Cal Poly Baseball took their first series of the season taking three of four games against Ohio State.
The Mustangs (7-8) greatly improved with their situational hitting against the Buckeyes (7-7), something that had been plaguing them before this series.
This series win comes as Cal Poly prepares to open up conference play this weekend, which head coach Larry Lee says will be challenging this season.
“The Big West is the best it’s been in a number of years,” Lee said.
Offense comes through when it matters most
After walking the leadoff batter in the top of the fifth inning, lefty starter Jakob Wright was already down 2-0 in the count as he watched pitching coach Seth Moir make the slow walk towards him on the mound to try and get him to settle down.
Down 2-0 in the game, Wright’s pitch count was already rather high and it was his second leadoff walk in the past two innings.
“He just came out to try and slow the game down a little bit for me,” Wright said.
Two pitches later, Wright forced the batter to ground into a double play before getting the next batter to ground to second base in what ended up being a quick inning.
That was just one of Wright’s stellar innings as Cal Poly’s bats finally came alive on Friday night as they took game one of their four-game set against Ohio State by a score of 4-2.
In the bottom half of the fifth, the Mustangs took a 3-2 lead on an RBI single from senior center fielder Jake Steels and a two-RBI double from junior catcher Ryan Stafford.
“[The offense] definitely picked me up today,” Wright said. “I didn’t have my best stuff coming out there, but they had my back.”
Situational hitting hasn’t been Cal Poly’s strong suit this season but it was a different story in Friday’s game as the offense began to string together hits in crucial situations.
Wright finished the day with 5 2/3 innings pitched only allowing two runs and striking out six.
Junior southpaw Jake Torres came in relief of Wright in the sixth inning and went on to record a 3 1/3 inning save without allowing a run and striking out five to secure the 4-2 victory.
Everything finally comes together
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth inning and no outs, senior first baseman Joe Yorke looked to break the game open with Cal Poly up 4-2.
Yorke smacked the second pitch he saw down the right-field line, scoring two runs and padding onto their lead.
The Mustangs weren’t done however as the offense knocked hit after hit and brought in run after run compiling 14 runs in just one inning on their way to a dominant 19-2 victory in game two over Ohio State.
Five Cal Poly players recorded more than one hit on Saturday with freshman infielder Alejandro Garza and junior outfielder Dylan Kordic leading the way with four hits each.
Garza has been very impressive to start the season and has seemed to earn himself an everyday role.
Saturday starter Steven Brooks impressed as well pitching six innings while only allowing two runs while striking out five.
Situational hitting was the least of Cal Poly’s problems as they recorded 11 hits in 22 at-bats with runners in scoring position.
The Mustangs will look to win their first series of the year and keep this momentum going in game three of the four-game set.
Stafford’s first homer not enough to secure the series
Cal Poly’s first home run of the season, courtesy of Stafford, was not enough as the Mustangs fell to the Ohio State Buckeyes by a score of 5-3 in the third game of a four-game set.
The homer, which came in the bottom of the seventh inning, found its way into the trees beyond the left field wall. Despite a slow start in the power department for the Mustangs, Stafford believes that this is just the beginning of a power surge.
“We’ve got a powerful offense,” Stafford said. “[Hitting home runs] is not a focus of ours but they’re definitely going to come.”
Redshirt senior Ryan Baum got the start for the Mustangs but was immediately ambushed by a starved Buckeyes offense. The Buckeyes struck for three runs in the top of the first after stringing together four hits.
Cal Poly responded in the bottom of the first thanks to an RBI single by Garza, cutting the deficit to two runs. Garza has impressed in the series thus far, tallying seven hits in 13 at-bats on the weekend.
“It’s still the same game of baseball,” Garza said. “I’m doing well right now, but I just got to do whatever I can to help the team win.”
Baum’s day ended after a pair of one-out hits in the top of the second, and Lee turned the ball over to freshman southpaw Josh Volderming. After allowing both of Baum’s runners to cross home, Volderming escaped the jam with a strikeout.
These would be the last two runs of the day for the Buckeyes, as a trio of lefthanders compiled 7 2/3 scoreless innings after Baum’s early exit.
Volderming amounted for four of these innings and has continued to succeed in his long-relief role. Caden Pearlman joined Volderming as another freshman to toss scoreless innings in this one, and this freshman pitching emergence has impressed their catcher.
“All the freshmen on the pitching staff, they’re not scared when they go in there,” Stafford said.
Despite the strong effort out of the bullpen, the Mustangs could not muster together enough offense to mount the deficit. An Evan Cloyd RBI double in the fourth and Stafford’s homer cut the lead to two runs.
After Cloyd’s third hit of the day in the bottom of the ninth, the tying run came up in the form of Steels but he grounded out to second to end the game.
The Mustangs, still riding high off their four-game win streak, will look to turn the page on this loss.
“One loss isn’t going to kill us so we’re just gonna keep doing what we do and have confidence in each other,” Stafford said. “We know we can beat these guys pretty handily.”
Mustangs win first series behind freshman pitching
After giving up a leadoff double in the top of the fifth inning, freshman right-hander Griffin Naess had the task of getting out of the jam he put himself in.
With lefty Torres warming up the bullpen and Lee ready to pull Naess at the first mistake with an Ohio State lineup that is left-handed heavy, the pressure was on.
Naess recorded the next three outs with ease as he struck the last batter he faced out with a changeup, prompting an energetic celebration from the freshman as he walked off the mound.
“That’s the importance of having a change up,” Lee said. “That’s the equalizer, it doesn’t matter if it’s a right-handed hitter or left-handed hitter.”
Naess’ first collegiate start helped propel the Mustangs to their 3-1 win over Ohio State on Monday and Cal Poly’s first series win of the 2024 season.
Naess finished with five scoreless innings pitched, only allowing three hits and striking out six Buckeye batters.
“I had a lot of confidence going in,” Naess said. “My pitching coach preaches a lot of good self-talk, so he kind of instilled that in me.”
Torres would come in and pitch two scoreless innings following Naess, with redshirt sophomore closer Tanner Sagouspe closing out the win with a two-inning save, his third of the season.
None of the Mustangs’ runs would come on a hit and would come on an RBI groundout or an error, but it was just enough to edge out Ohio State.
This offensive emergence is a big step forward from earlier in the season and Lee acknowledges that some players needed some time to settle in.
“Up until the last game of the series against Utah, we weren’t very good offensively,” Lee said. “A lot of our players that were expected to perform well were struggling, now most of them are back.”
Before the Mustangs open up conference play, they’ll look to keep this offensive resurgence going as they host UNLV this Wednesday, March 13 at 5 p.m. at Baggett Stadium.