Cal Poly Opens 2023 Baseball Season by Hosting Missouri State

Friday, February 17

San Luis Obispo, CA

6 p.m.

Missouri State

Bryce Warrecker throws a pitch against Dixie State in 2022.

Bryce Warrecker, shown pitching against Dixie State in 2022, will start on the mound Friday night when Cal Poly opens its 2023 baseball season against Missouri State.

Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics

Cal Poly Opens 2023 Baseball Season by Hosting Missouri State

2/13/2023 12:46:00 PM | Baseball

WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | MISSOURI STATE | BIG WEST
AUDIO STREAM: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
LIVE STATS: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY | GAME PROGRAM | TICKETS

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Coming off a 37-win season and second-place finish in The Big West Conference, Cal Poly opens its 2023 baseball season this weekend by hosting defending Missouri Valley Conference tournament champion and NCAA regional qualifier Missouri State for a three-game weekend non-conference series inside Baggett Stadium (cap.: 3,138).

First pitches are set for 6 p.m. Friday, 4 p.m. Saturday and 1 o'clock Sunday. The Friday and Sunday contests will be broadcast on ESPN Radio (1280 AM and 101.7 FM) with Zachary Anderson-Yoxsimer calling the play-by-play. Saturday's game will be available via audio stream with Daniel Gillman calling the action. There will be no video streams of any games in the series. Links for audio streams as well as live stats are available on the baseball schedule page at www.GoPoly.com.

A year ago, the Mustangs claimed second place in the Big West for the fourth time in the last five full seasons, winning 22 of 30 games and nine of the 10 series. Missouri State finished 31-29 in 2022, winning just eight of 21 MVC contests but claiming five of six games for the MVC?Tournament title as the No. 6 seed and a trip to the NCAA Stillwater Regional, where the Bears beat Grand Canyon but lost twice to Oklahoma State.

Cal Poly returns just three position starters — first baseman Joe Yorke and catchers Ryan Stafford and Collin Villegas, one of whom plays left field when not behind the plate — off last year's 37-21 club. Yorke hit .353 with 51 RBIs and committed just two errors in 475 fielding chances while Stafford compiled a .321 average with 16 doubles and 33 RBIs, throwing out 11 would-be base stealers and picking off four others. Villegas hit .290 with 20 doubles and 40 RBIs. Yorke and Stafford were first-team All-Big West selections while Villegas landed on the second unit.

Pitching could be a strength of the club with a dozen returnees, including Travis Weston, Cal Poly's Saturday starter the last two years. Bryce Warrecker, who had a strong summer in the Cape Cod League, and Derek True, a 20th-round draft pick of the Oakland Athletics last July, also return.

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 won 13 straight games, the longest in a single season for the program, before losing the season finale at Hawai'i.

Missouri State returns five starting position players and three pitchers off a squad that lost seven of its first 12 games and battled through an eight-game midseason losing streak before turning its season around by winning 16 of its last 27 contests, capturing its 11th conference tournament crown and earning its 12th trip to an NCAA regional under 41st-year head coach Keith Guttin. In the final game of the Stillwater Regional, the Bears jumped to a 12-0 lead before falling 29-15 to the Cowboys in a game featuring the most combined runs in NCAA tournament history.

Missouri State's top returnees include first baseman Mason Greer (.312, 10 home runs, 53 RBIs, 32 extra base hits in 2022), second baseman Mason Hull (.282, 15 home runs, 50 RBIs, 33 extra-base hits) and outfielders Will Duff (.258), Spencer Nivens (.346, 11 home runs, 52 RBIs) and Cam Cratic (.285, eight home runs, 33 RBIs).

Starting on the mound will be three right-handers who were not on the Bears' roster last spring — Alabama transfer Jake Eddington on Friday, North Iowa Area CC transfer Brandt Thompson on Saturday and Johnson County CC transfer Hayden Minton on Sunday. Minton played at Missouri State in 2020 and 2021, compiling a 1-7 record and 3.91 ERA.

Cal Poly won two of three games against Missouri State in the first-ever series between the two schools a year ago. The Bears rallied from a 5-0 deficit to win the middle game 8-5 sandwiched by 5-1 and 14-12 Cal Poly victories. Drew Thorpe and Dylan Villalobos combined on a four-hitter and 14 strikeouts in the series opener while, in the finale, Matt Lopez hit a grand slam and Brooks Lee added a three-run shot. The series was played at Clay Gould Ballpark on the campus of the University of Texas at Arlington due to wintry weather forecasts in Springfield, Missouri.

Missouri State, which first played baseball in 1964, has made 12 NCAA regional appearances, all from 1987 through 2018, and has reached the Super Regional round three times (2003, 2015 and 2017). The Bears qualified for the College World Series in 2003, falling to Rice and Miami (Florida).

Missouri State has had only two head coaches in its 59-year history — Bill Rowe from 1964-82 and Keith Guttin from 1983 to the present. In 40 seasons, Guttin has guided the Bears to a 1,340-872 overall win-loss record, six Missouri Valley Conference regular season titles, five MVC tournament championships and 12 NCAA regional appearances.

Guttin begins the 2023 season No. 3 among active coaches in the NCAA — Georgia Tech's Danny Hall is No. 1 with 1,348 and Minnesota's John Anderson is second with 1,347 — and 20th all time. His 40 previous clubs won 40 or more games 12 times, averaged 34 wins per year and won 61 percent of their contests. Guttin's first 17 teams posted winning records, stretching Missouri State's streak to 32 consecutive winning seasons before the streak was snapped in 2000.

During Guttin's tenure, 132 Bears have signed professional contracts, including six first-round draft picks and 20 players who have advanced to the Major Leagues. He has been a conference coach of the year 13 times and was selected as the American Baseball Coaches Association Division I Midwest Region Coach of the Year in both 1997 and 2003.

Guttin was a Missouri State assistant under Rowe from 1979 to 1981 and played second base for the Bears after transferring from Mineral Area College. He earned all-conference honorable mention in 1977. Guttin finished his undergraduate degree at the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 1978 and earned his master's degree in 1984 at Truman State.

Cal Poly's first full practice session of 2023 on Jan. 27 featured 19 newcomers and a completely new staff of assistant coaches under 21st-year head coach Larry Lee. Pitching coach Seth Moir, an assistant at San Jose State the last two seasons, outfielder coach and associate head coach/recruiting coordinator Matt Fonteno, who has served as an assistant coach at USC, UC Santa Barbara, Saint Mary's and Nevada the last 10 years, and Logan Denholm, a catcher at UC Davis and Sacramento State and most recently a volunteer assistant coach at San Jose State, were hired last summer.

The staff has the unenviable task of finding replacements for a pair of multiple All-Americans — Thorpe and shortstop Brooks Lee, both drafted last July by the New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins, respectively. Lee hit .342 in 2021 and .357 last spring, combining for 25 home runs and 112 RBIs in the two seasons en route to a pair of Big West Conference Field Player of the Year awards. Thorpe was 10-1 with a 2.32 ERA and a school-record 149 strikeouts, which led the nation at the conclusion of the 2022 regular season, on his way to Big West Pitcher of the Year honors.

With their departure, Lee and his new coaching staff are faced with finding and developing replacements for three infield positions, two in the outfield and the designated hitter along with two starters in the weekend pitching rotation.

"It's a total rebuild, especially on the position player side where we only return three regulars from last year's squad," said Lee. "Our offensive and defensive lineups will look totally different than a year ago with six of nine new faces in the starting lineup every game.

"You're going to see some inexperience that could possibly show early on, but hopefully those players will allow themselves to slow the game down as the season progresses. With so many new faces in our offensive and defensive lineups, you're going to see some growing pains early in the season. We can't allow that to go on for too long," Lee added.

"Individually you're not going to replace guys like Brooks and Drew, two players who were as good as anyone in the country. Not only did they put up incredible numbers, they took on the responsibility of having the bull's-eyes on their backs and allowing all of their teammates to stay within themselves and not think that they had to do anything special.

"The effect that they had on games is hard to measure. You're hoping that you can get better in the other positions from last year in order to become more of a complete well-rounded team."

The preseason depth chart has two transfers topping the middle infield candidates — Ryan Fenn of Cuesta College at second base and Aaron Casillas of CSU Bakersfield at shortstop. A third transfer, Jake Steels of Hancock College, is expected to start in center field. True freshman Tate Shimao, redshirt freshman Tanner Sagouspe and either Matthias Haas (who transfered to Cal Poly from Brown a year ago) or true freshman Evan Cloyd are expected to start at third base, right field and designated hitter.

The Mustangs' weekend rotation on the mound likely will feature Warrecker on Friday, Weston for the third straight year on Saturday and College of San Mateo transfer Ryan Baum (4-1, 1.62 ERA last spring) on Sunday. Weston was 7-3 with a 3.91 ERA a year ago and has five career complete games as a Mustang, including three shutouts. Warrecker missed the first half of the 2022 season and finished 2-0 with a 5.81 ERA before earning the Cape Cod League's most outstanding pitcher award while pitching for the Orleans Firebirds.

Other potential starters include Kaden Sheedy (3-2, 5.23 ERA), Steven Brooks (0-2, 5.33 ERA) and newcomers Freddy Rodriguez (River City HS), all right-handers, along with southpaw Jakob Wright, a graduate of Paso Robles High School, who missed the 2022 season at Cal Poly due to injury.

Top candidates in the bullpen are True (1-1, 4.79 ERA), Kyle Scott (0-3, 6.26 ERA, three saves), Jake Buxton and Carlo Lopiccolo, among others. Scott produced seven saves and two wins in 2021.

Lee (20th season, 614-476-2, 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 1,074-716-5 record over 36 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.

Cal Poly won 11 of its 15 series in 2022 with a 2-2 split versus Harvard, losing series only against Big West champion UC Santa Barbara and non-conference foes Washington and UNLV. The Mustangs earned five sweeps versus Dixie State, CSUN, CSU Bakersfield and UC Davis at home and perennial national power Cal State Fullerton on the road, their first ever at Goodwin Field.
Cal Poly was ranked in the top 30 in the Collegiate Baseball national poll four times in April and also earned a No. 18 ranking during the final week of the regular season.

Cal Poly averaged 1,900 fans over 32 home dates last season, a Baggett Stadium record. The 2,738 fans who came out to see Stanford on April 19 was a record for a midweek game and the Mustangs have drawn at least 1,000 fans for each of their last 123 consecutive home games -- not including the 12 dates in 2021 when crowds were limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Next week, Cal Poly travels to San Jose State on Monday (President's Day) for a 1:35 p.m. single game and returns to the Bay Area for three games in Berkeley, facing Cal and Connecticut on Friday and the Golden Bears again on Saturday.