Cal State Bakersfield
Mustangs Look to Get Back on Track Against Cal State Bakersfield
5/1/2025 5:00:00 PM | Baseball
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — The Cal Poly baseball team takes on Cal State Bakersfield this weekend while working to regain some ground at the top of the Big West.
Previously in Mustangs Baseball
Cal Poly (28-15, 15-6 BW) is on a four-game skid, its longest losing streak since five straight between February 23 to March 3 last season.
Last time out, Nate Castellon and Zach Daudet homered and Alejandro Garza added a run-scoring double, but the Mustangs fell 5-7 to Santa Clara, their first midweek loss this season.
Before that, the Mustangs suffered a setback in the conference after being swept (4-6, 0-4, 8-10) by UC Irvine at home, their first series loss to the Anteaters in four years. Despite tightly contesting all three games, Cal Poly is five games behind UC Irvine for the Big West regular season title due to the head-to-head tiebreaker.
In game one, Jack Collins went 2-for-4 and looked like his usual self with one home run, a double, and three RBIs in accounting for all but one of Cal Poly's runs, but the Mustangs gave up a pair of unanswered runs in the final two innings for the loss.
Left-handed starter Josh Volmerding (4-3) shouldered a tough 0-4 game-two loss to UC Irvine but posted a quality start (6.0 IP, 3 ER) while tallying a single-game career-high 11 strikeouts. Finally, in the final game, the Mustangs overcame 1-0, 4-1, and 5-4 deficits, but couldn't hold onto 7-5 and 8-7 leads in a UC Irvine comeback win.
Mustangs Riding High
In his 23rd season as head coach at Cal Poly, Larry Lee (698-548-2) is two victories shy of the 700-win milestone. He reached the 600-victory mark on April 22, 2022, with a 9-0 nod over UC Riverside.
Cal Poly’s stats did not take a huge hit over the 1-3 week, as the program still averages .301 batting as a team and leads the conference with 459 hits, respectively 51st and 36th in Division I baseball.
The Mustangs are also 14th in the country for fielding percentage (.980) and are tied at 17th for least errors committed.
Collins is second in the conference with 12 runners caught stealing, while Casey Murray Jr., also filling in the shoes of a Mustang great (Jake Steels), has been statistically perfect from center field this season (1.000 FLD%) and is one of just 12 eligible players in the Big West to be errorless.
True freshman and Brooks Wallace National Shortstop Award watch list honoree Nate Castellon led the Mustangs offensively last week (6-for-12, 6 RBI). The lynchpin to Cal Poly’s small ball effectiveness, Castellon added another pair of sacrifice knocks last week, which puts him at 8th in the country with 11 total on the season.
For the season, first baseman Zach Daudet leads the Mustangs with a .381 average while Garza is hitting .346 and Hoiland .337. The pitching rotation for the weekend series at Cal State Bakersfield is expected to be the same with sophomore right-hander Griffin Naess (3-2, 3.79 ERA) on Friday, sophomore southpaw Josh Volmerding (4-3, 5.15 ERA) on Saturday and sophomore righty Ethan Marmie (4-3, 5.40 ERA) on Sunday.
Previewing Cal State Bakersfield
Cal Poly head coach Larry Lee is 28-13 against CSU Bakersfield while Roadrunners head coach Jordon Banfield is 0-0 against Cal Poly.
Banfield is in his first season at Cal State Bakersfield, replacing Jeremy Beard, who compiled a 153-233 win-loss record in eight seasons. Banfield has over 20 years of coaching experience, including the last four as head coach at Oakland University.
Cal Poly is 28-15 for the season and second in the Big West with an RPI of 30 entering this weekend’s series against the host Roadrunners. Games on Friday and Saturday begin at 6:35 p.m. with Sunday’s series finale set for a 1:05 p.m. start.
Cal State Bakersfield is 17-29 on the season and 8-13, tied for eighth place with UC Davis in the Big West. The Roadrunners, who did not play a midweek game this week, lost two of three games at Hawai’i last weekend, taking the opener 7-6 in 10 innings before dropping the final two contests of the series by 5-4 and 11-4 decisions.
Cal State Bakersfield has lost six of its last eight games since a 7-0 win at Pacific on April 15. The Roadrunners, who lost 20 of their first 28 games this season, own series wins against UC San Diego and UC Riverside
Cal Poly won two of three games against Cal State Bakersfield a year ago in Baggett Stadium, building its record against the Roadrunners to 28 wins and 13 losses. The two teams have played each other at least twice every year since the Roadrunners launched their baseball program in 2009 except in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cal Poly won the first five games of the series and claimed 16 of 18 contests from 2012 through 2019 before the Roadrunners swept a four-game series in 2021 at Bakersfield.
Former Mustang first baseman/designated hitter Evan Cloyd, a graduate of Bakersfield Christian High School, is hitting .248 for the Roadrunners and has been hit by a pitch a Big West-leading 26 times this season.
Last year, the Mustangs earned 7-2 and 5-4 (11 innings) victories sandwiched around a 5-0 Roadrunner shutout. Ryan Verdugo and Nick Perryman combined for the seven-hit shutout — Verdugo striking out six in seven innings of work. Verdugo was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 12th round last summer while Perryman is a junior with the Roadrunners this spring.
Two years ago in Bakersfield, Collin Villegas doubled four times in Cal Poly’s 10-4 series-opening win, before the Roadrunners earned 5-4 and 4-3 walk-off victories. In 2022, Cal Poly swept the three-game Big West series, 14-1, 6-2, and 4-2 at Baggett Stadium.
