Ryan Droby applies the tag as a would-be Grand Canyon base-stealer is thrown out by catcher Jake Lesinski. The “strike-em-out, throw-em-out double-play was one of three that Cal Poly turned on Sunday afternoon. By Owen Main

For five weekend games, Cal Poly baseball struggled to put nine good innings together and earn a win. Sunday’s series finale against Grand Canyon saw more of the same for Larry Lee’s Cal Poly baseball team.

After giving up four unearned runs in the top of the third inning, Cal Poly couldn’t put a rally together and ended up losing the game 9-3. The Mustangs have now been swept in each of their first two weekend series.

Justin Calomeni (0-2) got his second straight Sunday start and didn’t pitch poorly. He struck out five batters in six innings of work and walked three. All four runs he gave up were unearned. Cal Poly has given up 18 unearned runs in their first seven games, which makes it not a surprise that their record stands at 1-6.

The job doesn’t get any easier this weekend. After playing Cal State Bakersfield at home on Tuesday night, Lee’s squad will head back to Texas for a series at TCU (Ft. Worth). Two weeks ago, Baylor swept them in Waco.

After two weeks

The stats at this point in the season tell a story. Despite the 18 unearned runs they’ve given up, Cal Poly pitchers still have a 4.95 ERA and a K/BB ratio of not even 2/1. Oh, and then there are the 17 errors. I’ll let you look at the stats with the link above.

This type of play is not indicative of your usual Larry Lee team. Generally, his teams have good fundamentals and play close games, even if they don’t win. Games this year haven’t seemed particularly close. Yet.

The great thing about baseball is that, after seven games, Cal Poly still has almost 50 to play. Starting Tuesday.

Photos by Owen Main

Once again, Cal Poly was in a close game in the middle innings. Once again, things didn’t go their way. The Mustangs have yet to be out-hit this season, but dropped their record to 1-5 on the young season.

It’s not that some players didn’t have decent games or make decent plays. This team just hasn’t been able to put anything together. It’s a story that’s becoming an all too-familiar one for the Mustangs and their fans.

Freshman lefty Kyle Smith struck out eight of the first nine batters he faced on Saturday night. By Owen Main

Freshman southpaw shines

Kyle Smith started strong, striking out eight of the first nine batters he faced. In fact, Smith didn’t give up a hit through his first four innings of work. In the fifth, Grand Canyon got to him for two runs on two hits and after a David Walker singled to start the sixth inning, he was pulled in favor of Danny Zandona.

Zandona also did a nice job in relief, giving up just a single unearned run in 3 1/3 innings. Speaking of the unearned run, Cal Poly’s defense once again was less-than-stellar.

Fielding woes

Grand Canyon’s go-ahead run was scored on a play that was ruled a sacrifice fly with an error. In truth, left fielder Kevin Morgan should have caught the ball, but the ball was deep enough that the run would have scored anyway.

Still, Morgan’s inability to catch the routine fly ball earlier in the game might have contributed to some miscommunication in the top of the ninth when he and shortstop Peter Van Gansen muffed a pop-up in short left field. Taylor Chris made the Mustangs third error when he threw a pickoff attempt into center field.

In all the Mustangs have now committed 15 errors in six games. They have committed fewer than two errors in just one of their games (when they had one). Even more maddening for everyone involved, the team has yet to be out-hit in any of their six games.

Baseball is great because there is generally a game very quickly after a win or a loss. For the past two years, players like Nick Torres, Brian Mundell, Mark Mathias, and Chris Hoo have showed high levels of resiliance. We haven’t seen that yet from this year’s Cal Poly team. Perhaps a cloudy, wet Sunday is a good day to wash away the first two games and salvage something out of the opening home weekend.

Photos by Owen Main

Casey Bloomquist fell behind a number of hitters and didn’t get a lot of help from his defense in Cal Poly’s Friday night loss. By Owen Main

Grand Canyon beat Cal Poly 10-4 in the Mustangs’ home opener on Friday night in front of over 2,100 fans at Baggett Stadium.

Cal Poly led 2-0 and 3-1 before Grand Canyon rattled off four runs in the fifth inning, two in the seventh, and three in the ninth.

Three of the six key runs in the fifth and seventh innings were unearned — something that might be a pattern for this Mustangs team.

Cal Poly also took another injury hit in the game. Mark Mathias, the team’s best player has been out all season while recovering from labrum surgery. On Friday, their biggest power threat and number-three hitter Brian Mundell left the game with what looked like a hamstring injury.

Mundell, a former catcher in high school, has been the Mustangs’ designated hitter during is first two years in San Luis Obispo. This season, he is manning first base for the first time. On a groundout to shortstop in the top of the seventh, Mundell stretched at first base and game up hobbling noticeably. In the bottom of the inning, Mundell grounded out and went down in a heap passing first base. He was replaced at first base by John Schuknecht and Tommy Pluschkell replaced Schuknecht at third base.

The loss of Mundell for an undetermined amount of time is a bigger blow than any home opening loss could ever be. The Tribune’s JD Scroggin called it “potentially serious.” I agree.

Photos by Owen Main