Cal Poly Closes 'Rebuilding Year' with 21 Victories in 2023

Cal Poly players huddle before a recent game.

Photo by: Kayla Stuart | Cal Poly Athletics

Cal Poly Closes 'Rebuilding Year' with 21 Victories in 2023

5/30/2023 11:50:00 AM | Baseball

WEEKLY NOTES

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly head coach Larry Lee warned Mustang fans back in January that it was going to be a rebuilding year. A total of 17 lettermen departed after last season's 37-21 performance, and only 16 returned, including just three position starters.

Lee and his three new assistant coaches needed to mesh them with four other returnees who were redshirts in 2022 along with 16 newcomers. The result: A 21-35 mark in 2023, the lowest win total since the 1998 squad went 16-42, and just four series wins.

"It was a total rebuilding, but we were cautiously optimistic about what I thought our pitchers could do, both as a starting unit and a relief unit," said Lee. "It was evident very soon that we weren't quite equipped to take the next step up. That was one of our main deficiencies."

The staff ERA of 5.85 for the season is the highest in 13 years.

"Offensively, I thought the first half of our lineup overachieved and was very productive," Lee added, "but the lower half and our bench lacked what needed to be in the lineup to be really productive. We ended up having a lack of quality and depth in our offensive lineup."

The Mustangs hit just .241 in their first 14 games, winning only three, but improved the rest of the way with a .290 mark over their last 42 contests, finishing at .278, No. 5 in the Big West.

"Everybody focuses on pitching and the offense, but we were a very poor defensive team at the beginning," Lee said. "If you're a poor defensive team and you're constantly giving your opponent's offense extra opportunities, it's a recipe for disaster. We were very un-athletic defensively. We didn't have the ability to turn double plays. We were fairly strong up the middle, but not a complete up-the-middle defensive team."

Cal Poly committed 29 errors in its first 21 contests (1.4 errors per game) compared to just 24 miscues in its last 35 games (0.7 per contest) for a .974 fielding percentage. The Mustangs turned only 30 double plays in 56 games, the fewest in 12 years.

"We did have our bright spots, like Ryan Fenn, who was platooning early on but worked hard, made the necessary adjustments and he became one of our better offensive players and played adequately at third base," Lee said. "But we had too many players in our offensive lineup that weren't ready to play at this level and they ended up getting way more playing time than they would have on a better team."

Hitting .192 a dozen games into his first season at Cal Poly after transferring from Cuesta College, Fenn caught fire, going 51-for-129 at the plate (.395) over his next 33 games to bump his average up 169 points to .361. The redshirt sophomore from El Cajon finished the year at .344 with eight doubles and 16 RBIs.

There were injuries that slowed the development of several pitchers, notably starters Jakob Wright and Travis Weston along with relievers Derek True and Kyle Scott. Infielders Kemet Brown (missed final five weeks with leg injury) and Matthias Haas (injured in early March and did not play the rest of the season) sat out much of the season as well.

"The only injury that hurt us was not having Jakob Wright fully healthy at the beginning of the season," said Lee. "That changes the dynamics of your pitching, both starters and bullpen. He's behind in his development due to being hurt early on in high school. Now he just doesn't have that exposure, especially when he walked into the college level with no experience. It's learning on the job and he didn't throw his first pitch until the latter half of the season."

The Paso Robles High School graduate made his collegiate debut April 8 with a 1-2-3 inning against UC Riverside and made five starts with three relief appearances, finishing 2-1 with a 6.27 ERA. At UC Santa Barbara on May 21, Wright struck out 11 Gauchos over five innings for the victory in relief.

"The two other deficits that hurt us later on were not having True and Scott available," Lee said. "True was in high-level situations late in games and, when he went down with some arm soreness, that was the time when we were unable to hold onto leads late in the game.

"Scott was coming back from repair surgery on his elbow and, usually with that type of surgery, you're not quite what you used to be until the second year out. He got sick for about a 10-game stretch and, the combination of missing he and True, basically in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, really hurt us. In theory, guys like True and Scott help you win a few more games, and it also allows a team to have a different feel about the difference between success and failure and how to close out games.

"We didn't finish games. We were very poor in one-run games and were very poor in the ability to hold a lead in the latter third of the game or keep the score tied," Lee added. "In a three-week period, we were walked off on the road five times and that falls on your pitching staff not being able to hold leads, whether it's the makeup of your staff or their skill level."

Cal Poly was 5-12 in one-run games, lost 17 of 28 contests in which it scored first, was winless in five extra-inning games and was on the short end of 13 contests in which the opponent erased a deficit or snapped a tie in its last at-bat. Long Beach State (April 1-2) and CSU Bakersfield (April 15-16) and Santa Clara (April 25) all beat the Mustangs in walk-off fashion in a span of 25 days.

"Losing Weston (for six starts) took away that experience that is important from a pitching standpoint," Lee said. "Weston has a lot of starting experience at this level and, having him in the lineup, it would have allowed somebody that should be in the bullpen to stay in the bullpen instead of trying to have him start a game. You just hope that, with an influx of a lot of new faces next year, the experience that some of these players gained which normally they would not have gained will be rewarded next year. There is no guarantee that a player is going to be able to take the next step up. There's a lot that goes into that."

A youthful lineup this year should translate into a more veteran look next spring -- just two of the 11 position players with 25 or more starts are graduating and at least 10 pitchers returning.

"We'll have five of our first six best hitters back for next year (center fielder Jake Steels, Fenn, catcher Ryan Stafford, shortstop Aaron Casillas and first baseman Joe Yorke)," noted Lee. "You're hoping that they take the next step forward in their development and, not only bring in another four high-level bats to make that a stronger lineup, but to have many more bats to create some internal competition so that the players are not playing by default where the options are very limited."

Steels hit .318 with 27 RBIs from the leadoff spot in the batting order and stole 13 of 20 bases. Stafford notched a .313 mark with 20 doubles, seven home runs and 44 RBIs while also throwing out 11 would-be base stealers for the second straight year and picking off three other runners. Casillas added a .329 average with 15 doubles and 40 RBIs while Yorke contributed with a .282 average, 12 doubles, three home runs and a team-leading 46 RBIs.

Also expected to return are infielder Tate Shimao (.256, 17 RBIs), right fielder Wyatt King (.226, eight doubles, 14 RBIs), designated hitter Evan Cloyd (.233, four home runs, 18 RBIs) and Brown (.220) along with pitcher/utility player Tanner Sagouspe (1-2, 8.79 ERA, .203 average).

The pitching staff should be led by Wright, Ryan Baum (4-5, 5.03 ERA), Steven Brooks (4-2, 5.58 ERA) and Freddy Rodriguez (1-2, 7.00 ERA), among others. In addition, Bryce Warrecker (3-7, 4.89 ERA) is eligible for the Major League Draft in July but has one more year of eligibility remaining.

"We'll lose quite a few of the innings from this year, but you just hope that everybody takes another step forward with what they bring to the table as a pitcher," Lee said. "That's increasing velocity, that's better location of pitches, that's better shape of pitches and that's understanding the game within the game, how to control the running game, how to fill your position, knowing the situation of the game, where to miss outside of the zone when needed and not just be a thrower but actually be able to pitch and actually be able to think the game and understand why a certain pitch is called in a certain situation.

"We have a long long way to go to become good at that," the 21-year Mustang mentor added. "You're also hoping that, with the influx of high school and junior college pitchers coming in next year, the internal competition will be there. When you recruit, you're trying to recruit to replace as many players as possible. When you do that, it means you're better than the previous year."

There were some highlights in the season, to be sure.

• The Mustangs won eight of 14 games after a 4-13 start with a series win against UC Irvine and a sweep of UC Riverside. Cal Poly also won seven of its last 13 contests, including a series win at Utah, to surpass the 20-win mark.

• Cal Poly also swept a three-game series of midweek games against Central California rival Fresno State, outscoring the Bulldogs 37-14, and earned a walk-off victory against San Jose State on April 18 as Yorke doubled into the right-field corner, scoring Steels from second base for the 6-5 triumph.

• Cal Poly turned its first triple play in 29 Division I seasons April 11 against Santa Clara. With both runners going from first and second, Casillas caught a line drive at his shortstop position, threw to Shimao at second base, and the relay to Yorke at first base completed the triple play in the fourth inning.

• Cast in the role of spoiler late in the season, the Mustangs beat UC Santa Barbara 9-5, scoring four runs in the fourth inning to snap a 2-2 tie and riding the 11-strikeout performance of Wright, and edged Cal State Fullerton 5-4 in the season finale on Shimao's line drive single to left to break a 4-4 tie in the eighth inning. The Gauchos lost four straight to end the season and did not receive an NCAA regional bid while the Titans fell one win shy of a share of the Big West title.

• Stafford's grand slam down the left-field line snapped a 3-3 tie in the eighth inning and lifted the Mustangs to a series-clinching 7-3 win over UC Irvine on March 26.

• A day earlier, Steels capped a five-run second-inning rally versus the Anteaters with a grand slam, also just inside the left-field foul pole.

• Yorke homered twice, doubled twice and drove in six runs in a 15-5 Mustang win at Fresno State on March 28.

• Collin Villegas doubled four times, a school record, in a 12-4 win at CSU Bakersfield on April 14. He also drew five walks, tying another school mark, in the season opener against Missouri State.

A few other notes:

• Steels' 13 steals are the most since Alex McKenna also stole 13 bases in 2017.

• Casillas had an 18-game hitting streak snapped by UC San Diego while Fenn's 15-game hitting streak was halted by Pepperdine. Steels also reached base safely in 19 straight games.

• Hitting .258 in his first 16 games, Casillas closed the year with 60 hits in 172 at-bats (.349) to lift his average 71 points to his final .329 mark. Casillas and Stafford shared the team lead with 25 multiple-hit games and a dozen multiple-RBI contests.

• Shimao opened his Mustang career with a six-game hitting streak but was hitting just .210 after the Hawai'i series before lifting his average 46 points to .256 with a 24-for-72 spurt (.333) in a 22-game span.

• Cal Poly's preliminary 2024 schedule features home series against Memphis, Utah and Ohio State along with Big West series versus UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach State in a 35-game home slate.