CSUN
Mustangs in Northridge for Penultimate Big West Series
5/8/2025 5:30:00 PM | Baseball
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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — With two wins over the Matadors this weekend, Cal Poly baseball has the opportunity to guarantee a top-3 seed in the Big West Championship and avoid the play-in game.
The Mustangs (32-15, 18-6 BW) sit two games behind the Big West leader UC Irvine but just as many ahead of third-place Cal State Fullerton. UC San Diego, at 13 conference wins in fourth place with six games remaining, is the only team that can mathematically push Cal Poly out of a top-3 spot, but the Mustangs need to win just two games the rest of the way to solidify their place.
Even so, Cal Poly’s regular season title hopes are not yet over as the Mustangs take on the conference’s bottom two teams to wrap up the season while UC Irvine finishes its year with Cal State Fullerton next weekend.
Per the Big West, five teams make the tournament. The action from Goodwin Field in Fullerton, Calif., begins at Noon on Wednesday, May 21, with a single-elimination game between the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds. The remaining four teams will compete in a double-elimination format beginning on Thursday, May 22, with three more games contested on Friday, May 23. The championship will be at 3 pm on Saturday, May 24, with a national postseason berth on the line. The "if necessary" finale rematch will take place on May 25.
Congrats to Nate Castellon on his Big West Field Player of the Week nod! ??
— Cal Poly Baseball (@CalPolyBSB) May 5, 2025
The Brooks Wallace National Shortstop Award watchlist honoree went 10-for-18 (.556 AVG) last week with 8 RBIs and a perfect 1.000% fielding percentage! ??#RideHigh pic.twitter.com/d40iIpigf2
What a way to wrap up the midweek slate with seven runs in the eighth inning!
— Cal Poly Baseball (@CalPolyBSB) May 7, 2025
Downing, Murray Jr., and Kordic all tallied multiple RBIs as Torres earned the win with 1 and 2/3 hitless innings.#RideHigh pic.twitter.com/l4GagCQG1y
Previously in Mustang Baseball
After suffering a four-game skid to UC Irvine and Santa Clara, the Mustangs responded with a series sweep of Cal State Bakersfield (4-1, 9-5, 12-6). Cal Poly enjoyed stellar pitching from starters Griffin Naess and Josh Volmerding, who earned wins after giving up just one run apiece.
In game one of the Bakersfield series, Cal Poly was held scoreless for eight innings before opening up in the ninth for four runs to earn its 15th come-from-behind win of the season in the 4-1 Friday victory.
A six-run third-inning rally in the Saturday contest led to a 9-5 win, which gave head coach Larry Lee his 700th career victory. With the Mustangs reaching the 30-win mark, it was the quickest since their 2014 Big West Conference championship season and the 13th time under Lee.
Dante Vachini and Nate Castellon combined for six hits and six RBIs as Cal Poly completed the sweep with a 12-6 win on Sunday, which wrapped the series and put the Mustangs one step closer to UC Irvine in first as the Anteaters lost two-of-three to UC San Diego.
Most recently, five Mustangs produced multiple-hit games as Cal Poly rallied in the eighth inning against Pepperdine for seven runs and a 12-5 win, their fourth straight victory and 14th time putting up double-digit runs. Highlighting the rally were two-run singles by Casey Murray and Dylan Kordic and a run-scoring double by Nate Castellon.
Mustangs Riding High
Nate Castellon earned Big West Field Player of the Week honors after Cal Poly’s 3-1 week, going 10-for-18 (.556 batting average) with four runs, one triple, a home run, and eight RBIs. Alongside his team-leading offensive contributions, the shortstop was also perfect from the infield with a 1.000 fielding percentage on 25 chances, pacing all Mustangs with 15 assists.
Castellon, Alejandro Garza, and Dante Vachini all hit above .500 and slugged over .700 in the Bakersfield series, which included a trio of doubles from Garza and the three players combining for over half of the team’s 23 RBIs through the weekend.
Cal Poly is now hitting .307 as a team, leading the Big West and 28th in Division I baseball. The Mustangs are also 15th with 515 hits, but they are even better defensively at 10th in the nation (.981 fielding percentage).
Garza’s 72 hits are already better than his 2024 total, but also rank 31st in the country while tying for the conference lead with UC Irvine’s Colin Yeaman. The reigning Big West Freshman Field Player of the Year also overtook Jack Collins for the team lead with 16 doubles. He
remains the 12th toughest batter to strike out in Division I baseball.
Eight consistent Mustang starting batters are hitting at least .275, while six average at least .300, with Castellon (.365), Garza (.364), and Zach Daudet (.361) leading the pack.
Improving his record on the season to 4-2 last Friday, Griffin Naess retired the CSUB side in order three times and finished with one walk and one strikeout, scattering five hits over eight innings. He leads Mustang starters with a 3.49 ERA, good for sixth in the Big West.
Volmerding tossed five-of-six scoreless innings during his Saturday victory, finishing with nine strikeouts and scattering six hits with one walk. He has struck out eight or more batters four times this season and is tied for sixth in the conference with 66 total K’s this season.
Previewing CSUN
The Matadors (13-30, 8-16 BW) are second to last in the Big West standings but have won their last two conference series against Long Beach State and UC Riverside, while their season results also include a series win against Hawai’i.
Cal Poly paces CSUN 27-13 since 2011 and has taken seven of the last ten series, but trails 117-128 in the all-time series. Last season saw the Mustangs outscore the Matadors 30-19 in a 2-1 series victory.
Senior infielder Roberto Gonzalez easily leads CSUN’s offense this season, placing in the top-10 of the Big West for batting average (.353), slugging (.604), and on-base percentage (.477), and paces the conference with eight triples. He took just two at-bats against Cal Poly last season, nabbing one hit.
CSUN, surprisingly like Cal Poly, is a deep hitting club, as there are ten Matadors with 20 or more hits this season, and the team as a whole is hitting a respectable .274, right in the middle of the conference. Where CSUN has majorly struggled, however, is due to its 8.57 staff ERA, ranked 274th in the nation.
Cal Poly and CSUN will play a different schedule than the Mustangs are used to, with Friday set for 5:30 pm, Saturday 4:30 pm, and Sunday 1:00 pm. As of right now, Griffin Naess vs. Jon Mocherman on Friday is the only known pitching matchup with both teams potentially looking for something different.
