After starting the season 11-12, the Cal Poly baseball team’s regional goals aren’t totally lost. But they’ll have to probably do even better than their 16-8 Big West conference season a year ago to make the postseason. 

Larry Lee’s team will start Big West play Thursday afternoon in Northridge (3:00pm). CSUN doesn’t have lights, so all baseball games there are day games.

Jarred Zill has come back this season to be the team’s ace. He’ll take the hill Thursday night in Northridge. Photo by Owen Main

The Mustangs have scuffled this season, playing well in some individual games, but lacking the consistency to grind-out wins on a daily basis as of yet. They beat Arkansas and Michigan in individual games, but split a four-game series with Paicfic (RPI of 187 of 297 Division I teams), and lost games to Grand Canyon (237) and San Jose State (209). At Nebraska, a top-100 team right now, the Mustangs won the first game of a four game series before losing the final two games during a Sunday doubleheader by a combined score of 35-5. 

Their only series win of the year so far came last weekend at home against Dartmouth (whose current RPI is 279). 

RPI is a measure that traditionally doesn’t favor west coast teams, but the Big West conference, a league that usually sends multiple teams to the NCAA Tournament, hasn’t helped itself this season. Only three teams (Hawaii (88), Cal State Fullerton (91) UC Irvine (95)) sit in the top-100 in the RPI and conference favorite Long Beach State is at 108. None are sniffing the top-25 at the moment. The other five teams sit between 150 and 218, with the Mustangs at 192, second from the bottom in front of cellar dwellers UCSB. Hawai’i and UCI are the only two schools in the conference with a winning record at the moment. The conference could get multiple teams into the tournament this year, but there is a real possibility that only one team could find their way into the postseason. 

The RPI can be useful, but it’s not everything. No Big West team has played a conference game yet, and Cal Poly can be optimistic. Last season, they won all but one of their conference series en route to a 2nd place finish in the Big West and a 16-8 conference record. The Mustangs will likely have to do better than that this year, win most of their mid-week games, and win an important home series against UCLA at the end of April. The best way for the team to keep a regional in its sights would be to win the conference outright. 

 Who to watch for

Alex McKenna and Nick Meyer are the names people heard a lot about in preseason. They are, predictably, the team’s two leading hitters. Tate Samuelson, a freshman from San Diego, has found comfort in the middle of the lineup. Samuelson, who played for the SLO Blues this summer, is second on the team with six doubles and a pair of home runs. Dylan Doherty has shown some offensive consistency and bat to ball skills. Bradlee Beasley and Kyle Marinconz are reliable batsmen who can be very dangerous. Cal Poly’s offense has averaged 5.3 runs per game. 

For up-to-date Cal Poly stats, click here. 

On the mound

Cal Poly’s rotation has been a little fluid. Jarred Zill returned to the mound and will be the presumed ace going into Big West play. Trent Shelton has looked good, but had appendicitis and his early-conference availability is in question. Michael Clark started as the Friday starter, but hasn’t started for a few weeks and looks like he may be in the new in-vogue multi-inning relief role. Thomas Triantos looked really sharp against Dartmouth and freshman Darren Nelson, who has been a two-way player, has looked good as a Sunday starter. Cal Poly’s relief squad is young — maybe a good reason to keep Clark in the bullpen — and their collective ability to get out of tough high-leverage situations could be a big key to the Mustangs making some noise in conference play.

For Cal Poly baseball photos, click here

Make them EARN it

There are lots of reasons a team can win or lose a baseball game, but the week-to-week stat that I’ve been looking at is errors and unearned runs. The Mustangs have played 23 games so far and have made 37 errors (11 more than their opponents) and have given up 27 unearned runs. If they keep giving up more than a single unearned run per game, they will stay a talented team with middling results. If Cal Poly can manage their defensive play and continue to improve on defense, they can once again compete for a Big West title. 

Ed. note: As a “content experiment”, I’ll be going through each player on the Cal Poly roster from 2017 to recap their season and look forward to 2018.

Jack Kuzma got some time on the left side of the infield in 2017. By Owen Main

Jack Kuzma

Season synopsis

Jack Kuzma was one of a few incoming freshmen who were shortstops in high school. In 32 games with the Mustangs in 2017, Kuzma went 5-33 with a double, two RBIs, and three walks.

With Cal Poly playing poorly at the beginning of the season, it seemed like everyone got a shot to play on the infield. When the dust settled, the kid from Minnesota was the odd-man out in terms of playing time. 

Summertime work

In baseball development, players from states that get cold in the winter are often given the benefit of the doubt at young ages. Minnesota definitely falls into the cold category for about half the year, so perhaps 18 consecutive months of baseball-related activity will be really good for him. I feel like teams that make regionals have guys who are solid in their roles at infield positions.

This summer, Kuzma will play wood-bat baseball in the West Coast League with two other incoming Mustangs on the defending league champion Corvallis Knights. 

The lanky Kuzma hit just .152 in 2017, but should get a chance to win the third base job next season. College players get better over time — it’s one of my favorite things about watching athletes at Cal Poly. Kuzma is a candidate for that this offseason as he’ll get some reps and opportunity in Corvallis. 

The Mustangs missed the steadying influence of Jarred Zill this season. By Owen Main

Jarred Zill

Season synopsis

Zill started the season as a rotation guy, but struggled early-on. Like all Cal Poly pitchers, he didn’t get much support behind him and had a 0-3 record over three starts before being shut down. Some of Zill’s peripherals weren’t horrible — he struck out 14 and walked just 4 in 14 innings over three starts.

Get better, kid

Zill wasn’t the only one on the pitching staff whose season ended with his arm in a sling. Even though he didn’t even make it out of March, the junior from Laguna Niguel was clearly engaged throughout the season, taking in games from behind the plate. His recovery is one side-story to keep an eye on for Cal Poly’s pitching depth moving forward. 

In his freshman and sophomore seasons, Zill was very good for Cal Poly, posting an ERA around 3.00 with a 8-4 record over 24 games and 17 starts. The beginning of Cal Poly’s season was, to put it kindly, unstable. Losing a pitcher like Zill didn’t help.

Cal Poly baseball wasn’t looking good. After Friday night’s loss, they were 0-1 in Big West play and it was kind of tough to see a way back. Of the 10 games that finished Friday, only one was errorless. The Mustangs had made 21 errors in that stretch. Then they won in extra innings on Saturday and controlled Sunday’s game and all of a sudden they are 2-1 having taken a series against a perennial top-25 team to start conference play. The conference win puts them at 19-11 through their first 30 games.

Erich Uelmen has been consistent in a weekend starter role for Cal Poly this season. By Owen Main

Uelman moved to Saturday

The first big decision Larry Lee made was to start Erich Uelmen on Saturday instead of his customary Sunday game. Saturday’s game was an afternoon one due to rain, so Uelmen got to pitch in a day game and he was spectacular, giving up just two hits and no runs in 7 1/3 innings. Along with Justin Calomeni, Uelmen combined for a 10-inning shutout and gave Cal Poly exacty what they needed in a 1-0 victory.

Errorless

On Friday night, an unearned run was the difference. It wasn’t a unique story. Cal Poly’s defense has been struggling to find an identity all season. The Mustangs have gone through at least four shortstops and about the same number of second baseman as unearned runs have piled-up.

Coming into Saturday, they’d made 11 errors in their past five games and hadn’t strung together two errorless games in a row all season. With a single error Friday and two on Sunday, that streak is still alive. Averaging less than an error per game in conference play is probably what the Mustangs need to do moving forward to continue to be competitive in the Big West.

Cal Poly and second baseman Dylan Doherty turned three double plays on Saturday afternoon. By Owen Main

Going into Saturday’s game, they’d allowed 36 unearned runs via 45 errors in just 28 games. To close the weekend, they’ve now committed 47 errors in 30 games, but didn’t give up any unearned runs in the final two games of the series against Cal State Fullerton.

Zill takes advantage

Jarred Zill took advantage of another opportunity to prove he could be the third weekend starter Larry Lee is looking for. The sophomore righty from Laguna Niguel brought his flowing blonde locks to the mound and looked sharp, going 7 1/3 innings. He gave up three hits and just two runs.

In all, Cal Poly pitchers allowed five runs in three games with the deciding run on Friday an unearned one. Each of the three starters gave Cal Poly a good chance to win on the day they pitched.

Morgan solidifying DH

Kevin Morgan seems like he’s solidifying the designated hitter role. The junior left-handed hitter has always been someone with good bat control and he’s putting it to good use.

On the weekend, Morgan went 6-9 at the plate with a walk, two RBIs, and two runs. Cal Poly scored eight runs this weekend against the best pitching staff in the Big West, and Morgan was directly involved with four of them.

If Cal Poly was looking for a full-time designated hitter, they may now have found one in Morgan.

Eager coming back to town

Former pitching coach Thomas Eager will be returning to San Luis Obispo with his new team on Tuesday night as California comes to Baggett Stadium. Game time is 5:00pm.

Photos by Owen Main

For Saturday’s gallery, Click Here 

For Sunday’s gallery, click here.