Bonn Earns Record 14th Save as Mustangs Upset Gauchos to Reach Championship Final

Friday, May 22

Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark / Irvine, CA

1:00 PM

35-21

UC Santa Barbara

38-17

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Cal Poly	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	4	12	0
UC Santa Barbara	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	6	1

Bonn Earns Record 14th Save as Mustangs Upset Gauchos to Reach Championship Final

5/22/2026 9:00:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

IRVINE, Calif. — A perfect 4-for-4 day at the plate by Cam Hoiland, six wins in his last six starts for Carson Turnquist and Nick Bonn's record-tying 14th save resulted in a 4-2 Cal Poly victory over top-seeded and 23rd-ranked UC Santa Barbara in the Big West Baseball Championship on Friday on Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark.

The result leaves head coach Larry Lee's Mustangs one win away from their second straight conference tournament title and a second consecutive trip to the NCAA Regionals. Cal Poly will play Saturday night at 6 but will not know its next opponent until that afternoon after one more elimination contest is played.

In beating UC Santa Barbara for the first time in four tries this season, Cal Poly produced a 12-hit offensive attack, reaching double figures for the 34th time this year. The Mustangs rallied from a 2-1 deficit with single runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to turn back the Gauchos and win in come-from-behind fashion for the 21st time this year.

UC Santa Barbara posted 6-0, 4-2 and 12-4 victories at Cal Poly in early April.

"We got the big hits at their place, but their bullpen came in and threw strikes today," said 15th-year Gaucho head coach Andrew Checketts. "When we were at their place last time, they gave us a few baserunners and we capitalized on it. Today, they got the hits when it mattered and we didn't."

Added Lee, "Big win for us. Carson went out, got himself in a jam early and minimized it, only gave up a run. And that was big for us. It allowed our offense to get back in the game and get a lead. And then Cam with the four-for-four, pretty big in a setting like this.

"We're extremely happy, but the job is not complete. We'll sit back and see who we'll face Saturday at six o'clock."

Turnquist (8-2) threw 114 pitches over six innings, leaving the game with the score tied 2-2, but was still the pitcher of record for Cal Poly when the Mustangs snapped the deadlock with an unearned run in the top of the seventh. Alejandro Garza reached base on a Gaucho fielding error, Casey Murray Jr. drew a two-out walk and Jake Downing singled to left field, scoring Garza.

Turnquist gave up two runs and three hits with five walks and seven strikeouts. He threw 99 pitches in the first five innings and Mustang pitching coach Seth Moir had a chat with the Paso Robles High School graduate.

"Coach Moir came up to me and asked how I felt after the fifth inning," Turnquist said. "I was like, I feel like I got better stuff. Like, I haven't emptied the tank, so I'm going to go do that next inning. He's like, you're at 100 pitches. And I went out there and just emptied the tank with my best stuff, threw it right down the middle."

The result: Turnquist struck out the side on 14 pitches.

Southpaw Brady Estes tossed two scoreless innings with a pair of strikeouts and Bonn gave up a one-out single but nothing else for his 14th save, notching Cal Poly's 10th strikeout and matching Mike Bille (2005) and Reed Reilly (2013) in the Mustang record book for saves in a season.

Cal Poly scored a run in the second inning to tie the game at 1-1. Gavin Spiridonoff doubled down the left-field line with one out, advanced to third on a single by Hoiland and came home on a safety squeeze bunt laid down by Dante Vachini to the right side of the mound.

After the Gauchos went ahead in the fourth, the Mustangs tied the game again, this time at 2-2 in the sixth frame. Singles by Downing and Hoiland put runners at first and third with one out and Xander McLaurin's pinch-hit sacrifice fly to center field scored Downing.

Downing's RBI single in the seventh gave Cal Poly a 3-2 lead and the Mustangs added an insurance run in the eighth. Hoiland led off with a double to left-center field -- the ball smacking the wall about three-quarters of the way up -- and Nate Castellon singled up the middle to score Hoiland.

Lee was asked at the postgame press conference the difference between the series in April at Baggett Stadium and Friday's result.

"They're a real, real good ball club. Their experience, their pitching is elite. They have as good of a pitching staff as anybody in the country. And good pitching prevents a lot of losing streaks," Lee said.

"We're just better than we were when we played them. But we've learned throughout. They were the one team where, in conference, we didn't necessarily play that well. But a lot of it had to do with them. They're a good, talented team. And like I said, the pitching is elite. So it just depends on a given day."

Hoiland singled three times and doubled once to spark Cal Poly's 12-hit attack, produce his first career four-hit game as a Mustang and lift his batting average 17 points to .313. Downing and Ryan Tayman each added a pair of singles. UC Santa Barbara was limited to six hits by six different players, three of them doubles.

The loss was charged to Chase Hoover (1-1), as he relieved starter Calvin Proskey in the sixth inning and allowed the tiebreaking run in the seventh and the insurance run in the eighth. In 5 1/3 innings, Proskey gave up two runs and eight hits with one walk and three strikeouts, throwing a season-high 82 pitches.

Besides the one-run Gaucho outputs in the first and fourth innings, UCSB also had the bases loaded with one out after scoring the game's first run in the first inning before a Mustang double play ended the threat, wasted two-out doubles in the third and fifth frames, left the bases loaded after scoring its second run of the contest in the fourth and couldn't take advantage of a one-out double in the seventh.

Cal Poly earned its third Quad 1 win with Friday's victory, but still has an RPI of 74, moving up six positions in the last 24 hours.

UC San Diego eliminated Cal State Fullerton in a 5-1 decision Friday night, and the Tritons will face UC Santa Barbara on Saturday at 1 p.m. That winner goes up against Cal Poly on Saturday night needing two victories to claim the conference crown. Should the Mustangs fall, an extra game to determine the winner of the double-elimination event and the automatic qualifier to the NCAA postseason will be played Sunday at noon.

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