39-23
West Virginia
44-15
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Runs R | Hits H | Errors E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cal Poly | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 0 |
| West Virginia | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | X | 12 | 14 | 0 |
Mustangs Drop Game One 12-2 to Super Regional Host West Virginia
6/5/2026 4:30:00 PM | Baseball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A grand slam and a three-run home run by West Virginia in the first four innings powered the No. 6-ranked Mountaineers to a 12-2 victory over No. 18 Cal Poly in the opening game of the NCAA Morgantown Super Regional on Friday inside Kendrick Family Ballpark.
Designated hitter Sean Smith hit his ninth home run of the season with two on base in the first inning and third baseman Tyrus Hall added his sixth round-tripper, a grand slam in the sixth frame to break open a 4-1 contest.
Despite a nine-hit offensive attack with eight of the nine Mustang starters collecting at least one, Cal Poly was held to single runs in the fourth and seventh innings.
With the loss, head coach Larry Lee's Mustangs fell to 39-23 for the season and placed themselves in a must-win situation for Saturday and Sunday if Cal Poly wants to extend its season with a trip next week to Omaha, site of the Men's College World Series.
"They played much better than us in all facets of the game," Lee said of West Virginia. 'It's a good ball club, and the limited opportunities that we created, we just didn't cash in early on. We'll have to flush it and get to tomorrow.
"You can just tell how physical they were and how athletic they were," Lee added. "When you get down on a team like that, you have to cash in when you get opportunities. We had limited opportunities, and they created a lot of opportunities. You have to limit them to one, just so you can keep it close and shorten the game."
West Virginia (44-15) accumulated 14 hits -- including five doubles and the pair of home runs -- in front of a raucous crowd of 4,564 fans, almost all of them remaining in the stadium to sing John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" after the game ended.
"I love it and I try to get our teams to enjoy that kind of a crowd," said Lee. "They were great, they were loud, and I hope the majority of our guys enjoyed that. This is the enjoyable part of college baseball, going on the road and playing in a hostile environment and seeing who's willing to go toe to toe with their opponent."
Second game of the best-of-three series is scheduled for a 9 a.m. PDT start Saturday on ESPN2 and ESPN Radio (1280 AM and 101.7 FM), with the final game, if Cal Poly wins, to be played Sunday. The time and television network for the third game will be announced after all eight Saturday Super Regional games are completed.
After Smith's three-run home run in the first inning, Cal Poly trimmed the deficit to 3-1 in the fourth. Right fielder Dylan Kordic smashed his 10th home run of the season, a 387-foot first-pitch shot over the 375 marker in right-center field leading off the inning.
"I was just looking for something up," said Kordic. 'Our goal is to push them up in the zone, moving up in the box too with the velocity. And with that, you expect to get fastballs because they're gonna try and challenge you. I was just ready for it, didn't miss it."
Smith doubled and came home on an RBI single by Brodie Kresser in the bottom of the fourth, moments before Hall belted his grand slam to right field for an 8-1 West Virginia lead.
Cal Poly scored its second run in the seventh. Singles by Gavin Spiridonoff and Nate Castellon set up Alejandro Garza's RBI single to center field. The Mountaineers pulled away with three runs in the bottom of the seventh and one more in the eighth.
That seventh-inning Mustang rally was the only frame in which Cal Poly had multiple hits.
Kordic was the lone Mustang with more than one hit, producing a two-out single to left field in the first inning to go along with his solo home run. Cam Hoiland and Ryan Tayman added doubles for Cal Poly -- Tayman extending his hitting streak to 14 games leading off the eighth inning.
Smith had three hits while Kresser, Hall, Armani Guzman and Matthew Graveline all added a pair of hits for West Virginia.
Winning pitcher Chansen Cole (10-1) scattered eight hits over seven innings with 11 strikeouts, throwing 121 pitches. He struck out the side in both the second and third frames. Cole also pitched twice in the Morgantown Regional last weekend, tossing 130 pitches combined in a win over Binghamton in the first round and a no-decision versus Kentucky in the title game.
"He just mixes, he's a solid college pitcher. Not high velocity. He lived down in the zone. A guy like that is looking for weak contact, looking for the opponent to chase out of the zone. And his pitches were good, but he wasn't a high velo guy. Guys like that win, so he was good," said Lee.
"He just did a really good job of painting strikes at the bottom of the zone," Kordic added. "We knew he was gonna win down there, so our goal was to eliminate that, get him up in the zone, and he was attacking there early. He was getting the calls and that kinda just made us expand as a team because we're trying to put the ball in play and make things happen.
"We tip our cap to him, he was good today," Kordic added. "He did his job, but it has nothing to do with tomorrow for us now."
Cal Poly struck out 10 or more times for just the 10th time in 62 games this season.
The loss was charged to Mustang junior right-hander Griffin Naess (8-5) as he allowed eight runs and six hits over 3 2/3 innings with three walks and one strikeout. At one time, he retired eight batters in a row before West Virginia erupted for five runs in the fourth inning.
Kordic earned his 16th career outfield assist at Cal Poly in the eighth inning. With a runner at second base, the fifth-year senior caught a line drive off the bat of Paul Schoenfeld and threw to shortstop Nate Castellon covering second base. Castellon tagged out Gavin Kelly, who slipped on the FieldTurf, for a double play.
Three times earlier this season, Cal Poly lost the opener and came back to win the weekend series -- all on the road at Campbell, Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine. The Mustangs also faced one elimination game in the Big West tournament, defeating UC San Diego 4-3 in the winner-take-all seventh game.
"When there's perceived pressure in certain games, I think we rise to the occasion," said Kordic. "We've been here many times before. We've lost on Fridays throughout the year, won the next two games on the weekend, so it's nothing new for us. It's just the same game tomorrow."
Added Lee, "Toughness. Who's gonna be tough? Who's willing to fight? And that was the question that I posed to our players after the game. Just flush today. It doesn't matter if you lose one nothing or lose by 10 runs. It's a new game tomorrow."
Cal Poly is trying to reach 40 wins for the second straight year, the fourth time in Lee's 24 seasons at Cal Poly and the sixth time in program history. Right-hander Carson Turnquist (9-2, 3.35 ERA) will start for the Mustangs, facing Mountaineer southpaw Maxx Yehl (8-2, 2.12 ERA) in a battle of redshirt juniors who underwent Tommy John surgery in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Cole, Chansen (10-1)
L: Naess, Griffin (8-5)
Batting:
2B: Tayman, Ryan 1 ; Hoiland, Cam 1
HR: Kordic, Dylan 1
RBI: Garza, Alejandro 1 ; Kordic, Dylan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Kordic, Dylan 1 ; Spiridonoff, Gavin 1
HBP: Hoiland, Cam 1
Batting:
2B: Guzman, Armani 1 ; Kelly, Gavin 1 ; Smith, Sean 1 ; Graveline, Matthew 1 ; Lumsden, Ben 1
HR: Smith, Sean 1 ; Hall, Tyrus 1
RBI: Smith, Sean 3 ; Kresser, Brodie 2 ; Lumsden, Ben 2 ; Hall, Tyrus 5
SF: Hall, Tyrus 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Guzman, Armani 1 ; Schoenfeld, Paul 1 ; Smith, Sean 3 ; Graveline, Matthew 1 ; Ineich, Matt 2 ; Kresser, Brodie 2 ; Lumsden, Ben 1 ; Hall, Tyrus 1
SB: Guzman, Armani 1 ; Hall, Tyrus 1
