
Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics
Cal Poly to Host Oregon State for Four-Game Weekend Series
2/28/2023 10:16:00 AM | Baseball
WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | OREGON STATE | BIG WEST
AUDIO STREAM: THURSDAY | FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
LIVE STATS: THURSDAY | FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
TICKETS | GAME PROGRAM
AUDIO STREAM: THURSDAY | FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
LIVE STATS: THURSDAY | FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
TICKETS | GAME PROGRAM
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (2-4, 0-0 Big West), which opened its 2023 baseball season by winning two of three games against Missouri State, its first series win to open a season since 2016, but lost all three games in Berkeley last weekend, two versus Cal, faces another Pac-12 team this weekend, hosting No. 18/19 Oregon State (6-1, 0-0 Pac-12) at Baggett Stadium (cap.: 3,138).
First pitches are set for 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 4 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. Sunday. The last three contests will be broadcast on ESPN Radio (1280 AM and 101.7 FM) with Zachary Anderson-Yoxsimer and Eric Burdick calling the play-by-play while the opener of the series will be available via an audio stream. Links for audio and video streams as well as live stats are available on the baseball schedule page at www.Go-Poly.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. Oregon State returns three starting position players and 11 pitchers off a squad that finished 48-18 in 2022 and second in the Pac-12, going 3-1 against New Mexico State, San Diego and Vanderbilt in the NCAA Corvallis Regional before falling in the NCAA Corvallis Super Regional versus Auburn.
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.
Oregon State returns three starting position players and 11 pitchers off a squad that finished 48-18 in 2022 and second in the Pac-12, falling in the NCAA Corvallis Super Regional against Auburn. Top returnees include Garret Forrester (.332, nine home runs, 60 RBIs in 2022), Travis Bazzana (.306, six home runs, 44 RBIs, 14 steals) and Kyle Demedde (.216), all infielders). The pitching staff is headed by Ben Ferrer (4-0, 1.72 ERA, three saves in 2022), Jacob Kmatz (8-2, 4.19 ERA) and Ryan Brown (5-1, 4.91 ERA, nine saves), all right-handers.
The Beavers are off to a 6-1 start, bouncing back from a 7-2 season-opening loss to New Mexico with wins over Minnesota, New Mexico and UC Santa Barbara, all in Surprise, Ariz., followed by a three-game series sweep in Corvallis against Coppin State, outscoring the Eagles 46-6.
Seven games into the 2023 season, outfielder Micah McDowell leads the Beaver regulars with a .458 average, going 11-for-24 with two doubles and six RBIs, followed by right fielder Gavin Turley (.417, three home runs, 10 RBIs) and second baseman Bazzana (.407, five doubles, six RBIs). Oregon State's six wins have been earned by six different pitchers. Of those with two starts this season, Kmatz has a 0.90 ERA, Trent Sellers 1.08 and Jaren Hunter 7.59.
Oregon State is hitting .354 as a team with 17 doubles, 11 home runs and 14 steals in 17 attempts. The Beaver pitching staff has compiled a 3.19 ERA and Oregon State has committed eight errors for a .969 fielding percentage.
Oregon State has won nine of 13 games (one tie) against Cal Poly, including a 16-7 verdict in Surprise, Ariz., in 2018, the last meeting between the two schools. The Mustangs won two of three games against the Beavers in a three-game series at Corvallis in 2015.
Oregon State has claimed three College World Series titles (2006, 2007, 2018), has appeared in four other College World Series and has made 21 NCAA regional appearances and eight in the Super Regionals. The Beavers have claimed Pac-12 titles in 2013, 2014 and 2017.
Mitch Canham, who played on Oregon State's 2006 and 2007 national championship teams, is in his fourth season as head coach of the Beavers, compiling a 96-52 mark so far. He batted .314 during his playing career, tallying 31 doubles, eight triples, 25 home runs and 152 RBIs.
A first-round pick of the San Diego Padres in 2007, Canham played in the minors from 2007-15 with a dozen different teams, reaching Triple-A at Portland. His coaching career includes 3 1/2 seasons as a manager in the Seattle Mariners farm system prior to being hired at Oregon State on June 13, 2019.
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 transferred 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 so far has featured 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 due to injury 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. Top candidates in the bullpen are True (1-1, 4.79 ERA), Kyle Scott (0-3, 6.26 ERA, three saves) and Carlo Lopiccolo, among others. Scott produced seven saves and two wins in 2021.
The Mustangs opened their 2023 season with a robust .336 batting average in their three-game series against Missouri State, including eight doubles, a triple and three home runs. Center fielder Jake Steels led the way, going 7-for-14 with a double and three RBIs while shortstop Aaron Casillas was 6-for-12 with three doubles and five RBIs. Designated hitter Evan Cloyd and first baseman Joe Yorke each had five knocks — Yorke driving in seven runs — and third baseman Tate Shimao was 4-for-13 with three RBIs. Steels, Casillas, Cloyd and Shimao all were playing their first games in a Mustang uniform that weekend.
Last week, Monday's game at San Jose State was suspended after eight innings due to approaching darkness with Cal Poly holding an 11-10 lead. The contest will be resumed when the two teams meet again April 18 in San Luis Obispo. After scoring seven times in the seventh inning to overcome a 9-3 deficit, Cal Poly snapped a 10-10 tie on Stafford's RBI single in the eighth inning. San Jose State was retired in the bottom of the eighth before the game was halted.
The Spartans held 1-0, 5-1 and 9-3 leads but couldn't hold on. The game was tied twice at 1-1 and 10-10. Both teams collected 13 hits in the 3 hours and 45 minutes that were required to complete eight innings.
At Berkeley over the weekend, Cal Poly fell 2-1 to Cal on a tiebreaking eighth-inning home run by Dom Souto, 11-10 to UConn in 10 innings on a wild pitch and 7-3 to the Golden Bears despite home runs by Ryan Stafford and Collin Villegas.
Steels sports a team-leading .438 batting average with a home run and three RBIs while Villegas is hitting .350 with three home runs and six RBIs. Shortstop Aaron Casillas is next at .346, followed by Stafford (.333) and first baseman Joe Yorke (.308).
The Mustangs are hitting .281 as a team but the staff ERA is at 7.30, 10th in the 11-team Big West. Cal Poly has committed five errors in six games for a .976 fielding percentage.
Lee (21st season, 616-480-2, Pepperdine '83) reached the 600-victory milestone April 22, 2022, 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 1,076-717-5 record over 36-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.
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 continues its 15-game home stand with a Tuesday contest versus Xavier of Ohio followed by a three-game weekend series against UNLV on Friday through Sunday.
First pitches are set for 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 4 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. Sunday. The last three contests will be broadcast on ESPN Radio (1280 AM and 101.7 FM) with Zachary Anderson-Yoxsimer and Eric Burdick calling the play-by-play while the opener of the series will be available via an audio stream. Links for audio and video streams as well as live stats are available on the baseball schedule page at www.Go-Poly.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. Oregon State returns three starting position players and 11 pitchers off a squad that finished 48-18 in 2022 and second in the Pac-12, going 3-1 against New Mexico State, San Diego and Vanderbilt in the NCAA Corvallis Regional before falling in the NCAA Corvallis Super Regional versus Auburn.
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.
Oregon State returns three starting position players and 11 pitchers off a squad that finished 48-18 in 2022 and second in the Pac-12, falling in the NCAA Corvallis Super Regional against Auburn. Top returnees include Garret Forrester (.332, nine home runs, 60 RBIs in 2022), Travis Bazzana (.306, six home runs, 44 RBIs, 14 steals) and Kyle Demedde (.216), all infielders). The pitching staff is headed by Ben Ferrer (4-0, 1.72 ERA, three saves in 2022), Jacob Kmatz (8-2, 4.19 ERA) and Ryan Brown (5-1, 4.91 ERA, nine saves), all right-handers.
The Beavers are off to a 6-1 start, bouncing back from a 7-2 season-opening loss to New Mexico with wins over Minnesota, New Mexico and UC Santa Barbara, all in Surprise, Ariz., followed by a three-game series sweep in Corvallis against Coppin State, outscoring the Eagles 46-6.
Seven games into the 2023 season, outfielder Micah McDowell leads the Beaver regulars with a .458 average, going 11-for-24 with two doubles and six RBIs, followed by right fielder Gavin Turley (.417, three home runs, 10 RBIs) and second baseman Bazzana (.407, five doubles, six RBIs). Oregon State's six wins have been earned by six different pitchers. Of those with two starts this season, Kmatz has a 0.90 ERA, Trent Sellers 1.08 and Jaren Hunter 7.59.
Oregon State is hitting .354 as a team with 17 doubles, 11 home runs and 14 steals in 17 attempts. The Beaver pitching staff has compiled a 3.19 ERA and Oregon State has committed eight errors for a .969 fielding percentage.
Oregon State has won nine of 13 games (one tie) against Cal Poly, including a 16-7 verdict in Surprise, Ariz., in 2018, the last meeting between the two schools. The Mustangs won two of three games against the Beavers in a three-game series at Corvallis in 2015.
Oregon State has claimed three College World Series titles (2006, 2007, 2018), has appeared in four other College World Series and has made 21 NCAA regional appearances and eight in the Super Regionals. The Beavers have claimed Pac-12 titles in 2013, 2014 and 2017.
Mitch Canham, who played on Oregon State's 2006 and 2007 national championship teams, is in his fourth season as head coach of the Beavers, compiling a 96-52 mark so far. He batted .314 during his playing career, tallying 31 doubles, eight triples, 25 home runs and 152 RBIs.
A first-round pick of the San Diego Padres in 2007, Canham played in the minors from 2007-15 with a dozen different teams, reaching Triple-A at Portland. His coaching career includes 3 1/2 seasons as a manager in the Seattle Mariners farm system prior to being hired at Oregon State on June 13, 2019.
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 transferred 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 so far has featured 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 due to injury 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. Top candidates in the bullpen are True (1-1, 4.79 ERA), Kyle Scott (0-3, 6.26 ERA, three saves) and Carlo Lopiccolo, among others. Scott produced seven saves and two wins in 2021.
The Mustangs opened their 2023 season with a robust .336 batting average in their three-game series against Missouri State, including eight doubles, a triple and three home runs. Center fielder Jake Steels led the way, going 7-for-14 with a double and three RBIs while shortstop Aaron Casillas was 6-for-12 with three doubles and five RBIs. Designated hitter Evan Cloyd and first baseman Joe Yorke each had five knocks — Yorke driving in seven runs — and third baseman Tate Shimao was 4-for-13 with three RBIs. Steels, Casillas, Cloyd and Shimao all were playing their first games in a Mustang uniform that weekend.
Last week, Monday's game at San Jose State was suspended after eight innings due to approaching darkness with Cal Poly holding an 11-10 lead. The contest will be resumed when the two teams meet again April 18 in San Luis Obispo. After scoring seven times in the seventh inning to overcome a 9-3 deficit, Cal Poly snapped a 10-10 tie on Stafford's RBI single in the eighth inning. San Jose State was retired in the bottom of the eighth before the game was halted.
The Spartans held 1-0, 5-1 and 9-3 leads but couldn't hold on. The game was tied twice at 1-1 and 10-10. Both teams collected 13 hits in the 3 hours and 45 minutes that were required to complete eight innings.
At Berkeley over the weekend, Cal Poly fell 2-1 to Cal on a tiebreaking eighth-inning home run by Dom Souto, 11-10 to UConn in 10 innings on a wild pitch and 7-3 to the Golden Bears despite home runs by Ryan Stafford and Collin Villegas.
Steels sports a team-leading .438 batting average with a home run and three RBIs while Villegas is hitting .350 with three home runs and six RBIs. Shortstop Aaron Casillas is next at .346, followed by Stafford (.333) and first baseman Joe Yorke (.308).
The Mustangs are hitting .281 as a team but the staff ERA is at 7.30, 10th in the 11-team Big West. Cal Poly has committed five errors in six games for a .976 fielding percentage.
Lee (21st season, 616-480-2, Pepperdine '83) reached the 600-victory milestone April 22, 2022, 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 1,076-717-5 record over 36-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.
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 continues its 15-game home stand with a Tuesday contest versus Xavier of Ohio followed by a three-game weekend series against UNLV on Friday through Sunday.
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