Stangs Upset Hokies to Advance to Winners Bracket; Will Face Gaels on Saturday

Friday, May 29

Jackie Robinson Stadium / Los Angeles, CA

5:00 PM

37-22

Virginia Tech

30-25

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Cal Poly	0	2	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	6	13	1
Virginia Tech	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	6	0

Photo by: Romeo Galvan

Stangs Upset Hokies to Advance to Winners Bracket; Will Face Gaels on Saturday

5/29/2026 11:45:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Casey Murray Jr. and Dante Vachini combined for seven hits and three RBIs while Griffin Naess pitched another postseason gem as Cal Poly defeated Virginia Tech 6-2 in the upset-filled opening round of the NCAA Los Angeles Regional on Friday night at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Murray produced his third career four-hit game, going 4-for-5 with two RBIs, while Vachini notched his fourth three-hit contest of the year and 11th game of three or more hits in his Mustang career with a 3-for-4 performance and one RBI for Cal Poly, which won for the 10th time in its last 11 games.

Naess (8-4) pitched seven quality innings, allowing two runs (one earned) and scattering five hits with three walks and nine strikeouts. In four postseason starts (two in the 2025 and 2026 Big West Baseball Championship) and two more in NCAA regionals, the junior right-hander has posted a 3-1 win-loss record and 1.27 ERA with 17 hits and 29 strikeouts over 28 1/3 innings.

"My family travels to every game, so seeing them in the stands is huge," said Naess. "But also just knowing the pressure's not on me. It's on the hitters. It's tough to hit a lot of pitches. I have all the trust in the world with our hitters, so all I have to do is just go out there and pitch my game.

"If I pitch my game, then we're going to win the game because our offense is going to put some runs on the board, play for one every inning, and we're going to win the game," Naess added.

With the win, powered by a 13-hit offensive attack, including a solo home run by Cam Hoiland and doubles off the bats of Vachini and Jake Downing, Cal Poly improved to 37-22 for the season. Virginia Tech, playing the Mustangs for the first time and held to six hits, fell to 30-25.

"Good opening game in a regional," said 24th-year Cal Poly head coach Larry Lee. "We did just enough. Put a lot of pressure on them. Created opportunities every inning. Cashed in on the early ones.

"Griff pitched a great opener for a regional and it was just what we needed to set the tone," Lee added. "Seven quality innings and his performance allowed our guys to play the style of baseball that we needed to play."

Seeded third, Cal Poly defeated the No. 2-seeded Hokies despite stranding 15 runners on the basepaths. But that wasn't the biggest upset of the day.

That honor belongs to two-time West Coast Conference Tournament champion Saint Mary's, the fourth seed in the Los Angeles Regional who sent national No. 1 overall seed UCLA into the loser's bracket with a 3-2 decision.

Jacob Johnson, a transfer from Cuesta College, smashed a pair of solo home runs in the fourth and ninth innings, sandwiched around a run-scoring double down the right-field line by Tanner Griffith in the sixth frame for the Gaels. Johnson's second blast snapped a 2-2 tie in the final frame and was his 14th of the year.

The win by Saint Mary's marked the first time a No. 1 national seed lost its opener in an NCAA Regional since the tournament's expansion in 1999. Cal Poly will play the Gaels in the winner's bracket final Saturday at 6 p.m., after UCLA (51-7) faces Virginia Tech in an elimination game at 1 o'clock.

Naess threw 48 change-ups, the most of any of his pitches, for 13 swing and misses and 75 percent for strikes.

"The change-up's probably the biggest pitch, I think, as a pitcher," Naess said. "West Coast uses it a lot. They're not from here, so I knew I could kind of throw that thing a lot. And, honestly, I didn't think I had my other pitches, but throwing a change-up really elevates the other pitches no matter what.

"No matter how fast you're throwing or how good your other stuff is, the change-up is always kind of in the back of their minds," Naess added. So, just being able to have that pitch today was huge."

Cal Poly never trailed Virginia Tech and scored at least one run in each inning from the second through the sixth for a 6-1 advantage. It was the Mustangs' first game against an Atlantic Coast Conference member since falling 2-1 to North Carolina in a multi-team event hosted by USC in 2011 and the first win ever by Cal Poly versus an ACC team.

Cal Poly jumped to a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Downing doubled, Murray singled and Gavin Spiridonoff's groundout to second base pushed across the first run. Vachini singled up the middle for the second tally.

Hoiland homered down the left-field line leading off the third inning, his fifth of the year, and the Mustangs loaded the bases in the fourth on two walks and a hit batter before Murray beat the throw to first base on an RBI grounder to third.

Leading 4-1, Cal Poly continued its scoring in the fifth as Vachini led off with a double, moved to third on a fly ball to the outfield and came home on Alejandro Garza's run-scoring groundout to second base. Singles through the left side of the infield by Ryan Tayman and Murray capped the scoring for Cal Poly.

The Mustangs left the bases loaded in the second, fourth and sixth innings, had two runners on base in the first and third frames and wasted a leadoff double by Vachini in the fifth.

Virginia Tech left eight runners on base and two others were erased on 5-4-3 Mustang double plays. The Hokies scored once in the second inning and had the bases loaded with nobody out, but a pop-up to shallow right field and a Garza to Downing to Spiridonoff Mustang double play ended the threat.

"The game was kind of speeding up out there," said Naess. "Then we had the mound visit and realized what was happening, so we slowed the game down, got one out, and then the ground ball to Peanut (Garza), our guy. He turned it. No doubt in my mind, I knew it was getting turned. Just happy to get out of that and finish the rest of the game."

The Hokies opened the seventh with a double and a walk, but another 5-4-3 double play dashed that rally as well.

Following Naess to the mound, freshman southpaw Brady Estes secured the first two outs in the eighth on strikeouts and senior closer Nick Bonn struck out three over 1 1/3 innings for his nation-leading and school-record 16th save. The trio of Mustang pitchers combined to strike out 14 Gaels.

The loss was charged to Virginia Tech starter Logan Eisenreich (2-3), who allowed four runs and seven hits over 3 2/3 innings with four walks and five strikeouts.

Tayman and Downing both contributed a pair of hits as Cal Poly reached double figures in hits for the 35th time this season. Shortstop Pete Daniel collected two of the Hokies' six hits.

Many of Cal Poly's early hits in the game were on high grounders off a hard infield.

"No intention," said Lee. "We're trying to do damage with our swings. When we get to two strikes, it's about putting the ball in play. Because balls were hit kind of in front of home plate, where it's pretty hard, that just means that they had sink or some quality pitches. But that's always been a formula for winning baseball. Always has been."

Added Murray, "We're just trying to put the ball in play. We know that we can wreak havoc by just putting the ball in play and making the defense make plays. We knew we were going up against tough pitching, so we're just trying to put the ball in play."

Redshirt junior right-hander Carson Turnquist (8-2, 3.50 ERA), who has won his last six starts, will start for the Mustangs against Saint Mary's. The Gaels did not announce a starter as of late Friday night.

Gael Preview Notes

Cal Poly and Saint Mary's will meet for the first time since 2019 when the two teams split four games at Baggett Stadium ... right fielder Diego Castellanos extended his hitting streak to 36 games with a first-inning single against UCLA ... the Gaels are hitting .330 as a team, led by Castellanos with a .382 mark ... Cal Poly leads Saint Mary's 33-14 in its all-time series with the Gaels, which began in 1949 ... Saint Mary's also knocked off a No. 1 seed in the Corvallis Regional a year ago, defeating Oregon State 6-4 ... the Gaels are making their third regional appearance in program history this weekend and earned their third West Coast Conference title last week ... Eric Valenzuela is in his ninth season over two stints as head coach of the Gaels (2014-19, 2024-26), compiling a 285-229 career mark; he also was head coach at Long Beach State from 2020-23 ... Larry Lee is 12-4 all-time versus Saint Mary's.

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