Cal Poly Baseball faces off against National Champion teams

Story Highlights: 

• Cal Poly wins the series two games to one against defending 2013 national champions UCLA from Feb. 21-23
• The Mustangs get rained out  but split the doubleheader on Sunday, March 2nd against twelve time national champions USC
• Fans of Cal Poly baseball talk about what it is that brings them out to the ball field time and time again.

The back of the announcers booth at Baggett Stadium represents the star players that have come out of the Cal Poly baseball organization.

“We have a very challenging non conference schedule,” said Coach Larry Lee. “We have to play defending national champion UCLA and twelve time national champion USC.”

The Mustangs conquered all of Coach Lee’s fears these past couple weekends in Southern California.

Cal Poly breezes by UCLA, wins the series, and moves to number 13 in the nation

Cal Poly unfortunately started the series off with a 5-2 loss at Jackie Robinson Stadium at UCLA on Feb. 21 and salvaged only five hits against a trio of UCLA pitchers according to a press release on Cal Poly’s website.

Mustangs starting pitcher Matt Imhof struggled giving up four runs and six hits to the defending national champions. Danny Zandona followed pitching two innings and giving up one run off of three hits.  The night was concluded with Bryan Granger pitching a scoreless inning for the Mustangs.

“We have a bitter taste in our mouth for UCLA, we are out for vengeance and they probably don’t even know it,” said 5th year Ag. Business major and third baseman Mike Hoo. 

The Mustangs definitely came out for vengeance the next day when freshman Slater Lee and the Mustangs shut down UCLA 8-0 and held them to only two hits according to a press release on Cal Poly’s website.

Slater Lee pitched Cal Poly’s first complete game shutout since 2012 and led his team into the shutout of the defending national champions.

Nick Torres belted a three-run home run in the third inning to put the mustangs up 3-0 and they never looked back.  Brian Mundell added on with a home run of his own in the fifth inning and the score broke wide open giving the mustangs a 7-0 lead.

UCLA pitcher left-handed Grant Watson unfortunately earned a loss to the Cal Poly mustangs who have started the season off with a bang.

After their 8-0 win Cal Poly and UCLA had earned one win a piece going into the final game to see who would take the series.

The Cal Poly baseball team has a post game pep talk and debrief about what they did well and what they should have done different during the game.

Nick Torres and Brian Mundell combined for five hits and five RBI’s as Cal Poly claimed the series against number 12 UCLA with a 9-1 win on Sunday, February 23.

Casey Bloomquist, Taylor Chris, and Reed Reilly combined to hold UCLA to only six hits and one run.  On the other hand UCLA starting pitcher Cody Poteet earned a loss as one of the six pitchers that the national champions used in the series finale.

After the series win Cal Poly moved to number 13 in the country and went on to win at San Jose State for a one game series before visiting 12 time national champions USC.

Cal Poly splits doubleheader against the Trojans

Junior left-hander Matt Imhof gave up one run on five hits as Cal Poly won their first game against USC 5-1 at Dedeaux Field according to a press release.

Cal Poly racked up 10 hits with the help of senior catcher Chris Hoo, Mike Mathias, Tim Wise, Jordan Ellis, and Brian Mundell in a game that was delayed two days and then an extra hour due to the rain that swept California this past weekend.

The second game of the double-header Cal Poly unfortunately fell to USC 16-0 bringing their record to 8-2 on the season.

New rankings came out on Monday night and according to the Perfect game poll Cal Poly moved to number 9 in the country which is the best they have been ranked since they became a Division 1 ball club.

Cal Poly pitcher Casey Bloomquist releases the pitch and hopes for the best as it hits the catchers glove for the final strike of the inning.

Fans tell all and Cal Poly plays one game series against Santa Clara

The Cal Poly baseball team improved their record on Tuesday night to 9-2 when they defeated Santa Clara 6-0 in a game that only lasted seven innings due to extreme fog.

I went to the game and interviewed a few fans asking them why they keep coming out to baseball games or if it was their first one what made them want to come out in the first place?

“It’s my second game since I just transferred here,” said junior Kinesiology major Rachael Masterson.  “I really like baseball and we have a really good baseball team so I wanted to come and support them.”

“I keep coming back because they are just really fun and a good environment to be around,” said 2nd year Agricultural and Environmental Plant sciences major Christine Vanna.

” It is my first Cal Poly baseball game,” said 2nd year Agricultural and Environmental plant science major Julia Stuffler.  “I decided to come  because I wanted to go all of last year but I was always too busy and finally my schedule freed up so I was able to come.”

Fans of all ages and majors have a great time and come together to share their love of baseball at Baggett Stadium.

All these fans had a great time at the game and got a win.  Here is a look at the next week or so in Cal Poly baseball.

• March 7-9 at Seattle
• March 11-13 vs. Northern Illinois at Baggett Stadium
• March 14-16 vs.  Wagner at Baggett Stadium
• March 21-24 vs. Cal at Baggett Stadium

The Mustangs have a long home stand in front of them so stay tuned to find out how they perform on their home turf in the coming weeks.

Cal Poly Baseball brings out the brooms and sweeps Kansas State in Opening Series

Story Highlights:

• Cal Poly baseball has opening series against the Kansas State Wildcats February 14-16th at Baggett Stadium
• The season is opened with a sweep of Kansas State making fans excited for what the season is going to bring
• There is a long season ahead of the Mustangs according to coach Larry Lee but it is not out of reach for this team

The Cal Poly Mustangs exchange high fives with one another after their last game of the series where they defeated the Wildcats of Kansas State 10-1 to complete the sweep.

Cal Poly defeats Kansas State 3-0 in a pitcher’s duel on Opening Night

Cal Poly’s starting pitcher junior southpaw Matt Imhof pitched against Kansas State’s starting pitcher sophomore Levi MaVorhis in a duel that started the 2014 season off in exciting fashion for all those who came out to watch the season start at 6 p.m. Friday night at Baggett Stadium.

The score was tied 0-0 all the way until the bottom of the sixth inning when Cal Poly scored 3 runs off of Landon Busch of Kansas State who came in to relieve MaVorhis after he pitched 5 scoreless innings.

Cal Poly had the bases loaded in the sixth inning off of singles by Tim Wise and Jordan Ellis, followed by an intentional walk to Brian Mundell according to the press release on Cal Poly’s website.

Jimmy Allen got a two-run single off of Kansas State’s Jake Fromson to make the score 2-0 Mustangs.  That score was soon lifted when Mark Mathias drew a bases-loaded walk to bring the third run over the plate and make the score 3-0.

That score was enough for Matt Imhof as he completed 14 strikeouts in seven innings and tied the school mark of 14 strikeouts in a single game and was relieved my Reed Reilly who finished off the game and handed the Mustangs their first victory of the season.

“Kansas State was a Super Regional team last year,” said coach Larry Lee.  “We went there to play them last year and so this is a return trip.”

The Mustangs prepare to add on to their lead with a man on first base and 1000+ fans watching in hopes of Cal Poly getting the sweep in their first series.

The Mustangs strike again as they clinch the series with a 5-2 win against the Wildcats

According to a Cal Poly press release, freshman right-hander Slater Lee struck out seven over 6 1/3 innings in his first collegiate start as Cal Poly marched to a 5-2 victory Saturday night in front of a crowd of 1,217.

Kansas State senior Jared Moore picked up the loss after giving up three runs in the sixth inning and eight hits over the innings prior.

Cal Poly’s Nick Torres singled four times and junior center fielder Jordan Ellis added three hits to make it a game that would not go unnoticed in the scorebooks.

Kansas State had a total of five hits with runs being scored in the fourth and ninth innings but it was not enough to stop Cal Poly.

Peter Van Gansen and Jordan Ellis added on 2 RBI’s in the eighth inning as they sailed their way to another victory bringing their record to 2-0.

“I got to help the team win and be a leader to the infield,” said sophomore shortstop Peter Van Gansen who did just that on Saturday night at Baggett Stadium.

This sign welcomes fans into Baggett Stadium highlighting who will be playing in that particular game.

Cal Poly cleanly sweeps Kansas State with a 10-1 victory on Sunday afternoon

The Mustangs had 14 hits and 10 runs on Sunday afternoon in a game where Nick Torres hit a 3-run home run and sophomore Brian Mundell had two doubles and a pair of RBI’s in front of a crowd of 1,528 according to a Cal Poly press release.

Sophomore right-hander Casey Bloomquist pitched five scoreless innings but was relieved by Nick Suniga, Danny Zandona and Bryan Granger who finished off the game and solidified Cal Poly’s victory.

“We have to compete every ball game, and be a team the whole season,” said 5th year shortstop and third baseman Mike Hoo.

Cal Poly had a great start to the season and it is the third year in a row that they have started the season with a 3-0 record.

Kansas State’s right-hander Jordan Witcig picked up the loss on Sunday as they look to improve their season from here on out.

The Mustangs had a 2-0 lead in the first inning and it was brought all the way up to 4-0 by the fourth inning.  After that, Cal Poly scored two runs in the sixth and one run in the seventh before the scoring ended with the 3-run home run by Nick Torres bringing the 10-1 victory and the sweep to Baggett Stadium.

Cal Poly baseball fans of all ages attend the game on Sunday, February 16th in hopes of seeing the Mustangs sweep their first series of the season.

Where are these Mustangs headed now?

After the three game sweep of Kansas State Cal Poly has moved to number 22 in the country according to the Baseball America Poll.

“We usually have a strong Big West conference schedule,” said coach Larry Lee. “We have a three game series against UCLA during week 2 who were national champions last year and then we go down to play USC during week 3 who have won 12 national titles.”

The season is not going to be an easy one for Cal Poly but based upon their first series sweep it will definitely be one that is a nail biter until the end.  Cal Poly is going on to play their next 11 out 12 games on the road.  Here is a look at the next couple weeks in Cal Poly baseball.

• 2/18- at Santa Clara
• 2/21-2/23-at UCLA
• 2/25-at San Jose State
• 2/28-3/2- at USC
• 3/4- vs. Santa Clara 6.p.m. at Baggett Stadium

Stay tuned for more updates on the number 22 ranked Cal Poly baseball team and their journey through their tough but not impossible 2014 season.