the move was made, Stafford was red shot."
Stafford has played 11 games since the adjustment in the lineup and has responded with an 11-game hitting streak, including eight multiple-hit games, going 24-for-46 (.522) at the plate with three doubles, a triple, one home run and 16 RBIs, and bumping his average up 48 points to .328.
The Mustangs are 35-20 for the season, their most wins since the 2014 Big West championship season, and 20-7 in conference contests, two games ahead of Hawai'i (18-9), which swept UC San Diego this weekend. Cal Poly wraps up the regular season next weekend at Hawai'i needing just one win to clinch second place for the fourth time in the last five full seasons.
UC Santa Barbara (24-3) clinched the Big West title outright with a 14-2 win over UC Riverside on Sunday.
UC Davis fell to 6-32 and 5-22 with Sunday's loss. Cal Poly is 24-3 against the Aggies at home since moving up to Division I prior to the 1995 season and Lee owns a 40-12 mark versus UC Davis.
Lee was 3-for-4 at the plate with two RBIs and a pair of runs scored, completing the series with seven hits in 13 at-bats (.538), including two doubles, three home runs and six RBIs. He hit a home run in each of Cal Poly's four games this week.
Catcher Ryan Stafford added two singles and grounded into a force play in the first inning, driving in the first Cal Poly run of the game, and was 5-for-11 in the series with three RBIs. Lopez ended up 6-for-10 in the series with a double, home run and seven RBIs.
Joe Yorke's 20-game hitting streak, the fifth-longest in Cal Poly's 28-year Division I history, came to an end Sunday, but his intentional walk in the first inning extended his reached base safely streak to 29 games.
During his hitting streak, the Mustang first baseman was 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 included 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 last Tuesday in the rematch at Pepperdine.
Tate Samuelson made one of Cal Poly's numerous sparkling
defensive plays against UC Davis on Sunday."Yorke, for about four weeks, I don't think I've ever seen anybody that hot in that short period of time (20 games) with two five-hit games, a four-hit game, multiple three-hit games," said Lee. "His average has climbed and climbed and climbed. We have lacked having someone really capable of hitting behind Brooks. Now, when Brooks gets on base, Yorke has been able to drive him in. The opponents are kind of paying the price if they intentionally walk Brooks or pitch around him."
Dylan Villalobos pitched three scoreless, hitless innings to start Sunday's game, striking out two. Bryce Warrecker (2-0) pitched 3 1/3 innings for the win and Jason Franks closed things out over the final 2 2/3 innings, giving up one unearned run.
The loss was charged to Carson Seeman (0-3) as he allowed one unearned run in two hitless innings.
UC Davis, held scoreless in the first 24 innings of the series -- Cal Poly won 11-0 Friday and 7-0 Saturday -- broke through for two runs in the seventh and one more in the ninth. Jonah Henrickson hit a two-run home run, his fourth of the year, in the seventh and doubled with one out in the ninth, eventually coming around to score on a passed ball and a pinch-hit sacrifice fly by Nathan Peng.
Sunday's game drew 2,241 fans, lifting the average attendance per home contest this season to 1,900, a Baggett Stadium record. The Mustangs have drawn over 1,000 fans for 123 consecutive games and finished the home portion of their 2022 schedule with a 21-11 record.
With three games to go in the regular season, Mustang third baseman Tate Samuelson has already broken school records for most games played (233) and at-bats (899) in a career and is No. 2 in hits (246), tied for No. 2 in RBIs (158) and fifth in hit by pitches (29). The Super Senior is six shy of the hits record set by Jimmy Allen from 2011-14 and two short of the RBI mark held by Steve Wood (1998-2000).
Cal Poly hit .358 in the series, outscoring UC Davis 24-3, while the pitching staff held the Aggies to a .177 batting average and compiled a 0.67 ERA.
During the current winning streak, Yorke is 27-for-50 (.540) with seven doubles, two home runs and 19 RBIs while Stafford has gone 24-for-46 (.522) with three doubles and 16 RBIs. Lee is hitting .408 (20-for-49) with five doubles, six home runs and 14 RBIs, with Lopez going 15-for-37 (.405) with three doubles, two home runs and 10 RBIs.
The Mustangs have hit .365 during the streak, outscoring the opposition 99-25, with just eight errors in 11 games while the pitching staff has put together a 1.82 ERA with 117 strikeouts over 99 innings and a .232 opponents batting average.
"It's nice to see the team as a whole continue to develop and grow over the course of the year," said Lee. "You always want to play your best baseball in conference, especially down the line, because, in theory, most meaningful game are toward the end of the season, maybe the last month. That's where we have played our best baseball."
Cal Poly plays at Hawai'i on Thursday through Saturday.
"They're very, very good," said Lee. "They pretty much do everything well this year and are not your typical Hawai'i team of the past. They have a lot of energy, a lot of speed, they pitch well, play defense and have quite a few left-handed hitters in their lineup. It will be a good challenge for us. I think our players are looking forward to it."
