Cal Poly to Host UNLV for Three-Game Series This Weekend

Friday, March 10

San Luis Obispo, CA

6 p.m.

UNLV

Tickets

Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics

Cal Poly to Host UNLV for Three-Game Series This Weekend

3/9/2023 10:00:00 AM | Baseball

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

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif,. -- Cal Poly (3-8, 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 seven of its last eight contests, continues its 15-game home stand this weekend by hosting UNLV (5-8, 1-2 Mountain West) at Baggett Stadium (cap.: 3,138).

First pitches are set for 6 p.m. Friday, 4 o'clock Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday. All three games of the series will be broadcast on ESPN Radio (1280 AM and 101.7 FM) with Zachary Anderson-Yoxsimer calling the play-by-play. Links for an audio stream as well as for live stats are available on the baseball schedule page at www.Go-Poly.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. 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 yar ago — won just once in four contests against No. 18 Oregon State and dropped a 7-1 decision to Xavier on Tuesday night.

UNLV opened Mountain West play last weekend by losing two of three games at home against San Diego State, including a 28-8 setback in the middle game of the series. The Hustlin' Rebels opened the year by sweeping Pacific but have lost eight of their last 10 games, including 11-6 and 8-7 setbacks at Oklahoma earlier this week.

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.

UNLV returned seven starting position players and nine pitchers off a squad that finished 36-22 in 2022 and first in the Mountain West at 21-9. The Hustlin' Rebels did not qualify for the NCAA postseason as they lost their first two games in the Mountain West Conference Tournament. Top returnees include Austin Kryszczuk (.234, 12 home runs, 58 RBIs in 2022), Rylan Charles (.382, six home runs, 46 RBIs) and Santino Panaro (.346, 27 RBIs), all outfielders. The pitching staff is headed by southpaw Josh Sharman (4-4, 6.30 ERA in 2022) and right-handers Noah Beal (8-1, 5.75 ERA, one save) and Joey Acosta (2-3, 4.60 ERA).

The Mountain West head coached picked UNLV to capture the conference title this year with Charles, Kryszczuk and second baseman Edarian Williams named to the MW Preseason All-Conference Team.

Thirteen games into the 2023 season, catcher Jacob Sharp leads the Rebels offensively with a .419 average, three home runs and 11 RBIs, followed by right fielder Alex Pimentel (.356, 15 RBIs), designated hitter Panaro (.341, seven RBIs) and Kryszczuk (.341, 16 RBIs). Charles had a single, double and home run with three RBIs in Wednesday's loss at Oklahoma and is hitting .279 with 13 RBIs. On the mound, Acosta is 1-0 with a 5.87 ERA, Sharman sports a 2-1 mark and 6.28 ERA and Beal is 0-2 with a 10.50 ERA, each with three starts so far.

UNLV is hitting .299 as a team with 27 doubles, four triples, 11 home runs and 10 steals in 12 attempts. The Rebel pitching staff has compiled a 7.59 ERA with 79 strikeouts over 104 1/3 innings and UNLV has committed 29 errors for a .942 fielding percentage.

Cal Poly won the first six games it played against UNLV, sweeping three-game series in 2007 at Las Vegas and in 2008 in San Luis Obispo, until the Hustlin' Rebels claimed two of three games versus the Mustangs last year in Sin City. UNLV?won the opener 7-6 in 10 innings and the finale 15-3 while the Mustangs took the middle game 15-11 as Cal Poly's top six hitters in the batting order combined for 17 hits, 12 runs scored and 12 RBIs and the Mustangs smashed four home runs at Earl E. Wilson?Stadium.

Larry Lee is 7-2 versus the Rebels while Stan Stolte is 2-1 versus Cal Poly.

UNLV, which first played baseball in 1967, has made 11 NCAA regional appearances, the last time in 2014 at Corvallis, Oregon. UNLV's postseason record is 11-22. UNLV has claimed four conference regular season titles (2003, 2005, 2014 and 2022) and also has captured three conference tournament championships (2003, 2004 and 2005). Former UNLV players who played in the Major Leagues include Cecil Fielder, Matt Williams, Todd Stottlemyre and Mel Stottlemyre Jr.

UNLV's Stan Stolte was named the seventh head coach in Rebel baseball history on June 1, 2016, six months after he had been tabbed as the interim head coach in December 2015. The 2023 campaign marks Stolte's 13th with the Scarlet & Gray after he joined the program as an associate head coach in the summer of 2010.

Since joining the collegiate coaching ranks in 1987 at Northwest Missouri State, Stolte has coached 117 players that have signed professional contracts, including 17 that made their way to the Major Leagues. In the past five years, the Rebels have had a total of 15 players drafted; seven pitchers and eight position players. Additionally, Stolte has developed 21 All-Americans and five conference pitchers of the year.

Stolte served on the coaching staff at in-state rival Nevada for 14 seasons, the last four as the associate head coach of the Wolf Pack program. Prior to his time at UNR, he spent seven years as an assistant coach at Pacific. Stolte coached at Northwest Missouri State for two years and his coaching career began in the high school ranks as head coach at Clarence-Lowden High School in Iowa, where he was 110-45. An infielder and pitcher at Muscatine and St. Ambrose (Iowa) College, Stolte helped St. Ambrose win an NAIA regional baseball championship in 1984.

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 .289 with four doubles and seven RBIs while Yorke, also out with an injury, has a .308 average with eight RBIs and Villegas .256 with four home runs and 10 RBIs.

The Mustangs are hitting .240 as a team, last in the Big West, and the staff ERA is at 5.79, 10th in the 11-team conference. Cal Poly has committed 13 errors in 11 games for a .967 fielding percentage.

Lee (21st season, 617-484-2, 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 1,077-724-5 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).