Alumni Weekend Meets Blue-Green Rivalry Series Against UCSB

Friday, March 22

San Luis Obispo, Calif.

6 P.M.

UCSB

Tickets

Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics

Alumni Weekend Meets Blue-Green Rivalry Series Against UCSB

3/20/2024 1:00:00 PM | Baseball

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — The Cal Poly Baseball program opened up its 28th conference slate with a successful 2-1 series victory over the CSUN Matadors. This weekend, the Mustangs (10-9) look to continue their impressive run of form by making a statement against the No. 25 ranked UC Santa Barbara Gauchos in this year's Blue-Green Rivalry series.

The Blue-Green Rivalry
The Central California coastal rivalry, officially established twelve years ago, has existed in baseball since the two teams first met in 1942. An incredibly close and always-entertaining annual series sees Cal Poly at an all-time record of 114-130 against the Gauchos. In recent memory, from 2016-2019, the Mustangs experienced a 11-game winning streak before UCSB took over from 2021-23 with its own 9-game streak. Cal Poly broke the streak last season with the third and final game of its 2023 series, winning a game on May 21 by a 9-5 margin.

The Mustangs carry an 8-4 record through the month of March in stark contrast to their 2-5 start in February. They have also defended Baggett Stadium to the tune of a 10-6 home record, currently on the final stretch of their 22-day, 15-game continuous home stay. Cal Poly then heading back on the road for the first time in almost a month against Cal State Fullerton to close out March.

Alumni Weekend

This weekend, Mustang baseball will be celebrating Cal Poly Baseball Alumni Weekend, with over 100 Cal Poly baseball alumni and their families expected to be in attendance. The Mustangs will also pay homage to the 10-year anniversary of the 2014 Cal Poly Mustang baseball program, at one point ranked #1 nationally while hosting the NCAA San Luis Obispo Regional. Former MLBer's Mike Krukow, Dave Oliver, Casey Fien, Kevin Correia & Brent Morel will attend and be acknowledged on field before the game.

Last Week vs... CSUN
After Ryan Fenn's historic week in which he set a new career-high 5 RBIs while becoming just the 7th Mustang in the Division I era to tally 5 runs in an outing and the 20th to notch a 5-hit game, the redshirt junior was awarded his first career Big West Fielder of the Week honors.

Fenn is the most recent to win the award since Joe Yorke in May 2022. Fenn, a Cuesta College transfer, has begun to set Division I alight, breaking into the top-100 with an average of 0.44 doubles per game (88th-ranked). He is also ranked as the 78th toughest batter in college baseball to strike out, following closely behind Alejandro Garza as the 5th toughest in the Big West.

Cal Poly's pitching and defense, along with four other teams in the Big West, remain ranked in the top-50 for ERA. The Mustangs, led by a starting cohort of Jakob Wright, Steven Brooks, and Griffin Naess, sit 43rd in Division I with a 4.26 ERA despite a tough, hard-fought, and offensively fruitful series against CSUN. Cal Poly also continues to improve its batting week-over-week, now moving to a .282 team batting average while collecting 8 extra-base hits through last weekend's three-game series. The Mustangs have also enjoyed three games of double-digit runs scored in the last two weeks.

To start last weekend, against one of the Big West's best starting pitchers in Thomas Bainton, the Mustangs pulled out a 5-4 extra innings walkoff thanks to 2 and 2/3 of scoreless closing from Tanner Sagouspe as well as the game-winning RBI from Fenn. Game two saw Cal Poly explode offensively with a 17-5 domination that had both Fenn and Aaron Casillas set new single-game career-high RBI marks with Ryan Stafford and Evan Cloyd also racking up multi-RBI efforts. To finish the series, Cal Poly fell to a stunning 6-run ninth inning rally that had CSUN pulling ahead in a 8-10 result.

Scouting... UCSB
UC Santa Barbara has not lost a series since opening weekend when losing a 1-2 series against the eventual #21 Campbell Fighting Camels. To kick off the conference schedule, UCSB swept Long Beach State while currently on a 7-game win streak after sweeping the last two straight series.

The Gauchos, like the Mustangs, have a few likely MLB draftees set for this summer. Standout junior infielder Zander Darby is currently the #93 available college player according to FloBaseball's rankings, while NCBWA All-American Third Team selection and right-handed pitcher Matt Ager comes in as MLB.com's 52nd best availble player, likely to be drafted in the top-3 rounds.

Despite UCSB's pedigree, merit, and star power, the Mustangs and Gauchos are relatively close on paper. Cal Poly actually leads this season in total hits with 179 to UCSB's 167 on top of just edging UCSB's strikeout numbers 173-172, but the differences come in the Gauchos' power, leading greatly in RBI and HR, and strong bullpen performances leading to a decent gap in ERA.