Santa Clara
Cal Poly Looks to Sweep Season Series at Santa Clara on Tuesday
5/4/2026 8:15:00 PM | Baseball
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Cal Poly, which has won nine of its last 12 baseball games and is eight games above the .500 mark for the first time this season, continues its eight-game late-season road trip Tuesday with a single non-conference contest at Santa Clara.
Coming off their seventh Big West series win in eight attempts by capturing the final two games of their three-game set at UC Irvine over the weekend, the Mustangs square off against the Broncos at Stephen Schott Stadium with first pitch set for 4:05 p.m.
The game will be video streamed on ESPN+ and links for that plus live stats can be found on the Cal Poly baseball schedule page at GoPoly.com.
The rematch between Cal Poly and Santa Clara comes one week after the Mustangs blanked the Broncos 7-0 at Baggett Stadium. A quartet of pitchers combined on Cal Poly's second shutout of the season and Nate Castellon smashed a solo home run as part of his ninth three-hit game of the season.
Sean McGrath pitched five scoreless innings and matched his season high with six strikeouts while Chris Downs, Arlo Pendleton and Luke Kalfsbeek finished the shutout, combining for six more strikeouts. Cal Poly amassed 12 hits, including two each by Dylan Kordic Alejandro Garza, Ryan Tayman and Dante Vachini.
The Broncos had beaten the Mustangs 10 times in the last 13 meetings between the two teams, but McGrath lowered his ERA from 7.11 to 5.93, evened his win-loss record at 3-3 and struck out six for the third time this season. The freshman right-hander was 3-1 with a 1.96 ERA in the month of April, has pitched in each of Cal Poly's last seven midweek games and previously earned wins against San Jose State on April 7 and Pepperdine on April 14.
McGrath will be on the mound again on Tuesday, facing Santa Clara freshman right-hander Jackson Cook (1-1, 7.31 ERA), who has made seven previous starts, including five scoreless innings with three strikeouts against UNLV on March 1 for his lone victory of the year.
Cal Poly maintained its slim grip on first place in the Big West with its series win at UC Irvine, bouncing back from an 11-4 loss Friday with 11-2 and 8-6 triumphs. The Mustangs are 27-19 overall and 17-7 in conference contests, one game ahead of UC Santa Barbara (16-8) and three in front of UC San Diego (14-10), which has lost eight of its last 11 Big West games following an 11-2 start. Cal State Fullerton and Hawai'i, each 13-11, share fourth place.
Santa Clara earned two wins in three tries at Gonzaga, the West Coast Conference leader, over the weekend, sandwiching 5-3 and 12-4 wins around a 7-6 setback. The Broncos are 18-28 overall and ninth in the 10-team WCC standings at 7-14.
Cal Poly hit .290 in its series at UC Irvine, the overall team batting average slipping one point to .305. The Mustangs sport a .329 average in Big West games, have produced double-digit hits in 12 of their last 16 games and have notched 15 come-from-behind wins in 2026.
Sophomore shortstop Nate Castellon was 6-for-14 in the series against the Anteaters and leads all Cal Poly hitters with a .357 average, which includes 13 doubles, five home runs and 22 RBIs. Garza is next with a .346 mark and is first on the team with his 18 doubles and 22 multiple-hit games and second with 42 RBIs.
Garza has 236 hits in three seasons at Cal Poly and needs just 16 more to match Jimmy Allen’s program standard of 252, set from 2011 to 2014.
Next on the Mustang hitting charts are Tayman and center fielder Casey Murray Jr., each with .337 averages. Tayman's 14 home runs and 45 RBIs lead the club and he has thrown out 13 would-be base stealers this season. Murray has produced 10 doubles and 20 RBIs and is No. 1 on the club with 24 walks.
Infielder Gavin Spiridonoff sports a .300 average with 15 RBIs while Kordic knocked in six runs with two doubles and a pair of home runs in the UC Irvine series and currently is hitting .295 with nine doubles, seven home runs (all in the last 20 games) and 25 RBIs. Kordic has gone 24-for-63 at the plate (.381) in those 20 contests with eight doubles and 26 RBIs, lifting his batting average 128 points.
Santa Clara, which has a .256 team batting average, is led by shortstop Ben Cleary at .340 (seven doubles, 21 RBIs) and left fielder/designated hitter Max Ross at .307 (13 doubles, three home runs, 33 RBIs).
The Mustangs are 6-2 so far in midweek games this season, following last year's 9-1 mark.
Santa Clara owns a 53-46 advantage in its series against Cal Poly, which began back in 1956. Prior to the shutout last week, the Broncos had Cal Poly's number in recent years, capturing 10 of the 13 contests played over the last eight seasons. Larry Lee is 23-25 against Santa Clara while Rusty Filter is 10-4 against Cal Poly.
Santa Clara has finished first in the West Coast Conference five times, the last in 2023 to end a 22-year drought. The Broncos are in their 144th year of competition in baseball, earning 2,436 wins with 13 NCAA regional appearances (the last in 2023 after a 26-year hiatus) and one trip to the College World Series (1962).
Rusty Filter (ninth season, 192-227, San Diego State '90) was pitching coach under Mark Marquess at Stanford for eight seasons before taking over for Dan O'Brien at Santa Clara in June 2017. He helped the Cardinal reach the NCAA Tournament five times, including three trips to the Super Regional, and developed 20 pitchers who were selected in the MLB Draft.
In 16 seasons as an assistant coach under Jim Dietz and Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn at his alma mater, Filter mentored 58 draft picks, including two top overall picks in the Major League draft, Stephen Strasburg in 2009 and Mark Appel in 2013. Filter played at San Diego State from 1987-90, originally as a catcher before moving to the mound, and was drafted by Toronto in 1990.
Lee is 740-571-2 in 23-plus seasons with the Mustangs and, combined with his 16 seasons at Cuesta College, is 1,200-812-5 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 returns to Orange County this weekend for a three-game Big West series at Cal State Fullerton. The Mustangs also wrap up their slate of midweek games next Tuesday at Fresno State before concluding the home schedule as well as the 2026 regular season May 14-16 with a three-game Big West series against Long Beach State inside Baggett Stadium.
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