UC Irvine
Mustang Baseball Kicks Off Eight-Game Away Stint at UC Irvine
4/29/2026 1:20:00 PM | Baseball
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly enters the stretch run of its 2026 baseball season with back-to-back weekend road trips to UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton for three-game Big West Conference series.
The Mustangs' eight-game excursion away from Baggett Stadium begins Friday night with the first of three games against 2025 regular season champion UC Irvine. First pitch is set for 6 p.m., followed by 1 o'clock contests Saturday and Sunday.
All three games on Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark will be video streamed on ESPN+ and links for that along with live stats can be found on the Cal Poly baseball schedule page at GoPoly.com.
The road trip continues next Tuesday with a rematch at Santa Clara, a three-game Big West series at Cal State Fullerton next weekend and the last of three midweek games against Fresno State on May 12 at Pete Beiden Field.
UC Irvine claimed the 2021 Big West title and was second in 2024. Cal State Fullerton captured six conference crowns from 2010-18.
"Every conference game is important," said 24th-year Cal Poly head coach Larry Lee. "At this point in the season, you have a clear idea of what needs to be accomplished. We get to play two high-end teams on the road the next two weeks before ending the season at home."
Cal Poly, 25-18 overall after Tuesday's 7-0 triumph against Santa Clara, enters the upcoming weekend atop the Big West standings at 15-6, one game ahead of UC San Diego (14-7). UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Fullerton share third place with 13-8 marks.
UC Irvine is 19-23 for the season following its 4-1 triumph over No. 21 USC on Tuesday. The Anteaters are tied for seventh in the Big West with Cal State Bakersfield and UC Riverside, all with 9-12 conference records. The trio of teams are just one game behind fifth-place Hawaii.
Top five teams in the Big West advance to the conference tournament May 20-24 on Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark.
Not counting the 2020 season cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, UC Irvine has won 32 or more games for seven consecutive years, all winning campaigns. Included in the run are 45 victories in 2024 and 43 wins in both 2021 and 2025.
But the Anteaters have struggled in 2026. After winning their first five games -- three against Sacramento State and one each versus San Diego State and Cal, UC Irvine has lost 23 of its last 37 contests. In Big West play, the Anteaters own just two series wins against UC Davis and Long Beach State and will close the regular season versus UC Riverside and Cal State Bakersfield.
Cal Poly has won six of its seven conference series played so far, including sweeps against Hawai'i, Cal State Bakersfield and, last weekend, CSUN by scores of 8-5, 5-4 and 5-2.
Riding High
The Mustangs are No. 1 in the conference in hitting with a .306 batting average while UC Irvine is ninth at .244. The Mustangs (4.90 ERA) and Anteaters (5.10 ERA) are fifth and sixth in pitching respectively and UC Irvine tops the 11-team conference with its .977 fielding percentage and 34 errors in 42 games. Cal Poly is seventh at .973 and 42 miscues in 43 contests.
Cal Poly's 116 doubles are the most in the Big West and No. 3 in the nation, behind only Texas Tech (123) and Kansas State (117). The Mustangs also lead the conference in hits (473) and triples (13). Individual leaders include Alejandro Garza in hits (71) and at bats (197), Ryan Tayman in RBIs (44), total chances (427), putouts (383) and caught steals (112), and Nick Bonn in saves (11).
Cal Poly, which hit .330 in the CSUN series, sports a .335 average in Big West games and .306 overall, producing double-digit hits in 10 of its last 11 games. The Mustangs have notched 14 come-from-behind wins in 2026.
Top Mustang hitter is Garza with a .360 average, including 17 doubles, five home runs and 39 RBIs. He also leads the club with 21 multiple-hit contests and has 234 hits in three seasons at Cal Poly, 18 shy of Jimmy Allen’s program standard of 252, set from 2011 to 2014.
Next is sophomore shortstop Nate Castellon at .351 after his ninth three-hit game of the season — two singles and his fourth home run of the year — Tuesday versus Santa Clara.
Tayman is hitting .329 with 11 doubles and leads the team with 13 home runs and 44 RBIs while fifth-year senior center fielder Casey Murray Jr. owns a .323 average with nine doubles, four home runs and 18 RBIs. Freshman infielder Gavin Spiridonoff has a .304 average while right fielder Dylan Kordic, also a fifth-year senior, has gone 20-for-51 (.392) in his last 17 games with five home runs and 20 RBIs, and currently sports a .290 mark at the plate..
Two UC Irvine regulars are hitting above the .300 mark. Left fielder Daniel Polasek, sidelined six weeks due to an injury in the opening game of the year, has compiled a .367 average in 14 games with five doubles and 12 RBIs while right fielder Frankie Carney is hitting .301 in 40 contests with eight doubles, 17 RBIs and 10 steals in 12 attempts.
Lee is expected to start on the mound junior Griffin Naess (5-2, 4.37 ERA) on Friday, redshirt junior Carson Turnquist (4-2, 3.88 ERA) on Saturday and righty Corden Pettey (3-2, 4.86 ERA) on Sunday. All are right-handers.
Eighth-year UC Irvine head coach Ben Orloff plans to start junior right-hander Trevor Hansen (4-4, 4.65 ERA) on Friday and redshirt senior right-hander Finnegan Wall (3-3, 3.80 ERA) on Saturday. The Anteaters' Sunday starter has not been announced.
Matchup & History
UC Irvine has qualified for the NCAA regionals 16 times (nine in Division I), compiling a 33-23 win-loss record in Division I postseason competition and qualifying for the College World Series in 2007 and 2014. The Anteaters, who discontinued baseball from 1993-2001, won the Big West title in 2009 and 2021 and the regular season crown in 2025.
Cal Poly and UC Irvine have met 73 times on the baseball field since the series began when both teams were Southern California Baseball Alliance members back in 1977. The Anteaters hold a 41-35 advantage. Cal Poly won two of three games against UC Irvine three consecutive years before the Anteaters swept the Mustangs in 2025 at Baggett Stadium. Cal Poly won two of three games versus UC Irvine a month later at the Big West Conference Championship.
Cal Poly is 32-41 against UC Irvine since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Larry Lee is 31-39 against UC Irvine while Ben Orloff is 12-10 versus Cal Poly.
Orloff (eighth season, 265-137, UC Irvine '09), a three-year All-American shortstop at UC Irvine, was hired in July 2018 as the ninth head coach in Anteater program history. Orloff initially joined the coaching staff in 2014 as an assistant, rising to associate head coach. He was the program's first Big West Player of the Year, won the 2009 Brooks Wallace Award and was also the first Anteater player to win an American Baseball Coaches Association Gold Glove award.
Orloff, a lifetime .320 hitter at UC Irvine, also was named to two NCAA Tournament teams and helped UC Irvine to four postseason berths. He holds the NCAA single-season mark of 34 sacrifice bunts set in 2007 and in a career with 86. Orloff was drafted in the ninth round by the Houston Astros and climbed to Double-A Corpus Christi before moving into the coaching ranks.
Orloff was also a participant in the World Baseball Classic in 2012 as a member of Team Israel. Orloff replaced Mike Gillespie, who was 1,156-720-2 in 31 seasons as a college head coach — 20 years at USC and 11 more at UC Irvine. Gillespie was head coach at College of the Canyons for 16 seasons, played left field on USC's 1961 national championship team and passed away in 2020.
Lee is 738-570-2 in 23-plus seasons with the Mustangs and, combined with his 16 seasons at Cuesta College, is 1,198-811-5 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.
Mustang Notes
Cal Poly is 6-2 in midweek games this season, following last year's 9-1 mark ... Cal Poly is seven games above the .500 mark for the second time this year; the Mustangs were 14-7 following their 10-game win streak from March 3-22 ... Cal Poly, 12-0 four weeks into Big West play a year ago, jumped to an 8-0 start in conference games this spring ... Mustang head coach Larry Lee is two wins shy of the 1,200 mark for his coaching career -- 460 wins in 16 seasons at Cuesta College and 738 wins in 24 years at Cal Poly ... in addition to his 234 career hits (tied for No. 6 with Bryan Gant), Garza also is No. 11 in career at-bats (664), tied for No. 17 in career runs scored (119) and tied for No. 14 in career doubles (44) ... Naess is tied for No. 8 in career starts (39), No. 11 in career wins (19), No. 18 in career innings pitched (223 2/3) and No. 19 in career strikeouts (183) ... Nick Bonn is tied for No. 4 in single-season saves (11) and tied for No. 6 in career saves (11).
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