Mustangs Sweep Los Angeles Regional and Advance to First Super in Program History

Sunday, May 31

Jackie Robinson Stadium / Los Angeles, CA

6:00 PM

39-22

Saint Mary's

36-27

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Cal Poly	0	0	0	0	1	4	0	0	0	5	9	0
Saint Mary's	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	6	2

Mustangs Sweep Los Angeles Regional and Advance to First Super in Program History

6/1/2026 1:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Ryan Tayman tied the school record for home runs in a single season, Gavin Spiridonoff shattered a 2-2 tie with a decisive three-run blast and Josh Volmerding earned a quality start with six innings on the mound for his first win of the season.

Those are three of the stars for Cal Poly, but there were many others, in the Mustangs' march to their first NCAA regional title in five tries and a berth in next weekend's Super Regionals.

Coach Larry Lee's Mustangs recorded their 23rd come-from-behind victory of the season, a 5-2 triumph over Saint Mary's for the championship of the Los Angeles Regional on Sunday night inside UCLA's fabled Jackie Robinson Stadium.

"Great weekend. Hard-fought games. Four really, really good teams," said Lee. "Our players responded, and it was different guys each game, so it was a total team effort. Josh, Ryan and Gavin supplied a lot of the theatrics to get us over the top and win this regional."

Cal Poly overcame an early 2-0 deficit with a run in the fifth inning on Nate Castellon's RBI single to left field and four more in the sixth on Tayman's 18th home run of the year and Spiridonoff's fourth homer of his freshman campaign with two runners on base.

Volmerding went one more inning on the mound, scattering five hits in his six-inning stint with two runs, one walk and a season-high seven strikeouts before turning things over to Corden Pettey (one shutout inning) and Nick Bonn (two scoreless, hitless frames) for his nation-leading 17th save.

Cal Poly won't know who it will play or when and where the Super Regional will be held until Monday. The Mustangs will play the winner of the Morgantown Regional, which will be decided Monday when host West Virginia plays Kentucky in the "extra" game of the double-elimination event. Super Regionals are best-of-three series played Friday through Sunday or Saturday through Monday.

West Virginia, an 11-9 loser to Kentucky on Saturday, scored four times in the ninth inning to turn a 9-7 deficit into an 11-9 win over the Wildcats on Sunday night, forcing another contest Monday at 3 p.m. Top-seeded West Virginia would host the Super Regional with a victory. If Kentucky wins, the NCAA will decide who hosts the Super Regional. Both Cal Poly and Kentucky were seeded third in their regional tournament.

Volmerding missed six weeks of the 2026 season with a lower body injury, returning to the mound May 2 by pitching one inning in relief at UC Irvine. He progressed to 2 1/3 innings in starts at Cal State Fullerton, three frames versus Long Beach State at home and four innings in the Big West tournament against UC San Diego in Irvine.

Lee and pitching coach Seth Moir were hoping to get at best five innings out of the junior southpaw Sunday against Saint Mary's in the Los Angeles Regional championship final. They got six.

The 6-4, 210-pound third-year Mustang threw 81 pitches, allowed single runs in the second and third frames and retired the Gaels in order in the fourth and sixth innings. He danced around a leadoff single in the first inning and a one-out triple in the fifth.

"The process has been slow," Volmerding said of his time off. "Just ramping up those pitches every week, getting back in the swing of things, and tonight it all just clicked. It happened to be at the right time."

Volmerding threw 45 sliders, with 11 swing and misses, and 75 percent strikes.

"That slider's new this year, and with my knee earlier this year, it was hard to throw," said Volmerding, who threw eight no-hit innings at UC Davis last year before giving up a hit opening the ninth. "Now that I'm back fully healthy, it's comfortable to throw, one of my favorite pitches. It started out pretty good. We got some swing and miss on it, so we just stuck with it the whole game."

Pettey retired the side in order in the seventh before allowing a walk and single opening the eighth. Bonn was summoned from the bullpen and retired all five batters he faced for his fifth save in his last five trips to the mound.

The senior right-hander worked out of the eighth-inning jam with a fly ball to right field and a 5-4-3 double play, then notched two strikeouts sandwiched around a grounder to shortstop in the ninth to close out the game and touch off a wild celebration and dogpile near the mound.

Cal Poly was competing in a Division I regional for the second straight year and fifth time in program history. Lee is now 8-8 in regional play after going 3-0 in the Los Angeles Regional.

"Yeah, it's pretty emotional for me," the San Luis Obispo High School graduate who coached at nearby Cuesta College for 16 seasons before taking over the helm of the Cal Poly program in 2003. "I had my wife and daughter in the stands. My son was watching back in Minneapolis, and it's cool.

"It's just a lot of hard work over the years, representing San Luis Obispo County, representing Cal Poly," Lee added. "It's a pretty great moment, so there's a lot of emotion that goes into it for me."

Lee's son, an infielder with the Twins, set the tone of the day for the Lee family, driving in three runs with two home runs earlier Sunday at Pittsburgh.

Saint Mary's (36-27) entered the regional with the third-best batting average in the country (.334), but Cal Poly held the Gaels to three runs, 14 hits and a .219 average in two meetings, including a 14-1 Mustang romp Saturday.

"Our pitching and defense did a tremendous job against their offense," said Lee, now 14-4 against Saint Mary's. "Their offense is really, really good. Every at-bat is tough, they put the ball in play and they have the ability to hit for power. What Coach Moir did with his pitchers was an A-plus effort.

"Our players play hard. They play the game the right way. They're very resilient. They have learned to take the emotion out of it unless the emotion is on our side and to deal in reality," Lee added. "However the game gets to a certain score in a particular part of the game, they just go on and continue to compete and play the full game. They do a lot of things that really good teams do. They have those qualities in them."

Saint Mary's advanced to the championship final with a 6-5 win over UCLA in Sunday's first game, scoring one in the ninth inning on Ian Armstrong's RBI single to right field to tie the game at 5-5 and the winning run in the 10th on Makoa Sniffen's RBI single to left. It was the Gaels' second win over the overall national top seed in three days.

Cal Poly had just three baserunners in the first four innings before breaking through in the fifth, cutting Saint Mary's 2-0 lead in half. Murray singled to left field, moved to second on a groundout and came home on Castellon's two-out single, also to left.

Tayman tied the school record for home runs in a season with his 18th blast, sending a 1-1 pitch over the left-field fence with one out in the sixth, tying the game at 2-2 and extending his hitting streak to 13 games. Monty Waltz hit 18 homers in 1985.

After a Gael pitching change, Cam Hoiland and Murray drew walks and, with two outs, Spiridonoff hit a 2-0 pitch over the wall in left field for a three-run shot, his fourth of the year, and a 5-2 Mustang advantage.

"First pitch, I got a changeup, and then got up 2-0, so I was just looking for something I could handle and got my fastball," said the first-year Mustang. "I couldn't believe it. That's something you dream of. I think I blacked out running the bases. I don't really remember it and don't remember the swing at all. It's just kind of pure emotion there."

Volmerding, Pettey and Bonn kept Saint Mary's off the scoreboard the rest of the way.

Castellon supplied two of the team's top defensive plays Sunday, both in the late innings. The sophomore shortstop went into a feet-first slide behind second base to snag a grounder off the bat of Jared Mettam, bobbled the ball for a moment, recovered, spun around and threw to first base for the first out of the seventh inning. Then with one out in the ninth, Ian Josephson sent another grounder to Castellon behind second base. Another slide and a 360-degree turn prior to the accurate throw to first base by Castellon for the penultimate out of the game.

Alejandro Garza speared a hot grounder off the bat of Nick Allred and threw to first base for the second out of the seventh frame. He also singled twice to break the school record for most career hits, lifting his total to 253 in three seasons. Jimmy Allen had 252 hits in four years (2011-14).

Garza and Murray both had two hits as Cal Poly outhit Saint Mary's 9-6. Center fielder Tanner Griffith was 3-for-3 witih a single, double and triple to lead Saint Mary's at the plate. Right fielder Diego Castellanos extended his hitting streak to 39 games with a single leading off the eighth inning.

Winning for the 12th time in its last 13 games, Cal Poly hit .310 in the regional, Murray leading the way by going 7-for-12 (.583) with five RBIs and Tayman 6-for-12 (.500) with two home runs and three RBIs. Left fielder Dante Vachini (5-for-11) and Castellon (5-for-16) also had productive weekends at the plate.

The Mustang pitching staff compiled a stingy 1.33 ERA with Naess, Volmerding and Carson Turnquist earning victories and Bonn notching a pair of saves.

Tayman was named most outstanding player of the four-team tournament and also landed on the all-tournament team at the catcher position. Other Mustangs on the all-tournament team include Castellanos at shortstop, Vachini in left field, Murray in center field and Turnquist and Naess on the mound.

Cal Poly is the first Big West team to advance to a Super Regional since Cal State Fullerton in 2018. The Titans claimed the Stanford Regional title before falling to Washington in three games at Goodwin Field.

Support Cal Poly Baseball through Project Omaha and help fund scholarships and holistic student-athlete support, ensuring the program has the resources to compete at the highest level amid the evolving landscape of college athletics, including the NCAA’s increase to 34 full scholarships. Donations directly support student-athletes, helping attract and retain elite talent while upholding academic excellence. As part of the initiative, a matching fund specific to Project Omaha has been established by the University, providing permanent investment into the program’s operational budget and further strengthening Cal Poly Baseball’s competitive foundation.

Make your impact today by supporting Project Omaha, powered by Players Edge.