Cal Poly to Visit Pepperdine for Final Road Midweek Game Tuesday

Tuesday, May 2

Malibu, CA

3 p.m.

Pepperdine

Taison Corio applies the tag a tad late.

Cal Poly second baseman Taison Corio applies the tag but UC San Diego's Doyle Kane steals the base. Corio tripled twice in the series.

Photo by: Kayla Stuart | Cal Poly Athletics

Cal Poly to Visit Pepperdine for Final Road Midweek Game Tuesday

5/1/2023 2:33:00 PM | Baseball

VIDEO STREAM | AUDIO STREAM | LIVE STATS

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly visits Pepperdine on Tuesday for its final road midweek game, seeking to snap a four-game losing streak and avenge a 9-3 loss to the Waves in Baggett Stadium four weeks ago.

First pitch is set for 3 p.m. at Eddy D. Field Stadium in Malibu. The game will be broadcast on ESPN Radio (1280 AM and 101.7 FM) with Zachary Anderson-Yoxsimer providing the play-by-play. Links for audio and video streams along with live stats are available at the top of the page as well as on the baseball schedule page at GoPoly.com.

Tuesday's game features two baseball teams who met in the 2014 NCAA San Luis Obispo Regional, but are struggling in 2023 with young rosters.

Cal Poly sports a 14-27 overall mark after UC San Diego swept the Mustangs over the weekend in San Luis Obispo, posting 5-1, 8-6 and 8-7 victories. Cal Poly will finish with a record under the .500 mark at home for only the second time since the opening of Baggett Stadium in 2001.

Cal Poly is 10-16 at home this season with five home dates remaining. The 2010 Mustang squad finished 15-17 at home.

Pepperdine is 15-25 for the year, including a 7-11 mark at home and 7-14 in the West Coast Conference. The Waves were swept by Santa Clara last weekend at home and also has lost four consecutive games.

Pepperdine lost 18 of its first 25 games, losing series against Boston College, Cal State Fullerton, Portland, Gonzaga and San Diego, but has steadied the ship of late with an 8-7 mark.

Similarly, Cal Poly was 3-13 about a month into the season, then split the next 22 games before the sweep by UC San Diego, which is now 6-1 in its two trips to San Luis Obispo in 2021 and 2023.

Cal Poly will send freshman right-hander Charlie Royle (0-1, 11.40 ERA) to the mound against the Waves. He will be opposed by Pepperdine senior southpaw Nathan Diamond (1-5, 5.22 ERA).

While Royle did not pitch in the first matchup with Pepperdine on April 4, Diamond started and allowed three runs and four hits over six innings en route to his only win in 12 mound appearances this season. Diamond struck out three and walked four.

Pepperdine scored four times in the second inning to overcome an early 2-0 deficit and never looked back, outhitting Cal Poly 11-8. Shortstop John Peck produced a double and two triples to lead the Waves at the plate. Ryan Stafford singled and tripled for Cal Poly.

Royle's best outings this season were in back-to-back games against UC Riverside (three scoreless innings, three strikeouts) on April 6 and CSU Bakersfield (two scoreless frames, one strikeout) on April 15.

Mustang third baseman Ryan Fenn carries a 15-game hitting streak and a team-leading .364 average into Tuesday's game. During the streak, he has hit .452 (28-for-62) and has produced seven consecutive multiple-hit games.

Fenn's power surge actually began back in mid-March as the Cuesta College transfer is 38-for-95 (.400) in his last 24 games, bumping up his average 172 points. Fenn was 7-for-13 in the UC San Diego series with a double and three RBIs.

Aaron Casillas' 18-game hitting streak came to an end in the opener of the UC San Diego series but he finished 6-for-13 with three RBIs, thanks to back-to-back three-hit games. Casillas is 37-for-92 (.402) in his last 22 games, the CSU Bakersfield transfer hiking his average 86 points to .339.

Left fielder Collin Villegas hit a home run in each game of the UC San Diego series and five times in his last six contests, giving him 12 for the season to go along with a dozen doubles. Villegas is hitting .288 with 31 RBIs in 41 games this season.

As a team, Cal Poly is hitting .305 over its last 24 games, averaging 6.6 runs and 11 hits a contest and raising the Mustangs' team batting average 33 points to .282.

Pepperdine has three regulars hitting above .300, led by designated hitter Jack Basseer with a .331 mark, 10 doubles, three home runs and 27 RBIs. Left fielder Charles Masino is hitting .312 with seven doubles, three homers and 22 RBIs while first baseman Lincoln Orellana has a .306 average with eight doubles, four home runs and 22 RBIs.

Second baseman Ryan Johnson leads the Waves with 15 home runs and 35 RBIs, hitting .289.

Pepperdine owns a .265 team batting average, 23 points higher than when it played Cal Poly on April 4, with 76 doubles and 43 home runs. The Waves have a .967 fielding percentage with 50 errors in 40 games and the pitching staff has given up 6.27 earned runs a contest.

Cal Poly won both midweek games against Pepperdine a year ago -- 14-6 in San Luis Obispo and 16-4 in Malibu -- and the two teams are meeting for the 70th time Tuesday. The Waves hold a 40-29 advantage in the series, which began in 1947. The two clubs split a pair of midweek games each of the six years the two teams met from 2014-19 (they did not play each other in 2020 or 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

Pepperdine earned 2-1 and 10-6 wins over the Mustangs in the 2014 NCAA San Luis Obispo Regional en route to the NCAA Fort Worth Super Regional against TCU.

Cal Poly is 19-28 against Pepperdine since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Larry Lee is 16-18 against his alma mater while Rick Hirtensteiner is 5-6 versus Cal Poly.

Coming off a 24-26 performance in 2022, Pepperdine was a regional qualifier for the 28th time in 2015, winning the West Coast Conference postseason tournament in Stockton and going 2-2 in the Fullerton Regional, their last regional appearance. The Waves captured the 1992 College World Series championship and have appeared in one Super Regional and two College World Series.

Cal Poly continues its four-game road trip this weekend with a Big West series at UC Davis. Game times are 2:30 p.m. Friday and 1 o'clock both Saturday and Sunday.