Cal Poly center fielder Alex McKenna was named Big West Field Player of the Year on Wednesday, according to the Big West’s twitter account. 

#BWCHonors Field Player of the Year – Alex McKenna (@CalPolyStangs):

-1st Mustang since 2014 (Mark Mathias) & 5th overall so named.
-Led BWC in hits (81) & runs (41).
-2nd in BWC TB (121), 3rd in OBP (.424), 5th in BA/SLG (.339/.506).#RideHigh #BWCBaseball #PlayBig ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/fdrZEcQfdB

— Big West Baseball (@BigWestBaseball) May 30, 2018

McKenna is the fifth Mustang to win the award. Mark Mathias won the award in 2014 and Mitch Haniger — currently a member of the Seattle Mariners — also won the award in 2012 while manning centerfield at Baggett. 

In 2018, McKenna led the conference with 81 hits and 51 runs while committing just one error all season. On the year, McKenna hit .339 with 15 doubles, 5 triples, and 5 home runs. In three seasons in San Luis Obispo, McKenna hit .323 with 16 home runs, 32 doubles, 9 triples, and 89 RBIs in 158 games. His career OPS was .874 for the Mustangs. A junior this past season, McKenna figures to be selected in the first 3-5 rounds of the draft next week. 

Another junior, catcher Nick Meyer, earned the Defensive Player of the Year award for the conference.

#BWCHonors Defensive POY – Nick Meyer (@CalPolyStangs):

– 3rd Mustang in 5 years to earn honor (Peter Van Gansen, 2015; Chris Hoo, 2014)
– .984 fielding (395 putouts, 44 assists, 7 errors in 446 chances).
– Earned 2016 BWC Freshman Field POY.#RideHigh #BWCBaseball #PlayBig pic.twitter.com/PYt50PuoVS

— Big West Baseball (@BigWestBaseball) May 30, 2018

Following in the catching footsteps of Chris Hoo, Meyer is Cal Poly’s third ever defensive player of the year. Meyer started behind the plate from day one at Cal Poly, earning the conference’s freshman of the year award two seasons ago. Meyer played his usual stellar defense while taking a step forward at the plate this season. In 2018, Mayer hit .344 with 14 doubles and two triples. His OPS was .836 and, at times during his career, Meyer’s mustache was one of the best in the game. Meyer figures to be the second Mustang selected in the upcoming amateur draft.

Junior Kyle Marinconz — who has played shortstop for most of his time at Cal Poly — and senior Trent Shelton — who emerged as Cal Poly’s Friday night ace in 2018 — were named to the All-Conference second team. 

Freshman infielder Tate Samuelson and freshman pitcher Taylor Dollard earned honorable mention honors along with senior pitcher Austin Dondanville.

#BWCHonors All-Conference from @CalPolyStangs:

Alex McKenna, Nick Meyer (1st Team)
Kyle Marinconz, Trent Shelton (2nd)
Taylor Dollard, Austin Dondanville, Tate Samuelson (HM)#RideHigh #BWCBaseball #PlayBig ⚾️

— Big West Baseball (@BigWestBaseball) May 30, 2018

Big West Release

Cal Poly Release

Behind good pitching, solid fielding, and some clutch hitting by a junior draft prospect, Cal Poly baseball swept UCSB in its final home series of the season last weekend. 

Meyer gets hot

For his part, catcher Nick Meyer was red-hot all week. Meyer went 5-6 in Cal Poly’s Tuesday mid-week game and followed it up with a great series against UCSB. On the week, he went 9-17 with three doubles, five runs, and three RBI’s, including a game-winning RBI double on Saturday afternoon on a pitch around his eyeballs. 

Meyer was named the Big West Field Player of the Week on Monday. 

Meyer, who was named to Team USA during the summer of 2017, was already rated as an above-average defensive catcher. He’s been red-hot at the plate over the past month or two as well, probably solidifying a relatively high-round pick in the upcoming Major League Baseball Draft. 

Senior Day

Trent Shelton has been flat-out terrific all season for Cal Poly. Photo by Owen Main

Sunday was senior day and six players were honored. Austin Dondanville, Kyle Smith, Elijah Skipps, Josh George, Colby Barrick, and Trent Shelton all saw their final games at Baggett over the weekend. 

Shelton pitched a great game on Friday night, a healthy Skipps was a key cog in Cal Poly’s offensive output all weekend, and Dondanville and Smith both saw action on the mound as well. George was the senior day darling, going 3-4 with 2 RBIs in Sunday’s victory. 

So long to some juniors?

As happens every year, Cal Poly will have some juniors drafted this year. The question will be which ones leave. 

The two likely candidates are, in likely draft order, are Alex McKenna and Nick Meyer, though Kyle Marinconz is also a candidate to be drafted and turn pro. If you’d asked me before the season, Michael Clark would have also been high on this list. Last season’s closer, Clark’s role changed this season and his workload was less. After pitching 48 innings in 30 games with a 2.58 ERA last season, Clark’s workload has increased to over 65 innings (nine games started) with a 5.79 ERA. Clark’s k/bb percentage also went from 2.12 in 2017 to 1.84 this year. 

That said, Clark pitched a gem on Sunday afternoon, lasting 7 1/3 innings while giving up just a pair of earned runs en route to the win. It was Clark’s longest and probably most productive outing of the season. 

We’ll wait to see where and how these guys get drafted and what decisions they make as far as coming back to school. If it was their last weekend series at Baggett, it was pretty special. 

A great finish

The level of play this weekend could be seen as bittersweet. This team has talent that has been playing much closer to their true talent level over the course of Big West play. 

As they’ve been prone to do over the past few years, Cal Poly is playing its best baseball at the end of the season. As has also happened in recent years, that great baseball doesn’t have any postseason implications. For the third time in four years since the program hosted a regional in 2014, Cal Poly put up a losing non-conference record this season, including losses to Gonzaga, Grand Canyon, New Mexico, a series split to Pacific, a mid-week split with San Jose State, losing two of three at home to San Diego State, losing three of four at Nebraska, and being swept at home by UCLA.  

With the exception of UCLA, Nebraska, and Maybe San Diego State, a regional team doesn’t have that many losses against middling or low level Division I teams on the west coast. The Big West wasn’t really great this season either. Preseason favorites like Long Beach State and UCSB flamed out, but losses in series at CSUN and a sweep in Fullerton took Cal Poly out of the race. The conference will only have a single program — Cal State Fullerton — in this year’s NCAA Tournament. 

Under construction

While the bleachers were ready for the home season in 2018, the second phase of construction – demolition of the current clubhouse — looks like it’s starting soon. On Friday, fans noticed some portable buildings far down the first base line at Baggett. The project had originally been scheduled for groundbreaking right after last season, but I believe that the new clubhouse will still be under construction during the 2019 season and be ready for 2020. 

Photos below from Friday night’s game by Owen Main. Find more photos at photos.fansmanship.com, or you can show love by contributing to the cause via Venmo @Owen-Main or paypal owen@fansmanship.com. 

Coming into this past weekend’s Big West Conference baseball series, there was still an outside shot for both Cal Poly and UC Irvine. After the Anteaters won the series two games to one, both teams fell in the standings and, barring a complete collapse, the split series secured Cal State Fullerton’s spot as the frontrunner in this season’s Big West title chase.

The Mustangs dropped the opener on Friday night, scoring just a single run and failing to back-up a solid pitching performance from lefty Trent Shelton. On Saturday evening, Cal Poly got on the board early with the help of a fly ball that was lost in the lights in the first inning and went on to win 4-3. On Sunday, the Mustangs lost the rubber game, scoring just a single run again in a 4-1 loss. 

The series loss to UC Irvine evened Cal Poly’s Big West record at 9-9 with six conference games (two weeks) to play. It also dropped them from a second place tie to a fourth place tie in conference play. UC Irvine moved to 10-8, four games behind Cal State Fullerton in the loss column (3 games overall).

Giving up 10 runs in three games is often enough in college baseball, but UC Irvine pitchers shut the Mustangs down to the tune of just six runs of their own in the three games.

Anteaters pound the zone

UC Irvine pitchers did a nice job throwing strikes when they had to. Anteater pitchers walked just six Mustangs all weekend and there were many fairly short at-bats in the innings I saw in-person. Kyle Marinconz didn’t seem to mind, going 7-11 in the series. 

No fun league

One thing Cal Poly players credited their mid-season turnaround to was having more fun. Players (mostly relief pitchers) have been dancing in the dugout and bullpen for nearly two months during rallies. Their coordination has been top-notch and added a really fun element to the game. 

On Friday night, Big West home plate umpire Scott Letendre put an end to all that. Letendre’s attention was on everything from shutting down the dancing multiple times to talking to Mustang starter Trent Shelton about where he needed to put the rosin bag on the mound. Did it make a difference as to who won the game? Almost definitely not. But nobody — opposing players or any of the umpires — has had a problem with it for weeks and it comes off looking like baseball is not a place to have fun. Not a great look for that ump. 

Seven more games

Cal Poly (23-27 overall) has seven games remaining this season, including four at home this week. On Tuesday, they’ll play their final mid-week game at home against Pepperdine. This weekend, they’ll finish their home schedule against rival UCSB, including the senior day game on Sunday afternoon. Seniors on this year’s roster include Josh George, Colby Barrick, Trent Shelton, Elijah Skipps, and Kyle Smith. Other Mustangs who you might have your last chance to see in a Cal Poly uniform include juniors Alex McKenna, Nick Meyer, Kyle Marinconz, and Michael Clark. Juniors are eligible for the Major League Baseball draft, which will take place June 4-6.

The Mustangs will finish their season next weekend (May 24-26) at UC Riverside. 

Photos by Owen Main

For more photos click here. If you just want to contribute to the cause, Venmo @Owen-Main or paypal owen@fansmanship.com. 

Kyle Marinconz (Shortstop/Second Base)

Kyle Marinconz held down shortstop for Cal Poly in 2017. By Owen Main

Holding down the fort

Kyle Marinconz is a natural second baseman. Over the past two Jekyll and Hyde seasons, the Mustangs have gone through at least a half-dozen other shortstops, trying to find a way to keep Marinconz on the right side of the infield. Unfortunately, Larry Lee has had to put Marinconz back at shortstop each of the past two years. It’s not that the sophomore (soon to be junior) has been bad at the position, but he has limited range there playing him at second base would have allowed the Mustangs to feel much more solid across the board in the infield. 

Instead, Cal Poly’s defense really struggled early in 2017, especially before Marinconz moved to shortstop. It probably affected everyone’s sense of regularity as the team really scuffled in their first few months before turning it on in conference play. 

While Marinconz doesn’t wow with any single skill (except for maybe his hit tool), he is pretty good at most things on the baseball field.

By the numbers

Marinconz put up a roughly similar season to his freshman year in 2017. He hit for more power (the first three home runs of his career came last season), but also struck out a little more and walked a little less. After a slow start, big performances during conference play really made his full season numbers respectable. He hit in 9 of his final 10 games, collecting 15 hits and two of his three homers over that span. His conference performance was enough to land Marinconz on the All-Big West first team. 

Marinconz was a draft-eligible sophomore in 2017, but was not selected in the 2017 major league baseball draft. As a junior in 2018, he’ll be one of the team’s leaders as he tries to improve his draft stock and help the team get to 30-plus wins again. Something that will be fairly easy to follow in the spring with the entire team will be to see where Marinconz ends up defensively. If he’s at second base and Cal Poly is playing consistent defense, it will likely be a good sign for the Mustangs early-on. 

Michael Clark (Relief Pitcher)

Michael Clark was Cal Poly’s closer in 2017. By Owen Main

Breakout season

In his sophomore season, Clark emerged as one of the most dominant closers in the Big West. Clark appeared in 30 games, amassing a 5-0 record, 11 saves, and a 2.59 ERA. Clark’s frame isn’t huge, but he peers into the plate through clear glasses and throws gas. In his sophomore season, he found his control and earned Larry Lee’s trust as the high leverage right-hander out of the bullpen and closer. Opponents hit under .200 against him and he struck out over twice as many hitters (36) as he walked (17). His dominance throughout the season landed Clark on the All-Big West second team.

Though he started just one game, Clark was third on the team in innings pitched, throwing nearly 50 frames.

Can he start?

A reliable closer is an important asset for any team, but Cal Poly lost their two best starting pitchers. It will be interesting to see whether Larry Lee looks at stretching Clark into a starting pitcher in the fall and spring. Lee will need to have as many solid innings as he can from his best pitchers. Clark figures to be one of those, if not the best pitcher on the staff in 2018.

On Wednesday, eight Cal Poly baseball players earned All-Big West honors for the 2017 season. 

Sophomores Alex McKenna (outfielder), Spencer Howard (pitcher), and Kyle Marinconz (second baseman) were all named to the conference’s first team. 

Spencer Howard was one of eight Cal Poly Mustangs who made the all-Big West team in 2017. By Owen Main

Mustangs named to the second team were first baseman Michael Sanderson, catcher Nick Meyer, infielder Bradlee Beesley, pitcher Erich Uelmen, and pitcher Michael Clark. 

The Mustangs finished the season in sole possession of second place in the Big West Conference, but failed to make a regional due to subpar non-conference play.

Howard, Uelmen, and Marinconz are all draft-eligible underclassmen and Sanderson, who was injured making a diving catch in the first inning of his final game completed his senior season.

Long Beach State dominated conference play and the individual non-conference postseason awards. The Dirtbags will host the toughest regional in the NCAA tournament starting this weekend.