Cal Poly redshirt senior right-hander Carlo Lopiccolo tossed 4 1/3 scoreless innings combined against Fresno State and Utah last week as Cal Poly earned its first 3-1 record in a week all season.
Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics
Cal Poly to Host Fresno State for Final Midweek Game of Season
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly plays its final midweek game of the 2023 baseball season Tuesday afternoon, hosting Fresno State for the third matchup between the two schools.
First pitch is set for 5 p.m. inside Baggett Stadium.
Coach Larry Lee's Mustangs are 18-31 for the year after claiming their first road series win of 2023 with 9-8 and 6-4 victories against Utah of the Pac-12 on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, following an 18-6 loss in Friday's opener at Salt Lake City.
Fresno State, under first-year head coach and Atascadero High School graduate Ryan Overland, sports a 27-24 overall mark after moving into fourth place in the Mountain West Conference by sweeping UNLV at home. Scores were 11-4, 10-1 and 8-5 as the Bulldogs won all six meetings against the Rebels this season.
Top four teams in the final standings advance to the Mountain West Conference Tournament next weekend in Fresno. The Bulldogs have the bye in the conference schedule this weekend and is 1.5 games ahead of New Mexico. Fresno State's sweep of UNLV clinched the final spot in the conference tournament field.
Cal Poly, meanwhile, is eighth in the Big West at 9-15 and will play the top two teams in the conference eligible for the NCAA postseason over the final two weekends of the regular season.
The Mustangs visit third-place UC Santa Barbara this weekend and will host first-place Cal State Fullerton over the Memorial Day weekend (Thursday through Saturday). The Titans are 17-7 in Big West games while UC Santa Barbara is one game back at 16-8.
Second-place UC San Diego (18-9), a half-game behind Cal State Fullerton, is in its third year of transition to Division I and is ineligible for postseason play until 2025.
Cal Poly junior center fielder Jake Steels leads the Mustangs
with 12 steals in 17 attempts this season. The Hancock College
transfer is hitting .321 after going 10-for-16 in four games last week.
The Mustangs, who last week won three of four games in a week for the first time this season, was led in the Utah series by center fielder Jake Steels as the Allan Hancock College transfer went 7-for-12 at the plate. Shortstop Aaron Casillas was 7-for-14 with two doubles and seven RBIs while third baseman Ryan Fenn was 5-for-12.
Casillas produced a pair of doubles and two singles for his first four-hit game as a Mustang in Sunday's victory, knocking in three runs. His two-run double off the right-field wall in the ninth inning snapped a 4-4 tie.
Designated hitter Tate Shimao hit his first collegiate home run, Ryan Stafford gave Cal Poly the lead for good with a two-run double and Ryan Baum allowed no earned runs over 5 1/3 innings in relief in the Saturday contest. The Mustangs scored five times in the sixth inning to erase a 7-4 deficit.
Cal Poly will go for a sweep of its three-game midweek series against Fresno State on Tuesday.
The Mustangs produced season highs for runs (15) and hits (18) in a 15-5 win March 28 on Pete Beiden Field at Bob Bennett Stadium. First baseman Joe Yorke drove in six runs with two home runs and a pair of doubles while Steven Brooks retired all seven batters he faced.
Last Tuesday, Stafford produced his first four-hit game of the season and fourth of his Mustang career and he and Jake Steels each drove in three runs as Cal Poly defeated Fresno State 11-3 inside Baggett Stadium. Returning to the mound for the first time in nearly seven weeks, southpaw Travis Weston retired the Bulldogs in order in the first inning and freshman right-hander Freddy Rodriguez earned his first collegiate victory with four scoreless innings.
Lee will send sophomore southpaw Noah Larkin (0-0, 3.00 ERA) to the mound for Tuesday's game, facing Fresno State junior right-hander Jaykob Acosta (1-2, 8.16 ERA).
Acosta surrendered seven runs and eight hits over two innings in last Tuesday's loss to Cal Poly. In his last outing on the mound May 2 at Pepperdine, Larkin tossed four scoreless innings, scattering three hits.
Tuesday's rematch will be broadcast on ESPN Radio (1280 AM and 101.7 FM) with Zachary Anderson-Yoxsimer on the call. Chris Sylvester will be on the mic for the ESPN+ broadcast. Links for audio and video streams as well as live stats are posted on the baseball schedule page at GoPoly.com.
Cal Poly and Fresno State are meeting for the 189th time Tuesday. The Bulldogs own a 119-69 advantage in the series.
In 2005 Cal Poly swept Fresno State in a three-game series for the first time in the then-60-year history of the rivalry and duplicated the feat opening the 2006 campaign in Baggett Stadium and again in 2007 at Beiden Field.
The Mustangs have won 25 of their last 36 games against the Bulldogs, including three of five games during Fresno State's national championship season in 2008.
Cal Poly head coach Larry Lee is 27-13 against Fresno State.
Overland succeeded 20-year Bulldog mentor Mike Batesole during the offseason. Batesole, who was head coach at CSUN for seven seasons prior to taking over the Fresno State program in 2003, retired last December with an 895-659-2 overall record, including a 639-501-1 mark with the Bulldogs. He was 22-30 against Cal Poly, including a 9-5 record while he was at CSUN.
Overland was an assistant coach under Batesole for 10 seasons before he was named interim head coach on Dec. 30, 2022. A catcher on the Bulldogs' 2008 national championship team, Overland played in 186 games, compiled a career .273 batting average with 11 doubles, seven home runs and 54 RBIs, and was a part of three Western Athletic Conference championships before earning his bachelor's degree in communication studies in 2008.
Overland was a graduate assistant coach at South Dakota State (2009-10), earning his master's degree in health, physical education and recreation in 2010. He then served as Fresno State's baseball intern for the 2011 season and volunteer assistant coach in 2012. Overland was named a full-time assistant coach at Nevada in the fall of 2012 before he was hired by Fresno State prior to the 2013 season.
Overland is a 2004 graduate of Atascadero High School, where he played baseball and basketball. He was a pitcher and catcher with the Greyhounds, earning three team MVP awards and first-team All-Los Padres League and All-San Luis Obispo County honors in both 2003 and 2004. Overland's father, Dale Overland, was head baseball coach at San Luis Obispo High School for seven seasons (1989-95), leading the Tigers to the 1990 CIF-Southern Section 4-A Division championship.
Three other Bulldog team members have local connections.
Shortstop Travis Welker and pitcher Trevor Garcia are transfers from Allan Hancock College. Welker, a graduate of Santa Ynez High School, is hitting .285 to date with 15 RBIs while Garcia, a Santa Maria High School graduate, sports a 3-3 record and 5.23 ERA.
In addition, assistant coach Ritchie Price is a 2002 graduate of San Luis Obispo High School and a son of former Cal Poly and Kansas head coach Ritch Price.
Ritchie Price helped the Tigers to the 2000 CIF-Southern Section Division IV championship at Dodger Stadium and played collegiately at Kansas before coaching at South Dakota State from 2007-11, the last three years as head coach, and serving as an assistant under his father at Kansas from 2012-22.
The Bulldogs have made 34 NCAA tournament appearances, including four in the College World Series. The 2019 Mountain West regular season title and tournament championship was Fresno State's 36th conference championship.
Fresno State is hitting .263 as a team but does not have a regular starter with an average at or above the .300 mark. First baseman Tommy Hopfe leads all Bulldog hitters with a .294 mark, 12 doubles, eight home runs and 37 RBIs. Welker sports a .285 mark with five doubles and 15 RBIs while third baseman Triston "Murf" Gray is next at .279 with seven doubles, six home runs and 25 RBIs.
Cal Poly is led by sophomore third baseman Ryan Fenn, who has been swinging a hot bat since the middle of March. Hitting just .192 after the Big West opener against Hawai'i, Fenn has gone 48-for-126 (.381) in his last 32 games to lift his average 163 points to .355.
Fenn had a 15-game hitting streak snapped by Pepperdine two weeks ago but went 4-for-10 in the UC Davis series with a double and one RBI and 5-for-12 against Utah. He was 28-for-62 (.452) during the hitting streak with seven consecutive multiple-hit contests.
Casillas is hitting .337 with 14 doubles and 37 RBIs. His 18-game streak was halted by UC San Diego on April 28 but Casillas responded with back-to-back three-hit games to close out that series and has bumped his average up 84 points over his last 30 games by going 49-for-129 (.380).
Center fielder Jake Steels has 12 steals in 17 attempts and is hitting .327, going 10-for-16 with four RBIs in four games last week to bump his average up 31 points, while Stafford is hitting .320 with 18 doubles, six home runs and 38 RBIs. The sophomore, who is headed to the Collegiate National Team Training Camp in June and Buster Posey Award candidate, has thrown out eight base runners trying to steal a base and has picked off three others this season.
Left fielder Collin Villegas sports a .279 mark with 16 doubles, 12 home runs and 36 RBIs while first baseman Joe Yorke has a .273 average with 11 doubles and a team-leading 43 RBIs. Second baseman/designated hitter Tate Shimao has gone 22-for-68 (.324) in his last 21 games to lift his average 59 points to .269.
Following Tuesday's game, Cal Poly has just six games remaining on the 2023 schedule, visiting UC Santa Barbara for games Friday through Sunday at 5, 4 and 1 p.m. and hosting Cal State Fullerton for 6 p.m. contests Thursday (May 25) and Friday (May 26) and a 1 p.m. game Saturday (May 27).
