Tayman, Murray Jr., and Coach Lee Highlight Three Awards and 11 All-Big West Nods
5/19/2026 3:15:00 PM | Baseball
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — How successful has the 2026 season been for the Cal Poly baseball team? Good enough to tie another school record, this time for the most players honored with postseason awards by the Big West.
A total of 11 Mustangs, four on both the first and second teams and three more on the honorable mention list, collected All-Big West honors Tuesday in a vote by the conference's 11 head baseball coaches, equalling the hardware haul by the 2014 Mustang squad.
Coincidentally, both the 2014 and 2026 teams captured Big West regular-season titles and Larry Lee earned Coach of the Year honors both times as well.
Topping the list this year are junior catcher Ryan Tayman and fifth-year center fielder Casey Murray Jr. Tayman was named Big West Co-Field Player of the Year along with Cal State Fullerton junior outfielder Paul Contreras while Murray captured Big West Defensive Player of the Year honors.
Tayman led the conference in several offensive categories, including home runs (16), RBIs (53) and slugging percentage (.673). On defense, he led the league in throwing out 16 would-be base stealers along with recording 465 putouts and 523 total chances.
A transfer from Cal, where he played his first two collegiate seasons, Tayman has compiled a team-leading .351 batting average and 48 runs scored en route to a spot on the All-Big West first team behind the plate.
Twice this season the Arroyo Grande High School graduate was named Big West Field Player of the Week for his performances following the UC Riverside and Long Beach State series. Tayman went hitless only six times in Cal Poly's last 36 regular-season games, lifting his average 65 points.
Tayman is Mustang No. 7 to claim the Big West Field Player of the Year award, joining Kyle Blumenthal (2005), Grant Desme (2007), Mitch Haniger (2012), Mark Mathias (2014), Alex McKenna (2018) and Brooks Lee (2021 and 2022).
Murray is the sixth Cal Poly player to be named the conference's defensive player of the year and the second non-catcher. Former winners were shortstop Peter Van Gansen (2015) and catchers Chris Hoo (2014), Nick Meyer (2018), Myles Emmerson (2021) and Ryan Stafford (2024).
Murray committed just two errors on 350 total chances over three seasons in center field and notched four outfield assists in his Mustang career. At the plate this year, he hit .315 with 20 extra-base hits (10 doubles, five triples, five home runs) and drove in 25 runs while leading the club in walks with 27. His batting average has never been below .300 since March 13.
Lee has guided Cal Poly to 30-win seasons 14 times in his 24-year tenure as head coach, including five of the last six seasons. He earned his 1,200th career victory in 40 seasons at Cal Poly and Cuesta College with an 8-6 triumph at UC Irvine on May 3 and is 746-573-2 with the Mustangs and, combined with his 16 seasons at Cuesta College (460-241-3), is 1,206-814-5 overall as a head coach.
Lee 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. The Mustangs earned their second Big West regular season title by sweeping Long Beach State last weekend inside Baggett Stadium. The other was in 2014 when Cal Poly hosted the NCAA San Luis Obispo Regional.
Joining Tayman on the all-conference first team are fellow Mustangs Alejandro Garza at third base, Nate Castellon at shortstop and Nick Bonn as a closer.
Earning first-team honors for the third consecutive year, Garza hit .337 during the regular season with 47 RBIs, a Big West-leading 21 doubles and a team-high 25 multiple-hit games. He is just six hits shy of Jimmy Allen's school record for career hits and also has reached the top 10 in career at bats, doubles and RBIs and single-season marks for doubles and at bats.
Hitting .267 after the Cal State Bakersfield series in mid-March, Garza has lifted his batting average 70 points over the last nine weeks of the regular season.
Castellon is hitting .335, his average above the .300 mark since the Big West-opening series at Hawai'i in early March and as high as .361 two weeks ago. The sophomore, a second-team All-Big West selection and a freshman All-American a year ago, has hit 13 doubles and five home runs with 27 RBIs and is among the top 10 in the nation in toughest to strike out, fanning just 13 times in 257 plate appearances.
Pitching at his third college, Bonn has compiled 12 saves, tied for No. 3 in the nation and tops in the Big West so far this season. The transfer by way of Pepperdine (two seasons) and Dallas Baptist (one year) owns a 3.98 ERA with 43 strikeouts over 43 innings pitched and is two shy of the school record for saves in a single season.
Second-team Mustangs include Murray, outfielder Dylan Kordic, starting pitcher Carson Turnquist and relief pitcher Brady Estes. Earning honorable mention praise were second baseman Jake Downing, utility player Gavin Spiridonoff and starting pitcher Griffin Naess.
Kordic turned his fifth collegiate season around during the UC Riverside series in late March, elevating a .167 average at the plate to .302 by the end of the regular season. He went 34-for-97 (.351) over his last 28 games with eight home runs and 31 RBIs. With the postseason remaining, Kordic has notched 13 outfield assists in his Mustang career.
After pitching in just five games at Oklahoma as a freshman, sitting out the 2024 season at Cal Poly following Tommy John surgery and appearing in only four games last year, Turnquist has become a mainstay in Cal Poly's pitching rotation this spring with a 7-2 record and 3.55 ERA. The Paso Robles High School graduate has won his last five starts and has recorded 76 strikeouts over 63 1/3 innings.
Estes, a freshman southpaw, was one of Cal Poly's top middle relievers, earning four victories and a 3.59 ERA. He has struck out 48 batters over 42 2/3 innings and opposing batters are hitting just .195 against him. Estes' wins were against Hawai'i, UC Davis, UC Riverside and CSUN and he also notched saves versus Cal State Bakersfield and Cal State Fullerton.
In earning a spot on the honorable mention list for the third time, Naess is 6-4 with a 4.68 ERA as Cal Poly's Friday night starter, striking out 76 batters over 73 innings, including 14 against Washington State. The junior right-hander has 20 career wins and was Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year in 2024.
A sophomore, Downing takes a .284 batting average into the postseason with 15 doubles and 34 RBIs in 52 games played while the freshman Spiridonoff owns a .307 mark at the plate with 13 doubles and 19 RBIs over 47 contests, playing first base, second base and third base.
Other major award winners include junior right-hander Jackson Flora of UC Santa Barbara as Pitcher of the Year, Cal State Bakersfield designated hitter Devon Wilkes as Freshman Field Player of the Year and Long Beach State right-hander Luke Howe as Freshman Pitcher of the Year.
In addition to the four players from Cal Poly, the 18-member All-Big West first team also includes three each from UC Santa Barbara, CSUN and Cal State Fullerton, two each from Hawai'i and UC San Diego and one from UC Davis.
Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara are co-champions of the 2026 Big West regular season with 22-8 records and will join UC San Diego, Hawai'i and Cal State Fullerton in the Big West Championship Tournament starting Wednesday on UC Irvine's Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark.
