Cal State Bakersfield
Mustangs Host `Runners and Continue Homestand Against Central Valley Foes
3/12/2026 11:35:00 AM | Baseball
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly continues its seven-game home stand as well as a four-game stretch of playing baseball teams from the Central Valley this week, hosting Cal State Bakersfield for a three-game weekend Big West series inside Baggett Stadium.
First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m. Friday, 3:05 p.m. Saturday and 1:05 p.m. Sunday. All three games will be streamed on ESPN+ with Chris Sylvester providing the play-by-play. Links for the video stream as well as live stats can be found on the baseball schedule page at GoPoly.com.
Coach Larry Lee's Mustangs defeated Fresno State 13-3 on Tuesday to stretch their current winning streak to five games and will host UC Davis for another Big West series next weekend, closing out the home stand.
Cal Poly sports a 9-7 overall mark and began conference play last weekend by sweeping Hawai'i on the islands by scores of 6-2, 10-7 in 11 innings and 7-3. Cal State Bakersfield is 7-10 on the year after claiming one of three Big West games at home versus Cal State Fullerton.
The Roadrunners opened their 2026 campaign by splitting four home games against Southern Indiana, then competed in the Kleberg Classic at Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi, Texas, defeating both Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Long Beach State while falling to Pitt. Cal State Bakersfield lost two of three games at Texas Tech two weeks ago and is 0-3 in midweek games against Utah Tech, Saint Mary's and Cal.
Hitting just .236 en route to a 4-7 mark, Cal Poly has turned things around offensively, starting with a 12-2 triumph over Pepperdine on March 3 to ignite its current five-game winning streak. The Mustangs have compiled a .314 team batting average during the run with 60 hits, 28 of them for extra bases.
Catcher Ryan Tayman is 9-for-18 (.500) in his last five games with nine RBIs, belting a grand slam in Tuesday's win over Fresno State. Designated hitter Braxton Thomas is 8-for-17 (.471) with five RBIs during the team's hot stretch, which includes his first four-hit game as a Mustang versus the Bulldogs.
Infielder Gavin Spiridonoff (7-for-16, .438, three RBIs) and outfielder Cam Hoiland (7-for-17, .412, five RBIs) also have elevated their season batting averages in recent games.
The pitching staff has prevailed despite some adversity.
Saturday starter Laif Palmer is out for the season after suffering a double ankle fracture trying to set his feet on the artificial turf at Les Murakami Stadium for a throw to first base. Sunday starter Josh Volmerding, who missed his start two weeks ago in the USC series due to injury, secured the first five outs Sunday at Hawai'i before he was removed from the mound for the same injury.
Enter freshman right-hander Corden Pettey on Saturday and junior righty Carson Turnquist on Sunday. Pettey threw 6 2/3 innings in relief of Palmer and scattered seven hits with three runs allowed and 10 strikeouts while Turnquist relieved Volmerding in the second inning the next day and pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings for the victory, scattering three hits with two walks and three strikeouts.
Junior right-hander Griffin Naess (2-1, 1.44 ERA), named to the College Baseball Foundation's National Pitcher of the Year Watch List earlier this week, will start Friday's game against the Roadrunners, followed by Pettey (1-1, 4.32 ERA) on Saturday and Volmerding (0-0, 6.48 ERA) on Sunday.
Cal State Bakersfield will counter with sophomore Ryan King (0-1, 7.50 ERA) on Friday, junior Shane McAlinden (1-3, 11.94 ERA) on Saturday and junior Roman Bracamonte (0-1, 13.97) on Sunday. All are right-handers.
Cal Poly's top hitters through 16 games are Castellon (.319, eight doubles, five RBIs), center fielder Casey Murray Jr. (.295, four doubles, three triples, two home runs, six RBIs) and Tayman (.293, four doubles, three home runs, 14 RBIs). Thomas (.286) has knocked in 11 runs and Garza (.278) has 15 RBIs.
The Roadrunners are paced offensively by first baseman Evan Cloyd with a .419 mark, four home runs and 23 RBIs, outfielder Elgin Bennett at .366 with three home runs and 10 RBIs, designated hitter Kamoa Morisaki with a .350 average, four home runs and 12 RBIs, and shortstop Elijah Pelayo at .333 with 10 RBIs.
Cloyd, who played for the Mustangs in 2023 and 2024, and was hit by a pitch 33 times a year ago with the Roadrunners, one off the national lead, has been plunked 12 times so far this season. He has been hit by a pitch 65 times in his collegiate career.
A year ago, Cal Poly visited Hardt Field and swept all three games against the Roadrunners by scores of 4-1, 9-5 and 12-6. Castellon was nine-for-14 with a triple, five RBIs, and three runs scored in the series while Garza finished eight-for-15 with three doubles, four runs scored, and four RBIs. Second baseman Ryan Fenn had six hits and Hoiland and Murray each produced five hits.
With the sweep in 2025, Cal Poly improved its overall mark against Cal State Bakersfield to 31 wins against 13 losses. The two teams have played each other at least twice every year since the Roadrunners launched their baseball program in 2009 with the exception of 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.
Three years ago in Bakersfield, Collin Villegas doubled four times in Cal Poly’s 10-4 series-opening win, tying a school record. In addition, Cal Poly rallied from an 8-0 deficit to beat the Roadrunners 11-8 in 2018 at Hardt Field, the largest comeback in the program's Division I history.
Lee is 31-13 against CSU Bakersfield while Roadrunners head coach Jordon Banfield is 0-3 against Cal Poly.
Banfield (second season, 25-48, Michigan '08) has over 20 years of coaching experience, including four as head coach at Oakland University before he replaced Jeremy Beard at Cal State Bakersfield prior to the 2025 season. Banfield also has coached at Akron, Texas Rio Grande Valley and the University of Illinois at Springfield. A native of Ann Arbor, Mich., he earned second-team all-state honors as a player at the Greenhills School before obtaining his bachelor's degree in sports management at Michigan in 2008.
In his 24th season at Cal Poly, Lee has compiled a 722-559-2 record with the Mustangs and, combined with his 16 seasons at Cuesta College, is 1,182-800-5 overall as a head coach. He guided Cal Poly to the Big West tournament crown in 2025 with a 4-1 mark and his program's fourth trip to the NCAA postseason, going 2-2 in the NCAA Eugene Regional.
