3-1
Washington State
1-3
Naess' Career-High 14 K's Power Cal Poly to 9-0 Home Opening Win
2/20/2026 11:15:00 PM | Baseball
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Junior right-hander Griffin Naess, whose career high for strikeouts in a game prior to Friday night was seven, accomplished twice in each of his first two seasons at Cal Poly, doubled that total in a solid seven-inning performance as Cal Poly opened its home schedule with a 9-0 whitewash of Washington State inside Baggett Stadium.
Naess struck out the side in the second, fifth and sixth innings and allowed just one hit, a one-out single by Max Hartman in the seventh, with no walks while Brady Estes and Troy Cooper each tossed a scoreless frame in relief as the trio combined for Cal Poly's first shutout of the season.
Cal Poly improved to 3-1 on the young season with the victory while Washington State fell to 1-3. The two teams met for the first time in baseball Friday night.
Shortstop Nate Castellon powered Cal Poly's 13-hit offensive attack with three singles and three runs scored. Alejandro Garza continued his hot start to the season with a single and double, knocking in two runs with his double in the second inning, and Braxton Thomas also produced a single and double, pushing across two runs in the first frame with a single.
Garza is hitting .471 (8-for-17) in his first four games of the season.
Cal Poly erupted for four runs in the first inning and never looked back, scoring twice more in the second and fourth frames and adding a final run in the seventh.
In the first, Casey Murray Jr. followed Thomas' two-run single with a run-scoring single to center field and Thomas came home when Cam Hoiland's fly ball to center field resulted in a double play.
Garza's two-run double in the second made it 6-0, a throwing error by the Cougars and an RBI single by Ryan Tayman pushed the advantage to 8-0 in the fourth and Xander McLaurin's pinch-hit RBI single in the seventh completed the scoring for the Mustangs.
The loss was charged to Cougar starter Luke Meyers (1-1), one week after earning the victory in a season-opening 8-4 triumph at Alabama. Against Cal Poly, Meyers allowed eight runs (six earned) and 10 hits over 3 2/3 innings.
Naess, Estes and Cooper combined for Cal Poly's 22nd two-hitter in the program's 32-year Division I history. Naess also was involved in another combined two-hitter with Jake Torres against Arizona in the NCAA Eugene Regional last June.
Second game of the four-game non-conference series will be played Saturday at 3:05 p.m. with Cal Poly junior right-hander Josh Volmerding (0-0, 6.75 ERA) to face Washington State sophomore southpaw Nick Lewis (0-1, 6.23 ERA).
Sunday's game begins at 1:05 p.m. with the series finale set for Monday at 5:05 p.m.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Naess, Griffin (1-1)
L: Meyers, Luke (1-1)
Batting:
2B: Thomas, Braxton 1 ; Garza, Alejandro 1
RBI: Murray Jr., Casey 1 ; Tayman, Ryan 1 ; Thomas, Braxton 2 ; McLaurin, Xander 1 ; Garza, Alejandro 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Tayman, Ryan 1 ; Thomas, Braxton 2 ; Garza, Alejandro 2 ; Vachini, Dante 1 ; Castellon, Nate 3
