SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly (2-2, 0-0 Big West), which salvaged a victory in the final game of its season-opening three-game series against Washington and closed out a four-game home stand Tuesday with an 8-4 triumph over Fresno State, plays its first three road games this weekend, taking on Missouri State (2-2, 0-0 Missouri Valley).
Due to wintry weather forecasts in Springfield, MO, the non-conference series has been moved to Clay Gould Ballpark (cap.: 1,600) on the campus of the University of Texas at Arlington in Arlington, TX. A single game will be played Saturday at 10 a.m. Pacific followed by a 9 a.m. Pacific doubleheader Sunday.
All three games of the series will be broadcast on?ESPN?Radio (1280 AM and 101.7 FM) with Chris Sylvester providing the play-by-play. Links for the audio streams as well as live stats are available on the baseball schedule page at www.GoPoly.com. There will be no video stream for the first-ever meetings between the two schools.
Cal Poly dropped a pair of one-run decisions against Washington, 6-5 on Friday and 4-3 on Saturday, before riding Sunday's five-run second-inning uprising to victory over the Huskies.
True freshman catcher Ryan Stafford led the way with a 5-for-11 performance at the plate, including three doubles and one RBI. Center fielder Reagan Doss was 4-for-10 with a double, triple and three RBIs while third baseman Tate Samuelson went 4-for-12 with one RBI. Second baseman Nick Marinconz, right fielder Matthias Haas and shortstop Brooks Lee all had three hits in the series. Samuelson, Haas and Stafford all had at least one hit in each of the three games. For Samuelson, coupled with a seven-game hitting streak to end the 2021 season, he has now hit in 10 straight games.
Cal Poly's win over its Central California rival was sparked by a two-run home run off the bat of right fielder Matthias Haas in the fifth inning and a three-run double by shortstop Brooks Lee in the sixth. Jason?Franks pitched 3 1/3 innings in relief, allowing one run and one hit with a pair of strikeouts, for the win.
Missouri State bounced back from a season-opening 7-4 loss with 11-2 and 19-2 victories at Central Arkansas last weekend. Second baseman Mason Hull drove in 10 runs with two doubles and three home runs while catcher Drake Baldwin was 7-for-16. Outfielder Spencer Nivens knocked in seven runs with two doubles and a home run, going 8-for-13 at the plate, while middle infielder Will Duff went 4-for-10 with two doubles.
The Bears fell 6-5 at Oral Roberts on Tuesday as the Golden Eagles scored on a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth. The Bears stranded 17 runners on the basepaths, including 10 in scoring position. Third baseman Grant Wood was 3-for-3 while Baldwin and right fielder Dakota Kotowski both homered for the Bears.
Missouri State is hitting .335 as a team with 12 doubles and eight home runs, scoring 39 runs in four games so far. The pitching staff has compiled a 3.67 ERA with 30 strikeouts over 34 1/3 innings, and the Bears have committed five errors for a .967 fielding percentage. All three starters on the mound for the Bears this weekend are right-handers. Adam Link allowed one run and six hits with six strikeouts over six innings in Saturday's win over Central Arkansas.
Missouri State, which first played baseball in 1964, has made 11 NCAA regional appearances, all from 1987 through 2018, and reached the Super Regional round three times (2003, 2015 and 2017). The Bears qualified for the College World Series in 2003, falling to Rice and Miami (Florida).
Missouri State has had only two head coaches in its 58-year history — Bill Rowe from 1964-82 and Keith Guttin from 1983 to the present. In 39-plus seasons, Guttin has guided the Bears to a 1,311-845 overall win-loss record, six Missouri Valley Conference regular season titles, four MVC tournament championships and 11 NCAA regional appearances.
Guttin began the 2022 season No. 3 among active coaches in the NCAA and 19th all time. His 39 previous clubs won 40 or more games 12 times, averaged 34 wins per year and won 61 percent of their contests. Guttin's first 17 teams posted winning records, stretching Missouri State's streak to 32 consecutive winning seasons before the streak was snapped in 2000.
During Guttin's tenure, 130 Bears have signed professional contracts, including six first-round draft picks and 20 players who have advanced to the Major Leagues. He has been a conference coach of the year 13 times and was selected as the American Baseball Coaches Association Division I Midwest Region Coach of the Year in both 1997 and 2003.
Guttin was a Missouri State assistant under Rowe from 1979 to 1981 and played second base for the Bears after transferring from Mineral Area College. He earned all-conference honorable mention in 1977. Guttin finished his undergraduate degree at the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 1978 and earned his master's degree in 1984 at Truman State.
Missouri State is coming off a 21-23 campaign, finishing fifth in the Missouri Valley Conference at 11-13.
The Bears return 11 letter winners, including seven position starters and four pitchers. Top returnees include Baldwin (.291, four home runs, 23 RBIs, second-team All-MVC in 2021), Hull (.313, three walk-off hits in 2021) and outfielder Cam Cratic (.309, 16 RBIs). The pitching staff is paced by Trey Ziegenbein (8-2, 3.77 ERA in 2021), Jared Viertel (1-5, 3.53 ERA), both right-handers.
Viertel will start Sunday's first game while Link, a graduate student and transfer from Middle Tennessee, is scheduled to start Saturday. Link was 1-1 with a 4.40 ERA, making 11 appearances on the mound, all in relief, for the Blue Raiders last spring. Dan Merrill, who will start Sunday's finale, was 5-3 with a 6.93 ERA and 89 strikeouts over 54 innings at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M a year ago.
Lee welcomed back 22 lettermen off last year's squad, including seven position starters and all but three pitchers. The 2022 Mustang roster, bolstered by the addition of three transfers from Boise State and one from Washington State a year ago, has added a pair of graduate students this spring in infielder Brett Borgogno (Cal State Fullerton and Louisiana-Lafayette) and outfielder John Lagattuta (Cal) along with utility player Matthias Haas, a transfer from Brown.
Topping the list of returnees is five-time 2021 All-American Brooks Lee, a preseason All-American five times as well this spring. Projected to be a top-five draft pick in July, Lee hit a team-leading .342 with 10 home runs, 57 RBIs and a school-record 27 doubles as a redshirt freshman in 2021 en route to Big West Co-Field Player of the Year and Co-Freshman Field Player of the Year honors.
The group of returnees also includes designated hitter Matt Lopez, third baseman Tate Samuelson, first baseman Joe Yorke, second baseman Nick Marinconz, utility player Taison Corio and pitchers Drew Thorpe, Travis Weston, Bryce Warrecker, Kyle Scott and Dylan Villalobos, among several others.
The entire infield is back as Yorke made 54 starts at first base, Marinconz (27) and Corio (23) combined for 50 starts at second base, Lee started 54 games at shortstop and Samuelson was in the starting lineup 53 times at third base.
Lopez was second on the team in hitting at .341 with 26 RBIs in 39 games.
The outfield is a work in progress with the loss of Cole Cabrera in center field, Sam Biller in left and Nick DiCarlo in right. Reagan Doss, who started 21 games in the outfield last year and hit .258 with six doubles and 13 RBIs in 37 games, replaces Cabrera in center field. A pair of catchers lead the depth chart in left field — Ryan Stafford of Folsom High School and returnee Collin Villegas — while Haas of Oakland's Bishop O'Dowd High School and Brown and Lagattuta of Davis Senior High School and Cal likely will share duties in right field. Villegas and Stafford are listed 1-2 behind the plate.
On the mound Drew Thorpe was 6-1 with a 3.15 ERA in home games last spring, finishing with a 6-6 mark and 3.79 ERA. He led the squad in strikeouts with 104, which is No. 10 all-time in the Cal Poly record book, and compiled double-digit strikeouts three times in 2021. Travis Weston (5-6, 3.28 ERA) earned three complete games, the most by a Mustang pitcher since Joey Wagman also collected three complete games in 2013. Weston was a starter in Saturday doubleheaders.
Thorpe and Weston will start Friday and Saturday, respectively, for the second year in a row. Sophomore Kaden Sheedy (1-2, 5.40 ERA in 2021) gets the nod Sunday with freshman right-hander Steven Brooks of Cosumnes Oaks High School in Elk Grove, Calif., expected to start in midweek games. Sheedy made four starts in the final six weeks of the 2021 season, including a complete-game three-hitter with six strikeouts in the series finale at UC?Davis.
The Mustangs have a combined 331-277 conference record (.545 winning percentage) in 24 years as a member of the Big West (no conference games were played in 2020), the last 18 under Lee. Cal Poly has had just three losing seasons since 2000 and has reached the 30-win mark 13 times this century, including 2021. The Mustangs have won 210 of their last 307 home games for a 68.4 winning percentage.
Since and including 2011, Cal Poly is the only Big West team to have a winning or .500 overall record each year (excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season). Also since 2011, Cal Poly is the only Big West team to finish at least fourth or higher every year, including one first place, five seconds, one third and three fourths.
Since 2011, Lee guided the Mustangs to wins in 58 of 91 Big West series with a pair of 2-2 splits for a 63.4 winning percentage. The Mustangs won seven of eight conference series in both 2014 and 2017. Cal Poly is the only Big West team to have a winning overall record in each full season since 2011 and the Mustangs are the only Big West team to finish fourth place or higher every year. Since 2003, Cal Poly has finished below fourth place only twice.
Cal Poly has had 19 MLB draft picks in the top 10 rounds since and including 2011. Only Cal State Fullerton has had more with 22. The next tier are three teams with a total of 10 in that time span. Cal Poly has had a total of 34 top-10 round MLB draft picks in the last 18 years.
Since 2012, Cal Poly has had eight Division I All-Americans. Also, since 2003, Cal Poly has had 11 players make it to the Major Leagues. In the rest of the history of the program, there were nine to have made it to The Show.
Cal Poly is seventh among 25 California Division I schools and 10th in the West Region (47 schools) with 299 wins over the last nine years (not counting 2020).
Lee (579-456-2) surpassed Fresno State's Bob Bennett for the Big?West record for overall wins with a 2-1 series-opening win at USC in February 2021. During the UC?Davis series in 2019, Lee eclipsed Cal Poly alum and former Long Beach State head coach Dave Snow with his 219th conference win. Snow guided the Dirtbags to 218 Big?West wins from 1989-2001.
Lee reached the 500-victory milestone on April 20, 2018, with a 5-4 triumph over Long Beach State. He earned 460 wins in 16 seasons at Cuesta College and notched his 460th Mustang victory on March 13, 2017 against Gonzaga and his 1,000th career victory with a 3-0 triumph at?UC?Santa Barbara on May 23, 2019. He currently has a 1,039-698-5 record over 35-plus seasons as a head coach and coached his 1,000th game as Cal Poly's head coach on April 1, 2021, a 10-1 win over UC?San Diego.
Next week, Cal Poly hosts Portland on Wednesday at 6 p.m. before going back out on the road for a three-game non-conference series Friday through Sunday at UNLV.
