Cal Poly Plays Third Straight Weekend on the Road, Visiting UCSB

Friday, May 19

Santa Barbara, CA

5 p.m.

UC Santa Barbara

Mustang players in the dugout greet Jake Steels after he scored against Fresno State last week. Cal Poly swept the midweek season series against the Bulldogs.

Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics

Cal Poly Plays Third Straight Weekend on the Road, Visiting UCSB

5/18/2023 1:28:00 PM | Baseball

WEEKLY NOTES: CAL POLY | UC SANTA BARBARA | BIG WEST
VIDEO STREAM: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
AUDIO STREAM: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY
LIVE STATS: FRIDAY | SATURDAY | SUNDAY

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (19-31, 9-15 Big West), coming off its first 3-1 week of the 2023 season as well as an 11-6 win over Fresno State on Tuesday, completing a sweep of the three-game midweek series, plays the last of three consecutive weekends away from home, visiting UC Santa Barbara (33-16, 16-8 Big West) for a three-game Big West Conference series at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium (cap.: 1,000) in Santa Barbara.

First pitches are set for 5 p.m. Friday, 4 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday (all Pacific). All three games of the series will be broadcast on ESPN Radio (1280 AM and 101.7 FM) with Chris Sylvester calling the play-by-play. The series also will be video streamed on ESPN+. 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 was completed April 18 in San Luis Obispo, a 12-10 Mustang victory. Cal Poly 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, lost 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 before falling three times at Long Beach State, sweeping UC Riverside, losing two of three at CSU Bakersfield and CSUN, swept by UC San Diego at home and losing two of three at UC Davis.

Last weekend, the Mustangs bounced back from an 18-6 loss in the opener with 9-8 and 6-4 victories in a non-conference series at Utah. Cal Poly hit .345 against the Utes, Jake Steels going 7-for-12, Aaron Casillas 7-for-14 with seven RBIs and Ryan Fenn 5-for-12.

Third-place UC Santa Barbara is one game behind frontrunner Cal State Fullerton in the Big West standings. Last weekend, the Gauchos had a chance to catch the Titans, who were swept by UC San Diego, but UCSB dropped two of three games at Long Beach State. The second-place Tritons are in their third year of transition to NCAA Division I and are ineligible for postseason competition.

Under 12th-year head coach Andrew Checketts, the defending Big West champion Gauchos own series wins against Oregon, Xavier, CSU Bakersfield, CSUN, UC San Diego, UC Davis and UC Riverside. Last weekend, UCSB won the middle game at Long Beach State 8-0 while falling 1-0 and 7-3. The Gauchos edged California Baptist 7-6 in 10 innings on Monday.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 was considered 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.

UCSB returned 22 lettermen, including four starting position players and 13 pitchers, off a squad that finished 44-14 in 2022 and stormed through the Big West slate with a 27-3 mark before going 1-2 at the NCAA Stanford Regional with losses to Texas State and Stanford. Top returnees include catcher/outfielder Christian Kirtley (.300, 11 home runs, 45 RBIs in 2022), outfielder Broc Mortensen (.249, 16 home runs, 53 RBIs) and third baseman Zander Darby (.241, seven home runs, 20 RBIs). The pitching staff is paced by right-handers Ryan Gallagher (8-0, 3.25 ERA in 2022) and Matt Ager (2-0, 3.55 ERA, five saves) along with southpaw Mike Gutierrez (9-1, 3.19 ERA).

Forty-nine games into the 2023 season, center fielder Jared Sundstrom sports a team-leading .331 average with 13 doubles, 15 home runs and 43 RBIs while second baseman Jonah Sebring is hitting .322 with nine doubles and 25 RBIs. Catcher Aaron Parker (nine home runs, 27 RBIs) and right fielder Ivan Brethowr (11 doubles, nine home runs, 36 RBIs) both are hitting .314. On the mound, the Gauchos have been led by right-handers Ager (4-3, 2.79 ERA) , Reed Moring (4-1, 5.06 ERA) and JD Callahan (2-1, 4.21 ERA) along with southpaws Gutierrez (4-2, 1.80 ERA) and Hudson Barrett (5-0, 1.65 ERA, five saves).

Picked by the head coaches to finish first in the Big West this season, UCSB sports a .281 team batting average with 91 doubles, 10 triples, 79 home runs and 65 steals in 90 attempts. The Gauchos' pitching staff has compiled a conference-best 3.83 ERA (No. 6 in NCAA) with 504 strikeouts over 437 1/3 innings and UCSB has committed 45 errors in 49 games for a .974 fielding percentage.

UCSB claimed Big West titles in 1972, 1986, 2019 and 2022 and has qualified for the NCAA Division I regionals 13 times, including 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2021 and last spring, compiling a 16-30 win-loss record in Division I postseason competition, including 6-2 in 2016 en route to regional and super regional triumphs and a berth in the College World Series.

Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara have met 241 times on the baseball field since the series began when both teams were California Collegiate Athletic Association members back in 1942. The Gauchos hold a 128-113 advantage following two non-conference triumphs in San Luis Obispo in March (12-4 and 8-4), a three-game series sweep in 2022 in San Luis Obispo and a 3-1 series win in Santa Barbara in 2021.

The Mustangs swept UC Santa Barbara three straight years (2016-18). Needing another sweep in 2019 to claim a share of the Big West title and the automatic qualifying spot in the postseason, Cal Poly won the first two games by 3-0 and 4-3 scores at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium before the Gauchos clinched the title and playoff berth with a 7-0 victory in the series finale.

The two Blue-Green rivals did not play each other in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cal Poly is 59-53 against UCSB since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Larry Lee is 43-32 against UC Santa Barbara while Andrew Checketts is 16-21 against Cal Poly.

Checketts spent three seasons as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator under George Horton at Oregon before coming to UC Santa Barbara. He was on the UC Riverside staff for seven years and began his coaching career at Riverside Community College, where he served as pitching coach and helped the team to their second consecutive California State championship in 2001.

Checketts played one season at Florida and three at Oregon State.

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 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 less than .265 over the next four weekends before turning things around with a .290 mark versus UC Irvine, 15 runs on 18 hits at Fresno State, a .274 average in three games at Long Beach State, a .327 mark in a sweep over UC Riverside, .332 in the CSU Bakersfield series, .330 at CSUN and .286 against UC San Diego. The average slipped to .172 at UC Davis two weeks ago but rebounded with a .345 mark at Utah last weekend, Jake Steels going 7-for-12, Aaron Casillas 7-for-14 with seven RBIs and Ryan Fenn 5-for-12. Cal Poly hit .305, averaging 6.6 runs and 11 hits, over 24 games from late March to the end of April.

Fenn is hitting .361 to date while Casillas sports a .333 mark with 14 doubles and 37 RBIs. Stafford owns a .324 mark with 19 doubles, six home runs and 41 RBIs while Jake Steels is hitting .331 with 25 RBIs and 13 steals. Villegas, the team's home run leader with 12 to go with 16 doubles and 38 RBIs, is hitting .272. Casillas had an 18-game hitting streak snapped in the UC San Diego series while Fenn's 15-game streak was halted by Pepperdine.

The Mustangs are hitting .283 as a team, third in the 11-team Big West, and the staff ERA is at 5.86, ninth in the conference. Cal Poly has committed 51 errors in 50 games for a .973 fielding percentage and has stolen 31 bases in 48 attempts.

Hitting just .192 after the Big West opener against Hawai'i, Fenn has gone 50-for-129 (.388) in his last 33 games to lift his average 169 points. He was 28-for-62 (.452) during his 15-game hitting streak with seven consecutive multiple-hit contests.

His 18-game streak halted by UC San Diego on April 28, Casillas responded with back-to-back three-hit games to close out that series and has bumped his average up 79 points over his last 31 games by going 49-for-131 (.374). Steels has 13 steals in 18 attempts and is hitting .331, going 12-for-20 (.600) with five RBIs in his last five games games to bump his average up 35 points. Second baseman/designated hitter Tate Shimao has gone 24-for-72 (.333) in his last 22 games to lift his average 66 points to .276.

The Mustangs are 9-16 when scoring first, 0-5 in extra innings and 3-21 when outhit by the opposition. Thirteen of Cal Poly's losses occurred in games in which the opponent overcame a deficit or snapped a tie in its last at-bat.

Cal Poly, which is playing three consecutive weekends on the road for the first time since opening the 2017 season with series at Cal, Pacific and San Diego State, concludes its 2023 season at home next weekend, hosting Cal State Fullerton for a three-game set Thursday through Saturday.