Fans from the city and county of San Luis Obispo made a great showing over the weekend. by Owen Main

If you were there, you know that last weekend’s regional was a special weekend for both Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo baseball fans. Here are a few memorable moments and a some important notes from last weekend.

SLO hosted a regional

The fact that this county hosted a regional is a memorable moment unto itself.

San Luis Obispo hosting an NCAA baseball regional is about as good as it can get for an on-campus sporting event at Cal Poly or anywhere between Santa Barbara and San Jose. Six games in three days were all close. Over 15,000 fans came out to Baggett, making the regional a huge success for Cal Poly Athletics. The teams who were eliminated were all really good. Pepperdine turned out to be a little better than everyone else on this particular weekend.

Larry Lee

If you haven’t read this story from the Tribune on Larry Lee and his coaching legacy in San Luis Obispo, you need to. For him to have been the coach when the Mustangs were first able to host a Regional is pretty important. He clearly has a ton of respect from other coaches — every coach went out of their way to talk about the great job he’s done when describing the Regional. Lee knows what he’s doing and has a pretty clear plan. Seriously — read that story.

Matt Imhof delivers a pitch in his final game at Cal Poly. By Owen Main

Standing ovation for Imhof

On Friday night, Cal Poly ace, Matt Imhof, showed why he is going to be a high draft pick this season. Despite not having his best command, Imhof battled to give Cal Poly the win in their Friday night Regional opener against Sacramento State. Imhof gave up just one earned run in 7 2/3 innings in what will likely be his final game in a Cal poly uniform.

He tipped his cap as fans gave him a standing ovation on his way out of the game. Imhof was expected to be drafted within minutes of this post going live.

Jake Peevyhouse had an all-time meltdown on Friday afternoon in the first game of the Cal Poly regional. By Owen Main

Peevyhouse loses it

Arizona State didn’t have the most memorable of regionals. The Sun Devils lost a one-run game to Pepperdine on Friday afternoon and followed it up with a loss to Sac State on Saturday. The young team from Tempe has good talent, but couldn’t quite put it together over the course of two games in San Luis Obispo.

The whole weekend was frustrating — no moment moreso than a called third strike on Jake Peevyhouse, ASU’s number three hitter. Peevyhouse argued more demonstratively than any college player I’ve ever seen. He would have been tossed by over half the major league umpires out there, but on day one of the NCAA Tournament, the umpire was hesitant to run him.

Sac State avoids” two and queue”

Sacramento State made a good showing in their first NCAA Regional. After losing to Cal Poly on Friday night, Sac State battled against Arizona State to win a Saturday afternoon game before falling to the Mustangs again on Sunday.

This Sac State fan joined a big group cheering for the Hornets. By Owen Main

Sac State head coach, Reggie Christiansen seems to be recruiting the Sacramento area really hard — trying to keep homegrown talent in the state capitol. All I knew about Sac State coming into the weekend was that they had been in a brawl last season with UC Riverside. I came out of the weekend with lots of respect for Christiansen and the Hornets’ program.

Cal Poly makes it to Sunday night

Joe Davidson, who joined my pre-regional podcast last week, asked me a question on Friday — How disappointing would it be if Cal Poly diddn’t win their regional.

It took me a moment to think about. Coming into this season, the Mustangs had never won more than a single game at a regional (last year). They had never been ranked in the top-10 in the country, never been ranked number one, never hosted a regional, and never won a Big West Conference championship.

So, while it was disappointing that the Mustangs didn’t win the four-team regional, it was also a hugely successful season. Walls were broken down throughout the season and, as Lee pointed out after Sunday night’s game, at some point it becomes the norm. Fans in San Luis Obispo had their hearts ripped out by Pepperdine, but the Waves are a deserving team. By making it to Sunday night, Cal Poly showed they belong int his situation. In baseball, anything can happen. If not for two plays in each of Cal Poly’s losses to Pepperdine, the Mustangs might still be playing.

Disappointing? – Yes, but not soul-crushing. I won’t be surprised if attendance continues to go up at Baggett Stadium next year, no matter how good the team is. Cal Poly baseball made itself some new fans to be sure over the weekend. With continued improvement from Cal Poly athletics, San Luis Obispo is the kind of town that will latch onto winning programs.

Brown liner

Aaron Brown’s shoulders make it look as if he were chiseled in ancient Rome. In the championship game, Pepperdine’s cleanup hitter and eventual Regional MVP lined a foul ball down the right field line. The ball hit a Mustang News photographer square on the thigh. I mean square. Dead-on. Brown hit it so hard, the woman barely had anywhere to go as she stood on the warning track down the right field line. It’s a place I stood for many innings during the regional.

To her credit, she didn’t even rub the spot where she got hit. She held onto her camera and finished shooting the game. Mad props.

The weather

I think there were a few high clouds, but the weather was amazing. Hot during the day and cool at night is what SLO is known for. Nobody could have asked for anything better.

Nick Torres’ Sunday night homer was probably his last in Cal Poly green and gold. By Owen Main

Torres and Allen homer in their final game

Junior Nick Torres and senior Jimmy Allen have both also likely taken their last official Baggett Stadium at-bats. Torres will be drafted this year and barring some surprise, won’t be back next season. In the midst of Cal Poly’s five-run comeback on Sunday night, Allen and Torres each homered.

It was a fitting way for both to go out — not in the fact that they lost, but in the fact that they both stepped-up when it mattered most.

The bottom of the eighth

On a night that would end in extreme heartbreak, Cal Poly and its fans had about an inning and a half of pure, exalted jubilation. Between the seventh inning stretch and the end of the eighth inning, Mustang fans found their voice and the Mustangs, finally, found their bats.

First, Nick Torres’ seventh-inning homer, a towering shot into left-center field, brought the Mustangs to within 6-4. After an electric and fast top of the eighth, Cal Poly seemed to clutch hit after clutch hit before the score was tied on a fielders’ choice play that Pepperdine couldn’t turn into a double-play.

Chants of Cal! — Poly! and an atmosphere I’ve only experienced during the Major League Baseball playoffs were stifled in the top of the ninth when Pepperdine grabbed the lead again. For Cal Poly fans though, that inning and a half will leave a lasting memory of the best baseball team Cal Poly has ever fielded.

Congratulations to Pepperdine and good luck at TCU. By Owen Main

Steve Rodriguez and Pepperdine are easy to root for

I don’t know about any other Cal Poly fans, but I’m rooting for Steve Rodriguez and the Waves this week against TCU and the rest of the way. If they face Irvine in the College World Series, I’ll keep my Big West pride and root for the Anteaters, but Rodriguez’ Waves came to this regional ready to play. When teams are closely-matched, execution becomes huge. It seemed as though every Cal Poly miscue led to key runs for the opposition while Pepperdine’s errors didn’t cost them nearly as much. It’s the cruel reality of baseball.

Rodriguez made reference to the fact that the Waves have been on the other end of bad breaks in regionals before. Like Lee, Rodriguez seems to maintain the longview about his team and this tournament. He paid homage to the great season Cal Poly had and came off in press conferences as a coach who is pretty easy to root for.

Cal!

Poly!

Like a UCSB Soccer game at Spanos Stadium, Baggett Stadium was bursting at the seams on Sunday night.

Down 5-0, Cal Poly mounted a comeback to tie the game at 6-6 in the bottom of the eighth. In the process, the Baggett crowd came alive and made for the most electrified baseball atmosphere this county has ever seen.

Pepperdine rallied in the bottom of the ninth, ripping the heart out of every fan who had helped will the Mustangs back into the game and the Regional itself.

Cal Poly lost the game 10-6, but San Luis Obispo and its baseball fans won the weekend. I’ll post some quotes over the next few days in other stories, but here are some photos from the final game of the historic weekend.

Cal Poly eliminated Sacramento State from the San Luis Obispo Regional with a 5-4 victory on Sunday afternoon.

The Mustangs got a home run from Zack Zehner and 2 1/3 innings of relief from Reed Reilly for the save. The Mustangs play Pepperdine tonight at 6:00 at Baggett Stadium. Should they win, there will be a deciding game tomorrow (Monday) night at 6:00 pm.

Photos by Owen Main

[See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]

Pepperdine’s Aaron Brown was awesome on the mound on Saturday allowing just one run in eight innings. By Owen Main

Pepperdine committed four errors in Saturday night’s game against Cal Poly at Baggett Stadium, but a litany of other mistakes doomed the Mustangs in their 2-1 loss in Saturday’s regional game. With the loss, Cal Poly’s road to the Super Regional round becomes much tougher. The Mustangs will have to win three games in two days in order to continue on to the next round. Pepperdine will simply have to win one.

“Nobody wins or loses individually. We win as a team, and we lose as a team. We have great support for each other, and we just need to stay confident,” said Cal Poly coach Larry Lee after the game. Here are some ways Cal Poly lost as a team last night.

Base running

Cal Poly’s mistakes on the base paths started early. In the second inning, Jimmy Allen got a late break from third on a ground ball to first base. Though the throw beat him by three steps, Allen’s slide made it closer than that. Cal Poly scored their only run of the game in the third inning, but a little better jump might have helped. The more I think about it, the less I think this was a base running error, but the late jump is worth mentioning.

The first real clear error came in the third inning. Brian Mundell singled with one out. Zack Zehner followed with a hard line-drive right at the first baseman. Mundell froze and then ran back to first base, but failed to slide. The play was close and Mundell was clearly out. Had he slid, Cal Poly’s clean-up hitter might have been given the benefit of the doubt.

Unfortunately, Mundell’s tough day on the bases wasn’t over. In the eighth inning, he hit a ground ball to third base that Pepperdine’s Austin Davidson thew in the dirt, sending us photographers on the warning track scurrying. Mundell rounded first and charged toward second. Again, the play was close. Again, Mundell didn’t slide. Again, he was called out. Instead of having the tying run on second base with two outs and Zehner coming up, Cal Poly was headed to the bottom of the eighth still down by a run.

The Collision

Up 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh, Cal Poly left fielder Zack Zehner and center fielder Jordan Ellis collided on a fly-ball, allowing Pepperdine catcher Aaron Barnett to go all the way to third. The run would score on the next pitch, when second-baseman Hutton Moyer doubled off the right field wall to tie the game. Moyer later scored on  a John Schuknecht error, and Pepperdine had all they needed to finish off the Mustangs.

After the game, Zehner took full responsibility.

“There was a lack of communication, actually,” said Zehner. “I called it first, and he came in second. He’s the center fielder, so it’s his ball, and I didn’t get out of the way… . He called it. It’s his ball. I got to get out of the way.”

Flush it

Cal Poly has done a good job all season with coming back from losses, especially at home.

The Mustangs won series against then top-20 teams UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine after Friday night losses at home. They also took the UCLA series after losing the Friday night game.

For both players and fans, their experience throughout the season may prove important over the next 36 hours.

“You have to be able to flush and not be concerned about what happened,” said Lee. “The reality is we have to win three ballgames to get out of here, but we can’t think about tomorrow night at 6:00, we’ve got to think about tomorrow at 1:00. We’ve been resilient all year. We went through the one stretch where we lost four straight, but besides that we never lost back-to-back ballgames. Winning 46 games is good. This is a good group. We just have to stay together.”

Cal Poly’s hitting on Saturday was definitely flushable, managing just three hits all game. The good news is, most of the best pitchers on other teams have been used at this point. Today, Cal Poly will presumably face Sacramento State’s third-best starter.

“The longer this regional lasts, I think there’s a possibility that we are equipped offensively. we have a solid offensive team and once you start playing your third, fourth, and fifth game, now some of the starting pitching is lessened,” said Lee.

Cal Poly starting pitcher, Casey Bloomquist talked about flushing memories of past plays as something he tries to do as well. It’s a mentality that Cal Poly will need to take to heart if they have a chance of winning three in a row.

“I try to have a short memory and not think too much about it,” said Bloomquist. “Just look to the future, because there’s nothing you can do about the past.”

Photos by Owen Main

[See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]

In an elimination game on Saturday afternoon, Sac State beat Arizona State 5-4. The Hornets led 5-2 going into the 9th inning before a RJ Ybarra pinch-hit home run brought Arizona State within one. Sac State closer Alex Palsha finally closed the door, striking out Trever Allen looking to end the game.

Sacramento State moves on to play the loser of the Saturday night Cal Poly vs. Pepperdine game on Sunday at 1pm.

Photos by Owen Main

[See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]

Pepperdine’s Austin Davidson is congratulated by teammates after scoring the game’s first run. By Owen Main

Pepperdine snuck past Arizona State 3-2 in sunny San Luis Obispo on Friday afternoon in the first game of the Cal Poly regional.

Arizona State lost starting pitcher Brett Lilek in the first inning as Lilek tried to cover first on a double play. Lilek and the Sun Devils did not get the double play and Pepperdine scored their first run on the play.

Down 3-0, Arizona State got a run back in the bottom of the second inning on a line-drive home run by Trever Allen. Nate Causey also drove in a run for the Sun Devils in the bottom of the fourth, but neither team scored for the final five innings on a warm day at Bagggett Stadium.

Austin Davidson and Hutton Moyer each had two hits for the Waves, who advance to face Cal Poly Saturday at 6 pm.

Photos by Owen Main

[See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]

Bryan Granger and the Cal Poly bullpen could be called-on to pitch some big innings in this weekend’s regional. By Owen Main

Matt Imhof. Reed Reilly. Mark Mathias. Casey Bloomquist. Nick Torres, Brian Mundell, Zack Zehner, Nick Torres, and Jimmy Allen. There are lots of names that people are talking about going into Cal Poly’s 2014 regional, but names that people aren’t mentioning may make a really big difference.

If Cal Poly is to move on in the San Luis Obispo regional, which starts today, they’ll almost certainly need some contribution from players outside of the names everyone knows.

If Larry Lee has his way, Cal Poly will use Matt Imhof and Casey Bloomquist for 7-plus innings in wins Friday and Saturday, setting up a Sunday game where the Mustangs would have Taylor Chris, Reed Reilly, or both relatively fresh for Sunday to back-up presumed starter Justin Calomeni.

But an NCAA Regional is a fickle proposition. Decisions that need to be made, in the moment, to win today’s game, may test pitching depth later in the weekend. This is where I believe someone less heralded will have to step out of the Cal Poly bullpen and make a statement.

Maybe it will be Bryan Granger. The right-handed junior from Hollister, CA was a starter last season before being moved to a middle relief role this year. Granger, who sports a 3.04 ERA, has recorded some big outs, especially in games started by neither Imhof nor Bloomquist. His delivery comes just enough from the side to throw hitters off for at least one time through the rotation. If things get tough for the Mustangs, they may need him to go through an opposing order more than once at some point this weekend.

Beyond Reilly, Chris, and potential game-four starter, Danny Zandona, the bullpen might start to get a little thin. Slater Lee was the Saturday starter for most of the non-conference slate, pitching a complete-game shutout at UCLA. During conference, though, Lee’s ERA ballooned to 6.20 as he lost his role in the starting rotation. Michael Dingilian, Jearl Jesson, and Nick Suniga are the only other Mustangs to take the hill this season. All of their ERA’s are over 5.00 and, as a group, they only pitched 26 1/3 innings.

A regional tournament tests a team’s fortitude, character, and, sometimes, pitching depth. Starting tonight, we’ll see if any of these less-used Mustangs are thrust into the spotlight at some point this weekend with the task of getting big outs with Cal Poly’s season on the line.

Jimmy Allen and the Mustangs have been pretty much all smiles this season. By Owen Main

Decisions, decisions.

At the end of last season, then-junior Jimmy Allen had a decision to make. After a disappointing 2013 season, Allen was drafted in the 23rd round by the Boston Red Sox. Like other juniors who are drafted, the selection brought-about a major decision. Stay or go.

Allen chose to forgo a pro career for a year and stay at Cal Poly. His presence in the middle of the Cal Poly lineup has been much more consistent than last year, and the Mustangs are poised to make program history this weekend.

“I think it was definitely a great decision,” said Allen this week. “All the success we’ve had and just this whole experience of hosting regionals has been unbelievable.”

So are Cal Poly fans, who saw Allen hit .301, starting all 55 games at third base. For the season, Allen tallied five home runs, 37 RBI’s, and a .802 OPS while becoming Cal Poly’s all-time career hits leader. Allen also has the most career at-bats (passing Ozzie Smith) and most career doubles. He’s also eighth all-time in RBI’s and 10th all-time in triples, cementing his name in the Cal Poly record books.

In baseball, you have ups and downs,” said Allen. “This whole season for the most part has pretty much been up.”

Cal Poly lost only one series all season and never had a losing week en route to a 45-10 regular season and their first ever Big West Conference title. Along with success, Allen has seen a steady increase in fan support in San Luis Obispo over his four seasons manning the hot corner at Baggett Stadium.

“It’s unbelievable. I mean coming in as a freshman, we had  a lot of fans, but nothing like this and now to have sold-out games, it’s just a great thing to see how the whole community is coming out behind us,” said Allen, who played last summer for the San Luis Obispo Blues.

Cal Poly comes into Friday’s game coming off a bye week, something Allen doesn’t think will be an issue for his team, who might have been due for a break after not having a bye week until the final week of the season.

“Honestly, I think the break was great for us,” said Allen “It kind of got us away from the game for a little bit mentally and physically and I think we’re all fired up to come back now and just get on the field again.”

Fill in the blank — Cal Poly will be successful in this week’s regional if they do what?

“Having fun,” said Allen. “It’s just that simple. Have fun and enjoy it… . This team’s awesome, there’s so much great team chemistry. We all enjoy being around each other. It’s just been great.

Whatever happens this weekend, Allen is thankful for his time in San Luis Obispo.

“I’ve just been blessed with the time I’ve had. It’s a memory and just fun times I’ll always remember.”

Previewing the San Luis Obispo regional, Joe Davidson from the Sacramento Bee and Shotgun Spratling from College Baseball Daily talk about Cal Poly, Sacramento State, Arizona State, and Pepperdine.

For one moment, the stars aligned. On the week that Cal Poly hosts its first regional, two alumni in the majors are playing one another in an inter-league series. Logan Schafer of the Milwaukee Brewers and Bud Norris of the Baltimore Orioles teamed-up to shoot this video as their teams prepared to square off.

The video was posted on Cal Poly pitching coach, Thomas Eager’s Instagram account yesterday.

Norris and Schafer both attended the Alumni Game before the season started. Schafer manned center field at Baggett while Norris gave pointers to pitchers from both sides.

Here’s their Instagram shout-out. That Cal Poly alumni group seems pretty tight-knit.