UC Santa Barbara
Cal Poly Hosts UC Santa Barbara for Annual Blue-Green Baseball Series
4/1/2026 3:30:00 PM | Baseball
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara, two of the top baseball teams in the Big West, renew the Blue-Green Rivalry with a three-game conference series Thursday through Saturday inside Baggett Stadium.
Coach Larry Lee's Mustangs sit in first place in the Big West standings at 10-2 after winning two of three games at UC Riverside last weekend. The Mustangs are a half-game ahead of UC San Diego (8-1). Andrew Checketts' Gauchos are third with a 5-4 mark, playing out of conference last weekend and winning one of three games at home against No. 20 Oregon.
In midweek games Tuesday, Ryan Tayman homered twice, including a sixth-inning grand slam, and six Mustang pitchers held Fresno State to just six hits in a 10-4 victory on the road. UC Santa Barbara (16-10 overall) fell 7-6 to No. 12 USC in Los Angeles.
Due to Easter Sunday, this weekend's series will be played Thursday through Saturday with first pitches set for 6:05 p.m. both Thursday and Friday and 1:05 p.m. on Saturday. Max Kelton will provide the play-by-play on ESPN+. Links for the video streams and live stats can be found on the baseball schedule page at GoPoly.com.
Cal Poly (17-10 overall) has won each of its four Big West series played so far, sweeping Hawai'i and Cal State Bakersfield before posting 2-1 series triumphs against UC Davis and UC Riverside. The Mustangs own a .353 team batting average in conference games only with 62 extra-base hits, including 38 doubles and 16 home runs.
Individually, center fielder Casey Murray Jr. is hitting .451 in Big West games and carries a 17-game hitting streak into this weekend's series. Shortstop Nate Castellon sports a .373 conference mark, second baseman Alejandro Garza .356, right fielder Cam Hoiland .353 and Tayman .348.
After opening the season by losing two of three games at No. 20 Southern Mississippi, UC Santa Barbara reeled off 13 consecutive wins, sweeping Portland and Utah in non-conference series and winning a pair of midweek games against Loyola Marymount before opening Big West play with a sweep of Long Beach State.
The Gauchos, however, lost two of three conference games at UC Davis and at home versus Hawai'i before losing twice in three games at Oregon last weekend. UCSB was 14-2 after Jackson Flora and Raymond Olivas combined on a two-hit shutout at UC Davis on March 13, but since then the Gauchos have lost eight of 10 contests.
Cal Poly also had a long winning streak, claiming 10 straight games. The Mustangs snapped a six-game losing skid with a win versus Pepperdine, followed by sweeps against Hawai'i and Cal State Bakersfield, a midweek victory over Fresno State and capturing the first two games of their series versus UC Davis.
Flora (5-0, 0.83 ERA), a junior right-hander and one of the nation's premier pitchers, will start Thursday's game for the Gauchos, followed by sophomore righty Nathan Aceves (2-1, 3.79 ERA) on Friday and senior right-hander Kellen Montgomery (4-2, 3.65 ERA) on Saturday.
Cal Poly will counter with junior right-hander Griffin Naess (4-1, 3.69 ERA), freshman righty Corden Pettey (2-2, 5.70 ERA) and redshirt junior right-hander Carson Turnquist (2-0-, 2.89 ERA) from Thursday through Saturday, respectively.
With double-digit hits in 13 of its last 17 games, Cal Poly has elevated its overall batting average to .301 (tops in the Big West), led by Murray at .362, Castellon at .339, Hoiland at .338 and Garza and Tayman, both with .333 marks. Castellon's 13 doubles is No. 7 in the nation.
Nine Mustangs have double-digit RBIs for the season, Tayman leading the way with 30 and Garza 25. Garza also is one of three Mustangs with fewer than 10 strikeouts. His 16.9 average in strikeouts per at-bat is No. 15 in the nation, Castellon is No. 3 with a 36.3 average and Hoiland is 62nd with a 9.6 average.
Tayman landed on the Buster Posey Award's midseason watch list this week and is the reigning Big West Field Player of the Week while Naess earned a spot on College Baseball Foundation's National Pitcher of the Year Watch List two weeks ago.
UC Santa Barbara's top hitters are center fielder Colin Beazizo with a .358 average, right fielder Rowan Kelly at .354 and third baseman William Vasseur with a .323 mark. First baseman Nick Husovsky (.260) leads the Gauchos with five home runs and 19 RBIs.
UC Santa Barbara claimed Big West titles in 1972, 1986, 2019, 2022 and 2024 and has qualified for the NCAA Division I regionals 14 times, including seven in the last 13 years (2013, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2024). The Gauchos own a 17-32 win-loss record in Division I postseason competition, including 6-2 in 2016 en route to regional and super regional triumphs and a berth in the College World Series.
Checketts is in his 15th season as head coach at UC Santa Barbara and has compiled a 507-274-5 record thus far. He spent three seasons as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator under George Horton at Oregon before coming to UC Santa Barbara.
Checketts was on the UC Riverside staff for seven years and began his coaching career at Riverside Community College, where he served as pitching coach and helped the team to their second consecutive California State championship in 2001. Checketts played one season at Florida and three at Oregon State.
Lee is 730-562-2 in 23-plus seasons with the Mustangs and, combined with his 16 seasons at Cuesta College, is 1,190-803-5 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.
Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara have met 250 times on the baseball field since the series began when both teams were California Collegiate Athletic Association members back in 1942. The Gauchos hold a 134-116 advantage following a trio of 2-1 series wins in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
UCSB has won 15 of its last 19 meetings against Cal Poly, bouncing back from a 4-3 loss in the 2025 series opener with 5-4 and 4-0 victories at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium.
The Mustangs swept UC Santa Barbara three straight years from 2016-18. Needing another sweep in 2019 in Santa Barbara to claim a share of the Big West title and the automatic qualifying spot in the postseason, Cal Poly won the first two games by 3-0 and 4-3 scores before the Gauchos clinched the title and playoff berth with a 7-0 victory in the series finale.
Cal Poly is 62-59 against UCSB since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Lee is 46-38 against UC Santa Barbara while Checketts is 22-24 against Cal Poly.
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