Mustangs sweep Titans — Yep, it’s for real

On Sunday, the third-ranked Cal Poly Mustangs did something historic. They swept Cal State Fullerton, shut out the Titans for the second time in three days, and moved to 34-5 on the season.

In case you were wondering, the answer is yes. Unequivocally. They are for real.

A day after their bullpen was well-used, sophomore pitcher Casey Bloomquist tossed a complete-game shutout, his first complete game of his career. Bloomquist is no 9-0 on the season.

Here’s the final out, via JD Scroggin of the SLO Tribune.

On Thursday night, JD asked me a question that I wasn’t quite ready to answer. My response was something like, “It doesn’t feel real until they beat Cal State Fullerton.”

And @fansmanship is excited. "The season's not for real until they beat Fullerton." #CPBats

— Joshua D. Scroggin (@SLOcollegebeat) April 18, 2014

Now it’s for real, and let me count some of the reasons why:

Casey Bloomquist has emerged to give Cal Poly one of the strongest Sunday starters in the country. By Owen Main

Pitching

Starting pitching was supposed to be this team’s achilles heel. Instead, it’s been a huge strength. Matt Imhof and Casey Bloomquist have been incredible, sporting a combined record of 17-2 and ERAs of 1.87 and 1.36 respectively. While freshman starters Slater Lee and Justin Calomeni have had up and down seasons, they are still a combined 9-2.

The bullpen is also deeper than people thought. Reed Reilly (1.20 ERA, 7 saves) was always going to be nails at the end of the game, the rest of the bullpen was somewhat of a question early in the year. It’s not a question anymore.

Lefty Taylor Chris has an even better 1.07 ERA and gives head coach Larry Lee some flexibility to use Reilly for his specialty — the multi-inning save. Behind Reilly and Chris, Bryan Granger, Danny Zandona, Nick Suniga, and Michael Dingilion have all pitched big innings. The combined depth of the pitching staff is something that hamstrung Cal Poly last season in the UCLA Regional. This year, it’s a clear strength.

A complete lineup

Nick Torres. Brian Mundell. Jimmy Allen. Three, four, and five. These three right-handed hitters are at the heart of one of the most potent and, yes, physical lineups in the country.

Theirs is a lineup with very few holes. There are lefties, righties, contact hitters, power guys, players who can sacrifice bunt, and a catcher who hits ninth who also happens to be probably the team’s most clutch RBI man.

There are no breaks in Cal Poly’s lineup. The weaker hitters tend to foul balls off. The strong hitters always seem to come up with men on-base. Freshman second baseman, Mark Mathias is leading-off and hitting over .500 in Big West Conference play.

Mark Mathias has gone fishin’ quite a bit over the past few months. By Owen Main

Swagger

I’ve written about swagger in other Cal Poly teams this year. The football team lacked it as a whole for most of the season. The basketball team found theirs right at the end of the year, with the help of a freshman whose twitter handle is @SwaggyShipley.

All baseball players have swagger — individually. More than any other sport, swagger is almost like a core value of a good baseball player. Swagger as a team, though, is more elusive.This Cal Poly team oozes with swagger, but it’s a fun kind of swagger. It’s the kind that has Mark Mathias miming fishing after extra-base hits. It’s the kind of swagger that has Chris Hoo and others “shooting arrows” after big hits.

College baseball teams that win three of every four games usually have a chance to win a national title at the end of the year.

This season, Cal Poly is 34-5 and 11-1 Big West Conference play. That’s a winning percentage of .871, in case you were wondering.

There are 16 games remaining on Cal Poly’s schedule , but just five of those will be at Baggett Stadium. Over the past weekend, 7,847 fans came through the Baggett turn styles.

Get There

Now that they’ve swept Cal State Fullerton and beaten UCSB in their series, Cal Poly has the inside track as the Big West Conference favorites. There is plenty of room still on the Mustang bandwagon. After this weekend, I’m firmly planted in the front seat. Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but, as a fan, I’m wondering how much a plane ticket to Omaha is running these days… .