SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Freshman catcher Ryan Stafford drove in three of Cal Poly's runs, including two on his third home run of the season, as Cal Poly completed its third series sweep of the year with a 4-2 victory over CSU Bakersfield on Sunday inside Baggett Stadium.
Kaden Sheedy earned his third win of the season with 2 1/3 scoreless innings and five strikeouts on the mound while Jason Franks notched his second save of the series and eighth of the season with a scoreless ninth frame for Cal Poly.
With the win, Coach Larry Lee's Mustangs improved to 27-20 overall and 14-7 for second place, still 5.5 games behind first-place UC Santa Barbara and one game ahead of third-place Hawai'i, which played out of conference this weekend. Cal Poly has won six of seven Big West series this season.
In losing its fourth straight weekend series, CSU Bakersfield has lost 12 of its last 14 games, falling to 16-27 for the year and, after a 7-2 conference start, 9-12 for ninth place in the Big West.
Kaden Sheedy struck out five over
2 1/3 scoreless innings for his third win.Stafford's two-run home run to left-center field gave Cal Poly a 2-0 lead in the second inning. CSU Bakersfield responded with its own two-run home run in the sixth off the bat of A.J. Miller, tying the game at 2-2. It was Miller's 10th home run of the year, moving him into a four-way tie for the lead in the Big West.
Cal Poly snapped the tie with two runs in the seventh. Both runs were unearned as Reagan Doss reached base on a Runner throwing error in the infield. Brooks Lee's single to center field put Mustang runners at second and third with one out and Joe Yorke, who had a five-hit game Friday, singled through the right side of the CSU Bakersfield infield to score Doss.
Stafford's single through the left side of the CSU Bakersfield infield with two outs scored Lee.
Sheedy (3-2) gave up a one-out double to Aaron Casillas in the eighth but secured a strikeout and groundout to end the threat and Franks struck out the side in the ninth. Casillas finished with seven hits in the series for the Runners.
Cal Poly's four pitchers in the game combined to strike out 16 Roadrunner batters. Starter Dylan Villalobos fanned two in two scoreless innings while Bryce Warrecker struck out six in 3 2/3 innings, giving up the two-run home run to Miller.
The loss went to Runner reliever Kenny Johnson (0-3), who gave up the two runs in the seventh that broke the 2-2 tie.
Each team collected eight hits. Stafford went 3-for-4 with three RBIs for Cal Poly and Matt Lopez added two singles. James Bell produced a double and two singles for CSU Bakersfield while Miller and Casillas each added two hits.
Stafford went 8-for-11 (.727) in the series with a home run, five runs scored and six RBIs. The Folsom High School graduate also picked off a CSU Bakersfield runner Friday night -- his fourth of the year -- and threw out two others trying to steal, one in each of the Saturday and Sunday contests, his ninth and 10th of the season. He handled 39 chances without an error and lifted his batting average for the season to .305.
"Stafford is an elite Division I baseball player," said Lee. "He has some great attributes. He's not scared, has a feel for the game, gets better in a practice setting and he's just a clutch player. He's got a lot of extra-base hits, he's hitting for a high average for a freshman and he plays like a high-level junior.
"Defensively he's a great reliever, great blocker, has that quick release behind the plate, whether he's backpicking or throwing out runners attempting to steal," Lee added. "He's been one of the main guys on our team the entire year and, as a freshman, he's got a bright future for us and beyond."
Yorke was 7-for-14 with two doubles and three RBIs in the series, extending his hitting streak to 13 games with his tie-breaking RBI single in the seventh. Lopez and Lee each had five hits in the series.
Cal Poly snapped a six-game losing streak with the weekend sweep.
"We've gone through a number of streaks during the course of the year," said Lee. "Our team is very resilient. We have won in all different facets of the game. We've won six of the seven conference series which speaks pretty highly of this team as a whole. Even with our deficiencies we are able to win three-game series.
"It's been a grind," Lee added. We've seen certain players continuing to get better. We made a change of scenery with the lineup. Stafford came through in a big way, Yorke had a great weekend and Collin Villegas has done what he's done the entire season. We'll just get back at it and try to get better and finish strong this season."
Cal Poly hosts Pepperdine (20-22) for a non-conference game Tuesday night before resuming Big West play with a three-game weekend series at Cal State Fullerton (18-27, 11-10 Big West).
The Waves were swept at home by BYU over the weekend while the Titans lost two of three games at UC San Diego.
