OK, after a little hiatus, let’s power through the final twelve Cal Poly baseball players. With the football season starting early this year, training camp will be starting in July and I don’t want a HUGE back-log. Here we go down the stretch, starting with a pair of left handed hitters. 

Kevin Morgan (Senior, Outfielder)

Kevin Morgan was one of the few Mustangs left from Cal Poly’s 2014 regional team. By Owen Main

Season Synopsis

Kevin Morgan always had good bat-to-ball skills and hit tools. Early in his career, memories of Morgan are littered with sacrifice bunts and moving guys over on the bases. In his senior year, Morgan was counted on to do more than that. He was one of six Mustangs who hit at least three home runs in 2017. 

Last of the Regional guys

Morgan was a very steady hitter throughout his career. As a freshman, he contributed to the program’s first home regional, and with him and Slater Lee finishing their eligibility, the Mustangs will no longer have any players with regional experience in their program. Morgan’s steadying influence played a big role in the team’s late charge in conference play. While a .250 average doesn’t seem like a huge void to fill, his presence in the locker room and positive and businesslike approach will be missed moving forward. 

Elijah Skipps (Junior, First Baseman/Designated Hitter)

Elijah Skipps will be counted on for big production as a senior in 2018. By Owen Main

Power brewing — Season Synopsis

Having played previously at a Pac 12 school (Arizona) and with his pedigree as a switch-hitting player with raw power, Skipps had high expectations coming into 2017. After making the switch to hitting left-handed only, Skipps took a while to come into his own. By the final month of the year, the Cypress, CA native was driving the ball all around the park.

As a senior, expectations will be high for Skipps to produce more than the 19 runs, 24 RBI’s, and .252 average he put-up in 2017. If the last few weeks of the season were any indication, he’s fully capable. 

Late surge

Skipps had hits in 14 of his final 17 games in 2017 — hopefully a good sign for Larry Lee and company. Two of his four homers came in one game — at UCSB — late in conference play. If Skipps can be a more consistent threat in the middle of Cal Poly’s order throughout the season in 2018, it could go a long way toward making the Mustang lineup more balanced and dangerous.  

Cal Poly has a lot of returning players who can hit, but as far as left-handed hitters go, Skipps is one of the few returners who they can really rely on. 

I was a peripheral college baseball fan before this season. I enjoyed it, but didn’t try to plug myself into the national scene. I’m also a big believer in East Coast bias in all media — sports media not excepted.

So this season, I think I’ve learned a lot about college baseball, the way it’s covered in general, and the fans. Here are a few things I’ve learned:

California is a good place for college baseball, but the South is insane.

California has a lot of college baseball teams, but people care about college baseball a whole lot more in the South, and the numbers back it up.

At the end of the season, the SEC dominated in attendance, drawing numbers that look like those of a bad Major League Baseball team.

SEC has set a new record with over 2.25 million in paid baseball attendance during the 2014 regular season.

— Chuck Dunlap (@SEC_Chuck) May 18, 2014

Nearly half a million of that total comes from the state of Mississippi alone. LSU 380K. ARK and SC both over 1/4 million each.

— Chuck Dunlap (@SEC_Chuck) May 18, 2014

LSU ended the season in first place in attendance, drawing over 378,00 fans in 35 home games. Ten of the top eleven and 12 of the top 14 total attendance leaders were from the SEC or ACC.

Cal Poly, in the midst of the greatest baseball season the school has ever seen, drew the 41st-most fans in the country. In a city like San Luis Obispo, it’s nothing to scoff at — just over 45,000 fans in 30 games — but let’s not compare it with what happens in the SEC and ACC.

Baggett Stadium is a great place to watch a game. It drew the 41st-most fans in college baseball this year. By Owen Main

San Luis Obispo is the kind of town this can be sustainable in. Maybe.

All that being said, SLO isn’t the typical place to find a university in California. Located in a more rural county, San Luis Obispo probably has more in common with an SEC college town than maybe any other college town in California.

For that reason, I have a little bit of hope that with some continued, sustained success, college baseball in San Luis Obispo could be a lot more popular. There are only 45,000 people in in the city of San Luis Obispo and about 275,000 in the entire county — not exactly a metropolis.

There are also five or six quality beach towns, lots of wine, and about a thousand other things to do than watch baseball. I don’t think sustaining an average of 1,500-2,000 fans per game is an unreasonable goal for the program.

When things like this happen though, during a season like they’re having, one has to wonder….

RT @pistolpete565 : Someone really just asked me if baseball season has started yet! Are you serious?

— fansmanship (@fansmanship) May 20, 2014

What about that East coast bias?

Does the East coast bias exist? I believe it does.

I also believe that, in a lot of ways, it’s justified. If I owned a website that covered college baseball nationally, I would look at the above numbers that reflect Southern fansmanship and skew my coverage waaay in that direction. Add to that the fact that SEC and ACC teams are really good and have great RPI’s and you have a system that promotes the game where the game is the strongest — SEC and ACC country.

UCLA, arguably the most successful West coast school of late, has a stadium that holds 1,820 people. Oregon and Oregon State — two other Pac-12 powers — have facilities that accommodate for 4,000 and 3,248 people respectively. These are big numbers, but they don’t sell-out every game all season and, if they did, they wouldn’t even break the top-10 nationally.

Also, let me make this clear. Guys like Aaron Fitt, John Manuel, Eric Sorenson Kendall Rodgers, and Shotgun Spratling do yeoman’s work. In Major League Baseball there are 30 teams that get covered by countless writers. In college baseball, a small core group cover over 300 Division 1 teams, and it seems like guys like Fitt could name most of the starters on most of the top 100-150 teams in the nation. They do a great job.

In the end, arguing bias doesn’t matter

Fans on the West coast can argue an East coast bias all they want, but in the end, it doesn’t really matter. Teams that are national contenders will host regionals. Teams that are good will make it to Omaha. Six of the past ten national champions have come from a conference on the West Coast. Despite there being far fewer Division 1 schools West of Texas, the schools that have made the College World Series from the West have fared relatively well.

Listen, I’m not here to start a fight. I’ve lived in the South. I’ve seen what SEC football can do to people. I can imagine what happens during football’s offseason. By every measure, college baseball in the South has more eyes on it and is more important to the general population there than anywhere else. On some level, I get the bias in this sport and I am on-board with supporting fan-bases that come out in droves.

On Monday though, neither fans nor the media won’t be the one who selects who gets in the tournament and what regional they go to. That is up to a selection committee that has shown a good deal of thought in recent years when it comes to selecting NCAA Tournament teams. They seem to do a pretty good job of understanding RPI bias.

Cal Poly felt like they got snubbed two years ago. Last season, they showed they belonged in a regional. So, what’s the next step? I guess we’ll find out next week.

To view attendance numbers for all NCAA schools go here, choose Division 1 baseball, and go to “Misc. Reports.”

Shotgun Spratling. The name. The legend. By Owen Main

Shotgun Spratling got the name Shotgun in Tee-Ball and it’s stuck with him ever since. The writer for College Baseball Daily sat down with me before Sunday’s series finale between UCSB and Cal Poly to talk baseball in Southern California and to tell me whether the Big West is actually better than the Pac 12 this season.

Instead of fretting about the Dodgers, go see a college baseball game this week. There are lots of options. By Owen Main

This weekend, baseball fans in Los Angeles and throughout the Dodgers “local” market — which spans from San Luis Obispo to Orange County — are experiencing quite a bit of frustration not being able to get the Dodgers on television. Locally, San Luis Obispo County residents literally have no (legal) option to watch the games.

It got me to thinking — what other options do we have? The answer, of course, is college baseball. On the Central Coast, Cal Poly is ranked in the top-five this week and UCSB is in the top-20. Their three games this weekend feature a number of players who will be drafted this spring. The most you’ll pay is $14 for the opportunity to sit outside, feel afternoon turn to evening, and watch one of the best college baseball series in the country this weekend.

If you’re in the Los Angeles area, don’t fret.

Perennial college baseball and Big West Conference powerhouse Cal State Fullerton is hosting UC Davis in Fullerton this weekend. Long Beach State is playing defending national champion UCLA this weekend in an out-of-conference series in Long Beach. If you’re in the Inland Empire, you can go see UC Riverside vie for regional legitimacy as they play Cal State Northridge for three games.

In the West Coast Conference, Loyola Marymount is hosting the University of San Francisco over the weekend. The Dons are a regional contender as well this year.

I’m probably leaving some teams out, but my point is that there are options — lots of them — to consume good baseball. I love the Dodgers, but I’m not going to sit at home all day staring at the MLB Gameday screen.

For those of you in Southern California who want to watch more baseball on television, someone at one of the other regional networks – Fox Sports, Prime Ticket, even ESPN 3 should really try to take advantage of the Dodgers not being available in Los Angeles. Lots of people want to watch baseball and it would seem that showing a few extra college games a week during this negotiation dumpster fire would get some really positive exposure for an entity they have an interest in promoting.

Instead of sitting around wishing I could watch the Dodgers play baseball, I’m going to go watch some college games this weekend. I recommend you do the same.

Matt Imhof was dealing on Friday night at Baggett Stadium. By Owen Main

Facing the 17th-ranked Kansas State Wildcats in the season opener, Cal Poly ace Matt Imhof struck-out 14 batters in seven-plus innings and combined with closer Reed Reilly for a two-hit shutout.

For San Luis Obispo fans of the 29th-ranked team in the country, Cal Poly started their season off just about as well as home fans could have hoped.

Mustang senior Jimmy Allen made Kansas State pay for some defensive mistakes and a balk by Wildcats pitcher Landon Busch. Allen, who chose to come back to Cal Poly after being drafted last year, singled to center field to score Tim Wise and Jordan Ellis. Freshman second-baseman Mark Mathias drew a bases-loaded walk for the only other run of the game.

The real story, though was Imhof. Prior to the game, the junior southpaw was one of 60 players to be put on the Golden Spikes Award watch list. The Golden Spikes Award is given to the best amateur baseball player in the country. Imhof is the first Mustang to be put on that list.

According to Joshua D. Scroggin of the Tribune, Imhof’s 14 strikeouts match a Cal Poly Division 1 record. The all-time record though is 19.

Imhof has a long way to go to the all-time record. Dick Jacquier had 19 in a 28-1 win over Westmont in 1950. #CPBats @BigWestBaseball

— Joshua D. Scroggin (@SLOcollegebeat) February 15, 2014

Even without being an all-time Cal Poly record, Imhof’s performance was sparkling. With the nice weather on the Central Coast, fans at the last two games of the weekend in SLO should be the envy of college baseball lovers who are still digging out of the snow in most of the country.

[See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]

Photos by Owen Main