San Jose State
Cal Poly Looks to Snap Skid while Hosting San Jose State Tuesday
4/6/2026 4:15:00 PM | Baseball
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Two baseball teams eager to get back in the win column face each other Tuesday afternoon as Cal Poly hosts San Jose State for a single non-conference midweek game.
First pitch is set for 5:05 p.m. inside Baggett Stadium. The game 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.
Both the Mustangs and Spartans have lost six of their last nine games.
UC Santa Barbara swept Cal Poly (17-13) in a Big West series over the weekend at Baggett Stadium by scores of 6-0, 4-2 and 12-4. San Jose State (13-18) dropped two of three games at home to Washington State, taking the opener 8-5 before falling 5-3 and 6-3.
The Mustangs and Spartans were scheduled to meet Feb. 17 at Excite Ballpark but the game was rained out. No makeup date has been set.
Center fielder Casey Murray Jr. had a 17-game hitting streak snapped last week but still leads all Cal Poly hitters with a .348 average (eight doubles, four triples, four home runs, 17 RBIs). Shortstop Nate Castellon is next at .333 (13 doubles, 12 RBIs) followed by catcher Ryan Tayman at .327 (10 home runs, 31 RBIs).
San Jose State's top hitter is right fielder Alex Fernandez with a .422 mark, including 10 doubles, four home runs and 16 RBIs, followed by left fielder Jake McCoy (.328) and second baseman Peyton Rowles (.325).
Cal Poly is expected to start freshman right-hander Sean McGrath (0-2, 11.08 ERA) while San Jose State will counter with junior right-hander Tyler Albanese (1-0, 6.91 ERA), a second-team All-Mountain West honoree a year ago with a 4-3 record and 2.97 ERA.
The Mustangs won both midweek games versus the Spartans a year ago by 18-4 and 8-5 scores. Right fielder Dylan Kordic hit two home runs in one inning and knocked in a total of four runs in the first game and drove in three runs with two singles in the rematch.
Despite losing its last four games against Cal Poly, San Jose State still leads in the all-time series, 53-51-1. Cal Poly is 28-27-1 against San Jose State since the Mustangs moved to Division I prior to the 1995 season. Larry Lee is 21-11-1 against San Jose State while Spartan head coach Brad Sanfilippo is 3-7 against Cal Poly.
San Jose State has made five NCAA appearances, the last time in 2023 at the Stanford Regional. The Spartans earned Western Athletic Conference regular-season titles in 2000 and 2009 and captured their first Mountain West crown in 2023, ending a 21-year drought. The Spartans' lone College World Series appearance was in 2000.
Sanfilippo (ninth season, 186-243, UC Davis '99), a former San Jose State assistant baseball coach, was named interim head coach with the Spartans in late January 2018. Sanfilippo was an assistant coach at San Jose State in 2013 and 2014 and also was an assistant coach at Cal for the 2010 through 2012 and 2015 through 2017 seasons.
Lee is 730-565-2 in 23-plus seasons with the Mustangs and, combined with his 16 seasons at Cuesta College, is 1,193-803-5 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 plays its next two weekend series on the road, visiting No. 7 Oregon State for a three-game non-conference set Friday through Sunday and Big West leader UC San Diego for a three-game conference series April 17-19.
