32-21, 21-8
Long Beach State
17-34, 11-18
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Runs R | Hits H | Errors E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long Beach State | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Cal Poly | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 6 | 12 | 2 |
Mustangs Take LBSU Series and Stay Alive in Big West Regular Season Title Race
5/16/2026 12:40:00 AM | Baseball
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Carson Turnquist and Chris Downs combined on a three-hitter and six different players drove in runs as Cal Poly clinched its Big West baseball series against Long Beach State with a 6-2 victory Friday night before the largest crowd of the 2026 season inside Baggett Stadium.
Turnquist (7-2) struck out nine Dirtbags, six of them looking, over six innings, giving up two runs (one earned) and a pair of hits for his seventh victory of the year. Downs earned his second save with three scoreless innings of one-hit relief, notching a pair of strikeouts.
An RBI triple by Casey Murray Jr., run-scoring doubles off the bats of Dylan Kordic and Cam Hoiland, run-producing singles by Ryan Tayman and Dante Vachini and a grounder to second base by Alejandro Garza accounted for Cal Poly's six runs, all in the first three innings of the game.
In front of 2,923 fans, the ninth-largest Baggett Stadium crowd since the facility opened in 2001, Cal Poly clinched a Big West series for the ninth time in 10 tries this season. The Mustangs also won nine of 10 conference series in 2025 and have claimed 26 of 30 Big West series over the last three years.
Cal Poly also kept pace with UC Santa Barbara atop the Big West standings, both with 21-8 records. The Gauchos defeated UC Riverside 15-5 on Friday. Should the two Central Coast rivals remain tied after Saturday's games, both teams will be declared co-champions, but UC Santa Barbara will be the top seed for next week's conference tournament at UC Irvine.
UC San Diego (18-11) is the No. 3 seed while Hawai'i (16-14) has locked up the fourth seed. The fifth and final team in the field will be decided Saturday with Cal State Fullerton (14-15), UC Irvine (13-16) and UC Davis (14-16) still alive for the last berth. UC Davis owns the tiebreaker in a two-way tie with Cal State Fullerton by virtue of its sweep two weeks ago and the Aggies also own the tiebreaker if they finish in a three-way tie with the Titans and Anteaters.
Cal Poly jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back. The double by Kordic and Tayman's single up the middle accounted for the two tallies.
Both teams scored a run in the second frame. After Long Beach State trimmed the deficit to 2-1 on Ty Borgogno's single to right, singles by Gavin Spiridonoff and Nate Castellon set up Garza's run-scoring grounder to second base in the bottom of the inning.
The Mustangs scored three times in the third for a 6-1 advantage. Murray's triple down the left-field line notched the first run, Hoiland doubled to the same spot for the second run and Vachini singled to right field to cap the rally.
The Dirtbags scored the game's final run in the sixth on a two-out home run to left field by Conner Stewart, his second of the series and second of the year.
Cal Poly's bats were silenced by lefty Jaxon Baker, who pitched five scoreless innings in relief of starter Luke Howe and gave up just three hits and a walk with five strikeouts.
Turnquist was putting up a lot of zeroes on the scoreboard as well, with his final six strikeouts all looking in the fourth and fifth frames. Turnquist also hit three Dirtbag batters, but none was allowed to score.
Howe (5-4) suffered the loss, giving up all six runs and nine hits in three innings of work with no walks and a pair of strikeouts.
Tayman paced Cal Poly's 12-hit offensive attack with two singles and a double. Hoiland added a pair of doubles, both to the opposite field. Long Beach State's three hits included the home run by Stewart, a double by Dylan Lina and a single by Borgogno.
Cal Poly has won five straight games and 14 of its last 19 contests.
Final game of the regular season for both teams will be played Saturday at 1:05 p.m. Cal Poly will send junior southpaw Josh Volmerding (0-0, 6.92 ERA) to the mound, facing Long Beach State freshman right-hander Jason Gerfers (3-7, 5.35 ERA).
The Mustangs will honor their six seniors in a pregame ceremony — Kordic, Hoiland, Murray, Xander McLaurin, Erik Kvidahl and Nick Bonn.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Turnquist, Carson (7-2)
L: Howe, Luke (5-4)
S: Downs, Chris (2)
Batting:
2B: Lina, Dylan 1
HR: Stewart, Conner 1
RBI: Borgogno, Ty 1 ; Stewart, Conner 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Stewart, Conner 1 ; Turner, Murchael 1
HBP: Roulston, Justin 1 ; Stewart, Conner 1 ; Turner, Murchael 1
Batting:
2B: Kordic, Dylan 1 ; Hoiland, Cam 2 ; Tayman, Ryan 1
3B: Murray Jr., Casey 1
RBI: Murray Jr., Casey 1 ; Kordic, Dylan 1 ; Garza, Alejandro 1 ; Vachini, Dante 1 ; Hoiland, Cam 1 ; Tayman, Ryan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Kordic, Dylan 1 ; Garza, Alejandro 1 ; Vachini, Dante 1 ; Spiridonoff, Gavin 1 ; Hoiland, Cam 1 ; Tayman, Ryan 1
SB: Vachini, Dante 1
