SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (7-14, 3-3 Big West), which has won four of its last five games and climbed into a tie for fifth place in the Big West by winning its series against UC Irvine last weekend, plays its first conference road series this weekend, visiting Long Beach State (15-8, 3-3 Big West) for three games at Blair Field (cap.: 3,000).
First pitches are set for 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. All three games of the series will be broadcast on ESPN Radio (1280 AM and 101.7 FM) with Chris Sylvester and Zachary Anderson-Yoxsimer calling the play-by-play. The series also will be video streamed on ESPN+. Links for audio and video streams as well as for live stats are available on the baseball schedule page at www.GoPoly.com.
After opening with two wins in three games versus Missouri State, Cal Poly led San Jose State 11-10 before play was halted after eight innings due to darkness on Feb. 20. That game will be resumed April 18 in San Luis Obispo. The Mustangs then lost all three games in Berkeley — two to Cal and one to UConn, which won 50 games a year ago — won just once in four contests against No. 18 Oregon State, dropped three more games — one to Xavier and two against UC Santa Barbara — and dropped the first two games of its Big West-opening series against Hawai'i before earning a 10-3 triumph in the finale.
Last weekend, the Mustangs edged UC Irvine 5-4 on two throwing errors in the eighth inning, fell 9-7 despite a grand slam by Jake Steels and clinched the series with a 7-3 victory as Ryan Stafford belted a tiebreaking grand slam in the eighth inning.
Despite being swept at UC San Diego two weeks ago, Long Beach State has remained at or above the .500 mark all season and carries a five-game winning streak into its series against Cal Poly. Last week, the Dirtbags beat Fresno State 10-6 and swept UC Riverside by scores of 7-2, 4-3 and 14-2. The winning streak continued Tuesday with a 3-2 win over California Baptist as Jonathan Long led off the bottom of the ninth with a solo home run to left field, his fourth of the year.
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.
Cal Poly returned 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.
Cal Poly first baseman Joe Yorke lifted his batting average 34 points to .300
with two doubles, a pair of home runs and six RBIs in Tuesday's 15-5 win at Fresno State.
Long Beach State returned just 10 lettermen, including four starting position players and five pitchers, off a squad that finished 29-27 in 2022 and fourth in the Big West at 17-13. Top returnees include first baseman/third baseman Jonathan Long (.311, six home runs, 37 RBIs in 2022), left fielder Rocco Peppi (.321, five home runs, 30 RBIs) and catcher Connor Burns (.162, 15 RBIs). The pitching staff is headed by southpaw Josh Haley (1-1, 2.36 ERA in 2022) and right-handers Jonathon Carlos (0-1, 2.76 ERA) and Ethan Clough (1-1, 3.12 ERA, two saves).
Twenty-three games into the 2023 season, Long leads the Dirtbags with a .313 average, seven doubles, four home runs, 22 RBIs) followed by center fielder Kyle Ashworth (.310, 11 RBIs) and Peppi (.302, eight doubles, three home runs, 20 RBIs). On the mound, southpaw Graham Osman, a transfer from Arizona State, sports a 3-0 record and 1.80 ERA while right-hander Nico Zeglin, a transfer from Gonzaga, has a 3-2 mark and 3.18 ERA. The third starter, southpaw Myles Patton, a freshman from Milliken High School in Long Beach, is 2-2 with a 4.79 ERA.
Picked by the head coaches to finish third in the Big West this season, Long Beach State is hitting .257 as a team with 43 doubles, four triples, 26 home runs and 22 steals in 27 attempts. The Dirtbags' pitching staff has compiled a 4.27 ERA with 231 strikeouts over 204 innings and Long Beach State has committed 21 errors in 23 games for a .975 fielding percentage.
The Dirtbags have claimed nine Big West titles (ending a nine-year drought in 2017), and have made 22 NCAA regional appearances and four trips to the College World Series, the last in 1998.
Cal Poly and Long Beach State have met 162 times on the baseball field since the series began when both teams were California Collegiate Athletic Association members back in 1957. The Dirtbags hold a 97-62 advantage after losing two of three games against the Mustangs a year ago at Baggett Stadium. Long Beach State hosted six of the eight series against Cal Poly from 2013-21 (they did not meet in 2020 due to the pandemic) due to scheduling adjustments forced by realignment.
Long Beach State was 16-2 in a six-year stretch against the Mustangs until Cal Poly won two of three in 2009, its first series win at Blair Field since 1997. The Mustangs swept the 2019 series in Long Beach and also won all three games in Baggett Stadium in 2018. Cal Poly is 29-55 against Long Beach State since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season.
Larry Lee is 23-35 against Long Beach State while Eric Valenzuela is 5-8 against Cal Poly, including a 2-4 mark while he was head coach at Saint Mary's.
Valenzuela (fourth season at Long Beach State (82-55), 10th season overall (262-211), Pepperdine '01) coached the Gaels from 2014-19, compiling a 180-156 record with four consecutive 30-win seasons, including a West Coast Conference title and NCAA regional playoff berth in 2016.
Before heading to Moraga, Valenzuela was pitching coach and recruiting coordinator for four seasons under Tony Gwynn at San Diego State. He spent six seasons (2004-09) across town at San Diego, helping the Toreros reach the NCAA postseason on three occasions, and made his collegiate coaching start at Saint Mary's, serving as the recruiting coordinator for the Gaels from 2001-03.
As a player, Valenzuela was a High School All-American at Bishop Amat before reaching the College World Series with Arizona State in 1998. He transfered to Pepperdine, where he was the captain on the 2001 team that went 42-18 and won the WCC title before graduating from Pepperdine and turning to coaching.
Former Dirtbags in the Major Leagues include Jason Giambi, Evan Longoria, Troy Tulowitzki, Jason Vargas and Jered Weaver.
Cal Poly's first full practice session of 2023 on Jan. 27 featured 18 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 had the unenviable task of finding replacements for a pair of multiple All-Americans — Drew Thorpe and shortstop Brooks Lee, both drafted last July by the New York Yankees (second round) and Minnesota Twins (eighth overall selection), 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 were 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. "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 preseason depth chart had 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 the starter in center field. True freshman Tate Shimao, redshirt freshman Tanner Sagouspe and either Matthias Haas (who transfered to Cal Poly from Brown two years ago) or true freshman Evan Cloyd are expected to start at third base, right field and designated hitter, respectively.
The Mustangs' weekend rotation on the mound so far has featured Warrecker on Friday, Travis 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 newcomer 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, but hit just .224 in three losses at Berkeley — two to Cal and one to UConn — .188 in the four-game series versus Oregon State, .224 in three games versus Xavier and UCSB two weeks ago and .262 against Hawai'i before turning things around with a .290 mark versus UC Irvine and 15 runs on 18 hits at Fresno State on Tuesday. Collin Villegas was 5-for-11 against UC Irvine while Joe Yorke doubled twice, homered twice and knocked in six runs at Fresno State.
Steels sported a team-leading .438 batting average with a home run and three RBIs before he was sidelined two weeks with an injury. Yorke also was out with an injury for two weeks after hitting .308 average with eight RBIs. Both returned to the lineup three weeks ago. Steels is hitting .316 to date, Yorke .300 with a team-leading 20 RBIs, Casillas .286, Stafford .279 and Villegas, the team's home run leader with six, .278.
The Mustangs are hitting .262 as a team, ninth in the 11-team Big West, and the staff ERA is at 5.81, 10th in the conference. Cal Poly has committed 29 errors in 21 games for a .962 fielding percentage and has stolen just nine bases in 13 attempts.
Lee (21st season, 621-490-2, 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 1,081-731-5 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 139 consecutive home games and 162 of their last 163 contests -- not including the 12 dates in 2021 when crowds were limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After the series at Long Beach State, Cal Poly plays its next five games at home, starting with Pepperdine on Tuesday night and UC Riverside for a three-game Big West series Thursday through Saturday.
