Cal Poly to Host UC Riverside for Three-Game Big West Series

Jakob Wright will make his Cal Poly debut Saturday.

Southpaw Jakob Wright will make his Cal Poly debut on the mound Saturday against UC Riverside. Wright earned four varsity letters at Paso Robles High School and twice earned All-Mountain League honors.

Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics

Cal Poly to Host UC Riverside for Three-Game Big West Series

4/5/2023 2:23:00 PM | Baseball

WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | UC RIVERSIDE | BIG WEST
VIDEO STREAM: THURSDAY
AUDIO STREAM: THURSDAY | FRIDAY | SATURDAY
LIVE STATS: THURSDAY | FRIDAY | SATURDAY
GAME PROGRAM | TICKETS

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (7-18, 3-6 Big West), which had won four of its previous five games before being swept at Long Beach State and falling to Pepperdine on Tuesday, resumes Big West play this weekend by hosting UC Riverside (6-18, 0-6 Big West) for three games at Baggett Stadium (cap.: 3,138).

First pitches are set for 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday. 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. Thursday's game also will be video streamed on ESPN+ with Chris Sylvester on the mic. 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 — dropped the first two games of its Big West-opening series against Hawai'i before earning a 10-3 triumph in the finale, then won two of three versus UC Irvine to move into a tie for fifth place in the Big West.

Last weekend, the Mustangs fell 10-2 to Long Beach State before the Dirtbags earned a pair of walk-off wins to complete the series sweep. Jonathon Long's 10th-inning home run lifted Long Beach State to a 9-8 win and Eddie Saldivar's two-out RBI single capped a 5-4 triumph.

UC Riverside beat Villanova 7-2 in its season opener and was 5-7 after a 3-1 midweek win against San Diego State on March 7 before losing 11 of its next 12 contests, including sweeps by Lamar, Long Beach State and CSUN. The Highlanders fell to 6-18 with a 14-5 loss at San Diego State on Tuesday.

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.

UC Riverside returned 18 lettermen, including seven starting position players and seven pitchers, off a squad that finished 8-45 in 2022 and last in the Big West at 4-26. Top returnees include center fielder Jacob Badawi (.248, 14 RBIs in 2022), first baseman Andrew Rivas (.248, 21 RBIs) and shortstop Anthony Mata (.223, 15 RBIs, 10 steals). The pitching staff is headed by Tucker Juline (2-7, 7.49 ERA in 2022), eric Marrujo (2-7, 8.52 ERA) and Tyler Frazier (0-8, 7.93 ERA), all right-handers.

Twenty-four games into the 2023 season, third baseman Anthony McFarland leads the Highlanders with a .333 average, four doubles and six RBIs, followed by Badawi (.309, five doubles, 10 RBIs), second baseman Dominic Martinez (.293, four doubles, three home runs, 12 RBIs) and right fielder Jacob Shanks (.291, three doubles, three triples, seven RBIs). On the mound, Juline has a 1-2 record and 2.67 ERA while Corbin Barker is 0-3 with a 6.30 ERA and Marrujo 2-3 with a 7.67 ERA. Frazier (0-0, 3.68 ERA) is being used in relief.

Picked by the head coaches to finish last in the Big West this season, UC Riverside is hitting .266 as a team with 38 doubles, eight triples, 10 home runs and 22 steals in 34 attempts. The Highlanders' pitching staff has compiled a 7.76 ERA with 138 strikeouts over 204 innings and UC Riverside has committed 30 errors in 24 games for a .966 fielding percentage.

UC Riverside, a member of the Big West since 2002, claimed the Big West title in 2007 and has qualified for the NCAA Division I regionals twice -- in 2003 and 2007. The Highlanders also earned NCAA Division II playoff berths nine times, capturing national titles in both 1977 and 1982.

Cal Poly and UC Riverside have met 211 times on the baseball field since the series began when both teams were California Collegiate Athletic Association members back in 1970. The Mustangs hold a 122-90 advantage after winning two of three games a year ago at the Riverside Sports Complex. The two teams split four games at Baggett Stadium in 2021. Cal Poly swept the Highlanders in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2018 and is 25-9 against UC Riverside over the last 11 years and 40-24 since moving to Division I prior to the 1995 season. In 2017, all three games of the series, played in San Luis Obispo, were shutouts — Cal Poly earning 1-0 and 5-0 wins before falling in the finale 4-0.

Larry Lee is 37-21 against UC Riverside while Justin Johnson is 3-4 against Cal Poly.

Johnson (third season, 29-102, Mt. San Antonio '97) joined the UC Riverside baseball coaching staff in September 2014 as the program's director of baseball operations following one year as the head coach at Saint Katherine College. He became a volunteer assistant with the program the following year.

Prior to his stint at Saint Katherine's, Johnson spent two seasons as the associate head coach at Cal Tech, where he helped the Beavers to the program's first win in 10 years. Johnson began his coaching career at Valley View High School in Moreno Valley, where he helped guide the Eagles to two CIF-Southern Section playoff appearances.

A graduate of Diamond Bar High School, Johnson played at Mt. SAC for legendary coach Art Mazmanian. He was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays, and played a summer as a free agent with the Los Angeles Dodgers in extended spring training.

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 in the first four weeks 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 three weeks ago and .262 against Hawai'i before turning things around with a .290 mark versus UC Irvine, 15 runs on 18 hits at Fresno State and a .274 average in three games at Long Beach State. Tate Shimao was 4-for-11 against the Dirtbags and four other Mustangs also had four hits.

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 with eight RBIs. Both returned to the lineup four weeks ago. Steels is hitting .306 to date, Yorke .299 with a team-leading 24 RBIs, Stafford .291, Casillas .287 and Villegas, the team's home run leader with six, .271.

The Mustangs are hitting .263 as a team, 10th in the 11-team Big West, and the staff ERA is at 6.14, also 10th in the conference. Cal Poly has committed 31 errors in 25 games for a .966 fielding percentage and has stolen just 11 bases in 16 attempts.

Lee (21st season, 621-494-2, 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 1,081-735-5 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 140 consecutive home games and 163 of their last 164 contests -- not including the 12 dates in 2021 when crowds were limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Next week, Cal Poly plays four more games, capping its current five-game home stand against Santa Clara on Tuesday night, then visiting CSU Bakersfield for a three-game Big West series Friday through Sunday.