Cal Poly Concludes 2023 Season by Hosting Cal State Fullerton

Thursday, May 25

San Luis Obispo, CA

6 p.m.

Cal State Fullerton

Ryan Stafford follows the ball to the outfield.

Ryan Stafford leads Cal Poly with 25 multiple-hit games and 12 multiple-RBI contests, sporting a .324 average with 20 doubles and 43 RBIs in 53 games.

Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics

Cal Poly Concludes 2023 Season by Hosting Cal State Fullerton

5/22/2023 4:29:00 PM | Baseball

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (20-33, 10-17 Big West), which has played 10 of its last 12 games on the road and played three consecutive weekend series away from home for the first time since 2017, wraps up the 2023 baseball season this weekend by hosting Cal State Fullerton (29-21, 18-9 Big West) for a three-game Big West Conference series inside Baggett Stadium (cap.: 3,138).

First pitches are set for 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday (all Pacific). All three games of the series will be broadcast on ESPN Radio (1280 AM and 101.7 FM) with Eric Burdick calling the play-by-play. The series 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.

Cal State Fullerton is tied with UC Santa Barbara for second place in the Big West, 1.5 games behind front-runner UC San Diego. The Tritons have completed their 2023 season while the Gauchos play three games at Hawai'i this weekend. UC San Diego, in the third year of transition to NCAA Division I, is ineligible for postseason play but fourth-place CSUN (17-10) and fifth-place UC Irvine (16-11) remain in the hunt for a playoff spot. CSUN is at CSU Bakersfield this weekend while UC Irvine hosts UC Riverside.

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 and lost three more games — one to Xavier and two against UC Santa Barbara. The Mustangs have been below the .500 mark in Big West play ever since losing two of three games at CSU Bakersfield in mid-April.

Last weekend, the Mustangs bounced back from 7-0 and 4-2 losses at UC Santa Barbara with a 9-5 triumph in the series finale. Cal Poly hit just .212 against the Gauchos, Aaron Casillas going 5-for-12 with a double and Ryan Stafford 4-for-12 with a double, home run and two RBIs.

Cal State Fullerton lost two of three games at home to Long Beach State over the weekend. The Titans' losing streak reached eight games with 2-1 and 7-4 setbacks before claiming the finale 9-1. Cal State Fullerton won its series with UC Santa Barbara in early April and has the tiebreaker advantage should the two squads finish with identical Big West marks.

Under second-year head coach Jason Dietrich, the Titans were 28-13 after defeating TCU 2-1 on May 5 and were ranked as high as No. 12 in the national polls prior to losing their next eight games. Cal State Fullerton owns series wins against Texas, Pepperdine, UC Irvine, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside, CSU Bakersfield and CSUN.

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.

Cal State Fullerton returned 16 lettermen, including six starting position players and six pitchers, off a squad that finished 22-33 in 2022, seventh in the Big West at 14-16 and missing an NCAA playoff berth for the third straight year, a streak of 27 consecutive postseason appearances snapped in 2019. Top returnees include first baseman Caden Connor (.327, 37 RBIs in 2022), third baseman Zach Lew (.317, 29 RBIs) and shortstop J.T. Navyac (.266). The pitching staff is paced by right-handers Fynn Chester (3-1, 2.30 ERA in 2022) and Evan Yates (3-3, 5.11 ERA) along with southpaw Tyler Stultz (5-5, 3.36 ERA).

Fifty games into the 2023 season, Connor leads all Titan hitters with a .335 average, 18 doubles, four home runs and 38 RBIs. Left fielder Carter White is next at .316 with nine doubles and 18 RBIs, followed by right fielder Nane Nankil (.314, 17 doubles, five home runs, 36 RBIs). On the mound, the Titans have been led by right-handers Yates (2-2, 3.45 ERA) and Chester (7-3, 4.21 ERA) along with southpaw Stultz (6-4, 4.63 ERA). The closer is southpaw Jojo Ingrassia with a 5-2 record, 2.84 ERA and six saves.

Picked by the head coaches to finish fifth in the Big West this season, Cal State Fullerton sports a .271 team batting average with 108 doubles, six triples, 32 home runs and 35 steals in 48 attempts. The Titans' pitching staff has compiled a 5.03 ERA with 443 strikeouts over 451 innings and Cal State Fullerton has committed 44 errors in 50 games for a .976 fielding percentage.

Cal State Fullerton has won 30 conference titles in 47 Division I seasons, has appeared in 40 regionals, including the stretch of 27 consecutive seasons from 1992 through 2018, along with 14 Super Regionals and 18 College World Series, capturing national championships in 1979, 1984, 1995 and 2004. The Titans are 668-269 since late 1992 at Goodwin Field and never had a losing season in 47 Division I campaigns (excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season) until 2021.

Former Titans who made it to the Major Leagues include Tim Wallach, Phil Nevin, Mark Kotsay and Ricky Romero (all first-round draft picks) along with Kurt Suzuki, Chad Cordero, Jeremy Giambi, Justin Turner, Michael Lorenzen, Dylan Floro, Phil Bickford and Matt Chapman. A total of 71 former Titans have played in the Major Leagues.

Dietrich, the sixth head coach in the Titans' Division I history, was pitching coach at East Carolina for two seasons before he was named Titans head coach last June 30. He was pitching coach at Cal State Fullerton from 2013-16 and also coached at UC Irvine (2008-12) and Oregon (2017-19). Dietrich has worked under Mike Gillespie, George Horton and Rick Vanderhook, who was the Titans' head coach the last 10 seasons before stepping down following the 2021 campaign.

Dietrich began his coaching career as the pitching coach at Arcadia High School (1999-2001). He became a college pitching coach at Los Angeles City College in 2002 before moving to Irvine Valley College (2003-06) and Cal State Los Angeles (2007). He also spent time as a pitching coach for the Hyannis Mets (2004-05) of the Cape Cod Baseball League and Southern California Fire (2003) of the Western Wood Bat League.

Prior to coaching, he played one year with the New Jersey Jackals of the Northeast Baseball League (1998) and four in the Colorado Rockies organization (1994-98) after being selected in the 19th round of the 1994 MLB Draft out of Pepperdine, where he earned West Coast Conference Honorable Mention accolades. During his professional career, Dietrich posted a 7-2 record with a 2.84 ERA and seven saves in 44 appearances. Dietrich played at Santa Ana Community College from 1991-93, leading the team to the state title in 1993, and is a 1999 Cal State Fullerton graduate.

Cal Poly and Cal State Fullerton have met 123 times on the baseball field since the series began when both teams were California Collegiate Athletic Association members back in 1966. The Titans hold a 72-51 advantage, though Cal Poly swept a four-game series in 2021 at Baggett Stadium by scores of 5-1, 13-3, 10-0 and 9-1 and won all three games at Goodwin Field last year by 13-4, 6-2 and 2-1 scores. Cal Poly has enjoyed some recent success against the Titans with seven straight wins and 24 victories in the last 46 meetings over the previous 14 seasons, winning series at home in 2007, 2011, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2021 in addition to last year's sweep in Fullerton, the Mustangs first series win at Goodwin Field since 1997, the year Cal Poly joined the Big West.

Cal Poly is 29-60 against Cal State Fullerton since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Lee is 25-33 against Cal State Fullerton while Dietrich (0-3) is facing Cal Poly for the second time as a head coach.

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 three weeks ago but rebounded with a .345 mark at Utah. 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 .344 to date while Casillas sports a .338 mark with 15 doubles and 38 RBIs. Stafford owns a .324 mark with 20 doubles, seven home runs and 43 RBIs while Jake Steels also is hitting .324 with 27 RBIs and 13 steals. Villegas, the team's home run leader with 12 to go with 16 doubles and 38 RBIs, is hitting .264. 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 .279 as a team, fifth in the 11-team Big West, and the staff ERA is at 5.82, ninth in the conference. Cal Poly has committed 52 errors in 53 games for a .974 fielding percentage and has stolen 31 bases in 50 attempts.

Hitting just .192 after the Big West opener against Hawai'i, Fenn went 50-for-129 (.388) over 33 games to lift his average 169 points. He was 28-for-62 (.452) during his 15-game 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 84 points over his last 34 games by going 54-for-143 (.378). Steels has 13 steals in 20 attempts and has gone 14-for-30 (.467) with seven RBIs in his last eight games to bump his average up 28 points. Second baseman/designated hitter Tate Shimao went 24-for-72 (.333) in a recent 22-game stretch to lift his average 66 points.

The Mustangs are 10-16 when scoring first, 0-5 in extra innings and 3-23 when outhit by the opposition. Thirteen of Cal Poly's losses have occurred in games in which the opponent overcame a deficit or snapped a tie in its last at-bat.

The 16 regional hosts will be announced Sunday, with the 64-team NCAA regional field to be revealed Monday at 9 a.m. on ESPN2.