CSUN
Mustangs Host CSUN March 8-9 to Open Big West Action
3/6/2025 2:54:00 PM | Softball
Cal Poly Softball
Upcoming Games
SAN LUIS OBISPO – As the 2025 season culminates with the inaugural six-team, May 7-10 Big West Championship, the Cal Poly softball program begins its 28th season of Big West action and 27-game conference schedule when welcoming CSUN for a three-game, March 8-9 series. Action at Bob Janssen Field gets underway with a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday, March 8 before closing with a 1 p.m. single matchup on Sunday, March 9. Starting Big West play against CSUN (7-12) for the fifth successive year, Cal Poly (4-13) seeks a second successive conference-opening sweep of the Matadors following last year’s 3-0 start in Northridge.
FOLLOW CAL POLY THIS WEEKEND: Live stats for all three matchups versus CSUN will be available via GoPoly.com HERE.
CAL POLY VERSUS CSUN: The Mustangs seek their third series win against CSUN in five years after sweeping the Matadors on the road in 2024 and taking two of three series games to start the 2021 Big West campaign. CSUN leads the all-time series, 89-62-1, dating to the first matchup – a Cal Poly home doubleheader sweep – on April 30, 1977.
BARNETT ADDS OFFENSE TO THE RESUME: The reigning Big West Defensive Player of the Year honoree, senior catch Julia Barnett remains Cal Poly’s top hitter entering Big West play, leading the Mustangs with a .382 (21-for-55) batting average and, among conference players, ranking eighth with five doubles and 17 hits. She also tops Cal Poly in total bases (29), RBI (12) and slugging percentage (.527). Having hit safely in nine of her last 11 games and a team best 13 times this season, Barnett – who swatted her second career homer during a Feb. 8 home matchup with Oregon State – also leads Cal Poly with seven multi-hit games and three multi-RBI games A starter in all 104 games since the start of the 2023 season, Barnett is a .985 career fielder with just 10 errors in 665 total chances.
BERMUDEZ BREAKS OUT: Hitting safely in 12 of her first 17 collegiate games, freshman left fielder Maddy Bermudez enters Cal Poly’s March 8-9 series with CSUN as the program’s second leading hitter with a .286 (14-for-49) batting average. Also Cal Poly’s leader with eight runs and two triples, Bermudez is one of four Mustangs to start all 17 games and the only freshman to do so.
ERSKINE ON THE RISE: Just one Mustang – senior catcher Julia Barnett – had produced a three-game game this season until freshman shortstop Sienna Erskine accomplished the feat for the first time in her career during Cal Poly’s 4-3 win against Loyola Marymount (March 2). With just one hit in her first seven collegiate games, Erskine – a starter in 13 of 16 appearances – has two multi-hit efforts in her last five outings and enters Cal Poly’s March 8-9 series with CSUN third in the lineup with a .273 (9-for-33) batting average.
CONDON ON THE VERGE OF MORE HISTORY: The winningest female head coach in university history, Jenny Condon requires just 19 more Mustang victories to become only the fifth head coach in Big West history to reach 500 career wins. Cal Poly’s April 12 doubleheader opening matchup at UC Riverside will also mark Condon’s 1,000th career game – a figure reached by just two previous Big West head coaches. A four-time Big West Coach of the Year honoree, Condon ranks sixth in conference history with both 481 total victories and 206 Big West wins.
CAL POLY SELECTED FIFTH IN BIG WEST PRESEASON POLL: A year after finishing third in the Big West standings with an 18-8 mark, Cal Poly was selected for a fifth-place finish during the 2025 season following the Jan. 30 release of the conference preseason coaches’ poll. The Mustangs earned 45 points to finish seven votes shy of Hawai’i. Long Beach State, last season’s Big West runner-up, took top spot in the poll with 81 total points and nine of 10 first-place votes. Defending champion Cal State Fullerton earned 63 points and the remaining first-place vote. UC Santa Barbara was third on 59 points.
Cal Poly opens its 28th year of Big West play when hosting CSUN for a March 8-9, three-game series. Action gets underway Saturday, March 8 with a 1 p.m. doubleheader.#RideHigh pic.twitter.com/VB3PFBqSyn
— Cal Poly Softball (@CalPolySoftball) March 3, 2025
