Cal Poly Regional Teams Announced

For the first time ever, Cal Poly is hosting a baseball regional. On Monday morning on ESPN U, the teams who are coming to SLO were announced.

Pepperdine, Arizona State, and Sacramento State will battle the Mustangs for a chance to go to a super-regional and eventually the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.

Cal Poly baseball players sit at Charlie’s Place and await word about who they’ll face in the San Luis Obispo regional. By Owen Main

Familiarity

Two of these schools are familiar foes for fans of Cal Poly athletics. Sacramento State plays baseball in the Western Athletic Conference, but battles Cal Poly in football each year since the Mustangs football team moved into the Big Sky Conference. Sac State is also a member of the Big West in soccer. Between 1950 and 2009, Cal Poly baseball has played Sacramento State 58 times and has dominated the series, going 43-15. The two teams last played in 2009.

Cal Poly faced Pepperdine on back-to-back Tuesdays just a few weeks ago. In Malibu, Pepperdine threw ace Aaron Brown in the mid-week game to take a shot at the highly-ranked Mustangs. It worked, as Pepperdine handed Cal Poly one of its 10 losses with an 11-4 thrashing. One week later, Cal Poly returned the favor in San Luis Obispo, beating Pepperdine 5-1 at Baggett Stadium. With the split against the Waves this season, Cal Poly is 24-32 all-time against them.

Arizona State

The Sun Devils are the wild card. Cal Poly is no stranger to the Pac 12. They’ve played UCLA, USC, and Cal this season and are slated to play a weekend series at Oregon State next year. But for fans on the central coast, Arizona State is a little under the radar this season. Like Cal Poly, Arizona State has won nine of its last ten games and they are poised to flex their BCS-conference muscle.

The only thing you need to know about ASU is that they beat Oregon State in two of three games in a series in Corvallis early in the season. On Monday, Oregon State was awarded the top overall seed in this year’s tournament.

If you’re looking for a Cal Poly connection, Pat Tillman’s brother, Kevin, transferred to Cal Poly from Arizona State and played second base for the Mustangs before enlisting with his brother.

Cal Poly is 1-3 all-time against Arizona State. The last time they played was 2010 and Cal Poly lost to them then at the “Coca Cola Classic” in Surprise, AZ. The Mustangs went 23-32 that season — the worst year Cal Poly has had under head coach, Larry Lee. Since then, Cal Poly has had a winning record each year and has had 36 or more wins in each of the past three years, including their sparkling 45-10 record this season.

Tickets should go fast…

People, if the games aren’t sold-out already, they probably will be sometime soon. Hosting a regional is a historic event not just for Cal Poly, but for San Luis Obispo. Baseball is probably the most mainstream sport that Cal Poly could ever host NCAA Tournament games for. If you’re a baseball fan and you don’t go when this game is in your back yard, then it’s time to question your fansmanship.