Cal Poly baseball was probably already out of postseason contention. So, when their three weekend starters were suspended for this weekend’s series against UC Irvine, things looked pretty down.

Three games later, Cal Poly has to feel decent about a home series win against an Anteater team they were tied with coming into the weekend. Now 9-9 in conference play, Cal Poly goes into the final few weeks of Big West play with a few wins and maybe some more confidence.

Pitching depth

Justin Calomeni was really good in a spot start on Sunday. By Owen Main

When any college team has their entire weekend staff suspended, you don’t expect much. Cal Poly’s teams in the past that have been really good have been pretty short in terms of pitching depth. This team has 10 — yes I said TEN — different guys who have started games and also 10 players with over 20 innings.

This is a double-edged sword. It means that the back end of the rotation hasn’t given Lee much reason to stay with guys on a week-to-week basis. It also means that lots of guys have gotten some experience. While that might not be enough to get the Mustangs to the postseason this year, it bodes well for next season and made the team unusually equipped to mentally handle situations like this weekend.

Spencer Howard, who started on Friday, has pitched BIG innings en route to a 2-1 record coming into the weekend prior to his series-opening win. Craig Colen, starting just his second game of the season on Saturday, has a 20-6 k/bb ratio. Justin Calomeni, one of the stalwarts of the bullpen before this weekend, started on Sunday and pitched very well.

While Calomeni could easily be drafted and gone after this season, all the other pitchers who have thrown major innings for Cal Poly will/should be back next season. If Cal Poly can fill some gaps on defense and in the order, there should be a solid battle for innings from a very experienced staff is 2017.

That’s a long way away though. For this weekend, it just meant that they had a shot against UC Irvine.

Offensive

Cal Poly put up seven runs in the 5th inning, including a grand slam from John Schuknecht and a solo homer from Nick Meyer on the very next pitch.

It shouldn’t surprise anybody that I had left before the inning and was barely off-campus when Schu’s homer cleared the left field fence.

I got a really great photo of him getting beaned earlier in the game though. So, pretty much I got all the important action right?

In other news, Alex McKenna went 3-6 with two runs, capping his return week. Prior to this week, McKenna missed 12 straight games with an injury. In the four games since he’s been back, the outfielder managed five hits, four runs, and six RBIs.

Barbs all over

I just wanted to mention something about Cal Poly (center fielder, left fielder, first baseman, catcher) Brett Barbier. Barbier was the preseason first-team catcher in the Big West conference and hasn’t really played there in a while.

When the Mustangs needed a first-baseman with some pop, Barbs went and played there like he hadn’t ever played anywhere else. When he was needed in left field, Brett went out there and got re-acclimated. Since McKenna and Josh George went down, Barbier has filled the position more than adequately.

I love to see when athletes play baseball, and Barbier has done everything he can for this team. I think there is only one game this season where he hasn’t reached base. He went 2-4 on Sunday and is hitting .365 through 50 games this year. Without Barbier’s CONSTANT presence this season in the middle of the order and saving balls at first base, Cal Poly might be under .500.

Whatever is in Brett’s future, let’s be clear how valuable he’s been to this Mustangs team this season.

Up Next

Cal Poly travels to Bakersfield on Tuesday before visiting Troy Percival’s UC Riverside Highlanders next weekend in Riverside.

Photos by Owen Main

On Tuesday night, Cal Poly came back from an early deficit to beat CSU Bakersfield 8-4 and improve their record to 16-7 on the season. For head coach Larry Lee, though, there are serious concerns about how the team is playing leading up to the conference season.

Asked after the game what he thought of his team’s performance he responded pretty clearly.

Spencer Howard pitched 3 2/3 innings on Tuesday night to pick up the victory for Cal Poly. By Owen Main

“Outside of a few individual players, not very good. And it will catch up to us,” said Lee. (Video below)

The Roadrunners, just 5-19 on the season, jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning before Cal Poly gained the advantage in the bottom of the fifth, when Brett Barbier singled home the go-ahead run. Senior John Schuknecht led the team, going 3-5 with two RBI’s to raise his team-leading total to 27 on the season.

“Honestly, I don’t have too much of an approach. I just kind of go up and there I swing the bat,” said Schuknecht. “I’m just seeing the ball well. I’m getting off good swings at good pitches.”

Schuknecht’s 27 RBI’s also leads the Big West Conference.

Spencer Howard, a native of Templeton, came on in relief for the win. Howard, who has been a solid relief option of late, pitched 3 2/3 innings, striking out four without giving up a run.

Cal Poly will host San Jose State this weekend and visit Santa Clara next Tuesday before kicking-off conference play against Cal State Fullerton at home. The Titans are the preseason (and perennial) favorite to win the Big West. Cal Poly, which has committed 34 errors in 23 games this year, will have to clean up the mental side of their game in a hurry if they are to compete with the conference’s top team right out of the gate.

Senior John Schuknecht has been hitting well out of the four-hole for Cal Poly. By Owen Main

“We’re not ready for the teams that we’re going to face in conference,” said Lee after Tuesday’s win. “We’ll get embarrassed.”

For now, the team’s 16-7 record doesn’t seem too bad on paper. But their schedule hasn’t been super strong overall and the Cal Poly program has raised their level of expectations over the past few years. With a team consisting of mostly freshman and new-to-Cal Poly field players, re-asserting the high expectations seemed to be an important message from Lee after Tuesday’s loss.

We’ll see how they respond Friday night when Kyle Smith takes the hill against the Spartans.

Photos by Owen Main

Incoming Cal Poly freshman Michael Clark was throwing, according to a few people I talked to, in the low 90’s last weekend. By Owen Main

For local college baseball fans, this weekend was an opportunity to see five players from next year’s roster compete on the same field.

The San Luis Obispo Blues’ roster boasts four of Larry Lee’s players: senior, John Schuknecht; senior, Brett Barbier; incoming freshman pitcher, Bobby Ay; incoming freshman pitcher, Nigel Ward. This past weekend, the Blues hosted two Cal Poly pitching prospects who were part of the Menlo Park Legends’ roster. They were Michael Clark and Thomas Triantos.

Friday night, Schuknecht and Barbier both started for the Blues. When Clark got in the game for the Legends, the first batter he faced was Barbier. Triantos pitched two solid innings on Saturday for Menlo Park and Ay started Sunday’s game for the Blues with Larry Lee in the crowd looking on.

Barbier talked with me about how the summer was going and what it was like to catch some of the incoming freshmen right now. Click here to listen to our conversation. 

I gues it’s kind of like spring training — if spring training were seven months before the season started and if not all the players were on the same team they’d be on later.

OK, fine, it’s probably not a lot like spring training, but maybe it’s the closest thing a die-hard college baseball fan in this county will find. For Cal Poly baseball fans in SLO, last weekend was a good one.