Cal Poly baseball in review — Kyle Smith and Myles Emmerson

Ed. note: As a “content experiment”, I’ll be going through each player on the Cal Poly roster from 2017 to recap their season and look forward to 2018.

Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith was a gutsy Friday night starter in 2016. By Owen Main

Season synopsis

Left-handed junior pitcher Kyle Smith was Cal Poly’s Friday night starter in 2016 and was super. As a sophomore, Smith was 6-6 with a 3.64 ERA while going up against the best starter on the opposition most of the year. This season, Erich Uelmen and Spencer Howard emerged as all-conference performers at the top of the rotation and Smith struggled early, limiting his starts and innings for the remainder of the season.

An off year

In 2017, Smith struggled early and with a much deeper pitching staff than in past years, Larry Lee moved to trying other starters as Cal Poly’s defense struggled. Smith pitched in almost as many games as his first two seasons (14), but started less than half and saw his ERA spike to 5.56. His innings went from 94 to 34. 

Anyone who has watched Cal Poly for the past three seasons knows what kind of a pitcher Kyle Smith can be. He was a flat-out beast in 2016 and that has to be the potential for fans and coaches to consider moving forward. He doesn’t throw hard, but his make-up is strong. It always has been. Unless something changes, look for Smith to once again compete for a starting role in 2018.

Myles Emmerson

Season synopsis

When you back-up a catcher like Nick Meyer, you know some of your options are going to be limited. Meyer was a second-team all-conference catcher and will appear for the USA team this summer. 

The freshman still contributed, allowing Meyer to spend some time in right field. In just 40 at-bats over 20 games, Emmerson handled the pitching staff decently while hitting .200 with a pair of doubles and 5 RBIs. 

More of the same in 2018?

I wish I could say Emmerson will get more time behind the plate in 2018. I guess the only way that would happen is if Meyer needs to play somewhere else for some reason or is injured. Catchers have to work on their defensive craft behind the plate constantly, but bats will play in the Cal Poly lineup. If Emmerson can prove he can hit at a higher rate given more playing time, he would give Larry Lee more options for keeping Meyer fresh, especially during non-conference games. 

If you want to see more of Emmerson over the summer, it should be easy. He’ll be catching locally for the San Luis Obispo Blues, though he can’t start playing until Cal Poly is finished with finals.