Cal Poly, San Jose State to Complete Suspended Game, Play Another

Tuesday, April 18

San Luis Obispo, CA

4 p.m.

San Jose State

A two-way player for the Cal Poly baseball team, redshirt freshman right-hander Tanner Sagouspe will start on the mound Tuesday against San Jose State.

Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics

Cal Poly, San Jose State to Complete Suspended Game, Play Another

4/17/2023 3:59:00 PM | Baseball

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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly and San Jose State will finally complete a baseball game that started almost two months ago.

Back on Feb. 20, Cal Poly led San Jose State 11-10 after eight innings of play. Because of the setting sun and the fact that new lights were being installed -- but not completed -- at Excite Ballpark, the game was suspended.

On Tuesday night, the two teams will play the ninth inning (and more, if necessary), starting at 4 p.m., followed by the regularly scheduled contest at 5 o'clock in Baggett Stadium.

When the game was suspended, Tanner Sagouspe was on the mound for Cal Poly while Drew Stapleton was pitching for San Jose State. The Mustangs had already used Charlie Royle, Steven Brooks, Evan Tomlinson and Freddy Rodriguez on the mound. The Spartans used six pitchers before bringing in Stapleton.

Cal Poly erased a 9-3 deficit with seven runs in the seventh inning. After San Jose State tied the game at 10-10 with a run in the bottom of the seventh, the Mustangs regained the lead in the eighth on an RBI single to left-center field by Ryan Stafford.

In the regularly scheduled game, Cal Poly is expected to start Sagouspe (0-2, 12.38 ERA). The redshirt freshman right-hander will face Spartan redshirt senior right-hander Aaron Eden (1-3, 5.79 ERA), a transfer from San Diego State.

San Jose State is 18-13 on the year after sweeping UNLV in a three-game Mountain West Conference series at San Jose over the weekend. The Spartans were 7-9 after falling to Sacramento State 7-6 on March 22 but have won 11 of their last 15 games since.

Cal Poly won just three of its first 16 games, then won eight of its next 16 contests before losing the last two games of its Big West series at CSU Bakersfield over the weekend. The Roadrunners earned 5-4 and 4-3 walk-off victories to clinch the series.

San Jose State is hitting .278 as a team with 75 doubles, six triples and 26 home runs, scoring 208 runs in their 31 games so far. The pitching staff has compiled a 5.13 ERA with 237 strikeouts over 280 2/3 innings, and the Spartans have committed 33 errors for a .972 fielding percentage.

San Jose State has made four NCAA appearances, the last time in 2002 at the Stanford Regional; the Spartans earned Western Athletic Conference regular-season titles in 2000 and 2009. The Spartans' lone College World Series appearance was in 2000.

Cal Poly and San Jose State have played 101 baseball games against each other since the series began in 1947. The Spartans hold a 53-47-1 advantage after defeating Cal Poly 3-1 in the lone meeting between the two schools a year ago at Baggett Stadium. Cal Poly claimed two of three games in early April 2021 in San Luis Obispo.

Cal Poly is 24-27-1 against San Jose State since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Larry Lee is 17-11-1 against San Jose State while Spartan head coach Brad Sanfilippo is 3-3 against Cal Poly.

Sanfilippo (sixth season, 106-148, UC Davis '99), a former San Jose State assistant baseball coach, was named interim baseball head coach with the Spartans in late January 2018 after then-head coach Jason Hawkins was placed on administrative leave. Hawkins submitted his resignation Feb. 12 after one season with the program.

Sanfilippo was an assistant coach at San Jose State in 2013 and 2014 and also was an assistant coach at Cal for the 2010 through 2012 and the 2015 through 2017 seasons. He has 10-plus seasons of head coaching experience, leading Los Gatos (Calif.) High to league championships in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009.

Picked by Mountain West Conference head coaches to finish second behind UNLV this year, San Jose State is coming off a 30-29 campaign, finishing third in the MWC at 16-14. A total of 31 letter winners return, including nine position starters and 14 pitchers.

Shortstop Theo Hardy sports a team-leading .327 average for the Spartans with 18 RBIs while second baseman Charles McAdoo is hitting .321 with 13 doubles and 22 RBIs. First baseman Hunter Dorrough has a .320 mark with 12 doubles and 25 RBIs, third baseman Dalton Bowling is hitting .306 with 12 doubles, seven home runs and 35 RBIs and center fielder Jack Collette has stolen nine of 12 bases while hitting .298 with 11 doubles and 21 RBIS.

Cal Poly's top hitters are catcher Ryan Stafford with a .328 mark, 11 doubles and 22 RBIs, followed by third baseman Ryan Fenn with a .321 average, six doubles and nine RBIs. Fenn has hit safely in seven straight games, going 12-for-27 (.444) with three doubles and six RBIs.

Center fielder Jake Steels sports a .320 mark with 18 RBIs while shortstop Aaron Casillas has hit in 13 consecutive games, going 23-for-73 (.404) to lift his average 65 points to .318. He has nine doubles and 18 RBIs.

After Tuesday's games, Cal Poly goes back out on the road for a three-game Big West Conference series at CSUN. Game timers are 3 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.