Xavier (Ohio)
Cal Poly to Host Xavier for Single Midweek Game Tuesday Night
3/6/2023 8:51:00 PM | Baseball
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (3-7, 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 has lost six of its last seven contests, plays four more games at home this week, beginning with Xavier (5-7, 0-0 Big East) on Tuesday night at Baggett Stadium (cap.: 3,138).
First pitch is set for 6 p.m. The contest will be broadcast on ESPN Radio (1280 AM and 101.7 FM) with Zachary Anderson-Yoxsimer calling the play-by-play as well as video streamed on ESPN+ with Daniel Gillman on the call. Links for audio and video 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. Xavier, located in Cincinnati, Ohio, lost all four games of a season-opening series at Oregon and also dropped a 12-8 midweek game at Louisville before putting together a five-game winning streak with a sweep of a three-game series at Western Carolina, a 5-3 win at Western Kentucky and a 2-0 triumph in the opener of last week's series at UC?Santa Barbara. The Musketeers lost the final two games 4-2 and 5-1.
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.
Xavier returns eight starting position players and seven pitchers off a squad that finished 33-27 in 2022 and third in the Big East at 13-8. Top returnees include outfielders Andrew Walker (.332, five home runs, 41 RBIs, 15 steals in 2022) and Garrett Schultz (.322, 33 RBIs) along with shortstop Jack Housinger (.311, 16 home runs, 58 RBIs, 12 steals). Housinger was a first-team All-Big East selection in 2021. The pitching staff is headed by Jared Gadd (5-4, 4.20 ERA, three saves in 2022), Luke Bell (4-0, 4.31 ERA) and Bryce Barnett (2-4, 5.93 ERA, one save), all right-handers.
Twelve games into the 2023 season, designated hitter Hayden Christiansen sports a team-leading .433 batting average with a home run and four RBIs, followed by first baseman Matt McCormick (.386, four home runs, six RBIs), Walker (.306, five doubles, eight RBIs) and right fielder Carter Hendrickson (.300, five RBIs).
Sophomore right-hander Luke Hoskins (0-0, 4.50 ERA), who has made two starts and two relief appearances so far this season, striking out eight batters over 10 innings, will start on the mound for Xavier against Cal Poly. He will be opposed by Mustang junior right-hander Kaden Sheedy (0-0, 3.18 ERA), making his first start of the year and ninth career start.
Xavier, which wraps up its nine-day, eight-game California road trip with four games at Saint Mary's this weekend, is hitting .273 as a team with 20 doubles, 17 home runs and seven steals in 11 attempts. The Musketeer pitching staff has compiled a 4.97 ERA and Xavier has committed 11 errors for a .973 fielding percentage.
Xavier and Cal Poly are meeting in baseball for the first time Tuesday night.
The Musketeers played their first baseball game in 1973 and have compiled a 1,193-1,368-7 record over 50-plus seasons with one Big East regular season title, six Big East Conference Tournament appearances, three tourney titles and four NCAA regional appearances, the last at the 2017 Louisville Regional. Xavier was a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference before joining the Big East starting with the 2014 season.
Sixth-year head coach Billy O'Conner (118-136, Xavier '09) was an assistant coach at Xavier before he was hired as head coach in June 2017. He spent one year as an assistant at Northern Kentucky and two years in the volunteer assistant role at Xavier before assuming his duties as assistant coach for four years with the Musketeers from 2014-17.
After beginning his collegiate playing career at Indiana, O'Conner played his final two seasons at Xavier. He helped the Musketeers advance to their first NCAA Division I Tournament after capturing the 2009 Atlantic 10 Conference tournament championship. O'Conner was named the Most Outstanding Player of the A-10 Tournament and the team captain hit .333 with two home runs and 39 RBIs as the Musketeers set a school record with 39 wins. O'Conner was also a member of Xavier's 2008 squad that won the A-10 regular season crown.
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 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 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. "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 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, but hit just .224 in three losses at Berkeley — two to Cal and one to UConn — and .188 in the four-game series versus Oregon State. Aaron Casillas and Tanner Sagouspe each had four hits against the Beavers while Ryan Fenn was 3-for-8.
Steels sported a team-leading .438 batting average with a home run and three RBIs before he was sidelined with an injury. Casillas is hitting .317 with four doubles and seven RBIs while Yorke, also out with an injury, has a .308 average with eight RBIs and Villegas .270 with four home runs and nine RBIs.
The Mustangs are hitting .246 as a team, last in the Big West, and the staff ERA is at 6.07, 10th in the 11-team conference. Cal Poly has committed 10 errors in 10 games for a .972 fielding percentage.
Lee (21st season, 617-483-2, 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 1,077-720-5 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 127 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 single game Wednesday versus USC (6 p.m.) and opens Big West Conference play with a three-game weekend series against Hawai'i (Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 1 o'clock).
Photo courtesy of Maddie Harrell
