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. 

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.

Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith was a gutsy Friday night starter in 2016. By Owen Main

Season synopsis

Left-handed junior pitcher Kyle Smith was Cal Poly’s Friday night starter in 2016 and was super. As a sophomore, Smith was 6-6 with a 3.64 ERA while going up against the best starter on the opposition most of the year. This season, Erich Uelmen and Spencer Howard emerged as all-conference performers at the top of the rotation and Smith struggled early, limiting his starts and innings for the remainder of the season.

An off year

In 2017, Smith struggled early and with a much deeper pitching staff than in past years, Larry Lee moved to trying other starters as Cal Poly’s defense struggled. Smith pitched in almost as many games as his first two seasons (14), but started less than half and saw his ERA spike to 5.56. His innings went from 94 to 34. 

Anyone who has watched Cal Poly for the past three seasons knows what kind of a pitcher Kyle Smith can be. He was a flat-out beast in 2016 and that has to be the potential for fans and coaches to consider moving forward. He doesn’t throw hard, but his make-up is strong. It always has been. Unless something changes, look for Smith to once again compete for a starting role in 2018.

Myles Emmerson

Season synopsis

When you back-up a catcher like Nick Meyer, you know some of your options are going to be limited. Meyer was a second-team all-conference catcher and will appear for the USA team this summer. 

The freshman still contributed, allowing Meyer to spend some time in right field. In just 40 at-bats over 20 games, Emmerson handled the pitching staff decently while hitting .200 with a pair of doubles and 5 RBIs. 

More of the same in 2018?

I wish I could say Emmerson will get more time behind the plate in 2018. I guess the only way that would happen is if Meyer needs to play somewhere else for some reason or is injured. Catchers have to work on their defensive craft behind the plate constantly, but bats will play in the Cal Poly lineup. If Emmerson can prove he can hit at a higher rate given more playing time, he would give Larry Lee more options for keeping Meyer fresh, especially during non-conference games. 

If you want to see more of Emmerson over the summer, it should be easy. He’ll be catching locally for the San Luis Obispo Blues, though he can’t start playing until Cal Poly is finished with finals. 

Kyle Smith has been a steadying influence for Cal Poly as the Friday night starter. By Owen Main

Before the season started, Larry Lee wasn’t totally sure about 2016. Where was his pitching? How had guys really developed over the offseason? Would the freshmen and inexperienced sophomores play like underclassmen?

Twelve games into the young college baseball season, Mustang fans have to feel good about the early returns. Cal Poly is 10-2 and have split four games vs. top-25 opponents (1-2 vs. UCLA, 1-0 vs. Michigan). They even got some votes in at least one top-25 poll this past week.

There’s a flip-side too. Pacific is probably not a very good team. USF is in their league both figuratively and literally. All of Cal Poly’s games have been played at home. UCLA out-scored the Mustangs 28-13 in three games, including a 19-0 Saturday night whitewashing. So what should we really think of this squad? For now, the early returns are good.

Pitching

Having junior Justin Calomeni available to come out of the bullpen has been a good plan for the Mustangs so far this year. By Owen Main

Sophomore Kyle Smith looks like he’ll be keeping the Mustangs in games. Smith doesn’t have dominating stuff, but has kept the Mustangs in both of his starts. Freshman Cam Schneider and sophomore Erich Uelman have both looked borderline dominant at times. Justin Calomeni seems to have assumed the Reed Reilly all-purpose role for now. Lots of guys have been able to throw and you kind of get the feeling that Lee has been able to get a decent idea of who he can trust while winning games at the same time. It’s not an easy feat.

Going on the road for a few weeks, Cal Poly now at least has some idea about where they stand and must have at least some confidence in a few guys. I think that’s more than Lee could say before the season started.

Hitting

Cal Poly’s consistent lineup has probably been the most stable thing. It seems like they’ll be able to score some runs, one way or anohter. Seniors John Schuknecht (2 home runs) and Brett Barbier (.432 average) spent the summer in SLO and have been big contributors. Along with them, five underclassmen — Alex McKenna, Josh George, Kyle Marinconz, Josh George and Michael Sanderson — are hitting over .300. Schuknecht has 18 RBIs. Sanderson has had a solid start and plays an athletic third base. Kevin Morgan was the hero on Tuesday night when he singled home the winning run and Cal Poly is taking advantage of other teams’ mistakes while trying to minimize their own.

If they continue to average almost seven runs per game, this team will be feeling pretty good.

Defense

Kyle Marinconz seems to be earning the shortstop job. By Owen Main

Fielding the ball is probably Cal Poly’s Achilles heal right now. They made 16 errors in their first 9 games. Shortstop still isn’t completely figured out, but it looks as though Kyle Marinconz is tightening his hold there. On Tuesday, Kyle Marinconz played shortstop with Smith at second. Marinconz and Brett Binning were the double-play combo of choice in the USF series. It’s clear that Lee is still trying to mix and match to find a combo that works. If Cal Poly can get to the point where they average an error or less per game for a long stretch, that would be a huge improvement and help their pitching staff out a lot moving forward.

For context, last season the Mustangs made 63 errors in 54 games. The season before that, when they hosted the regional: 51 errors in 59 games. Through 12 games this year, they’ve committed 19 errors.

Looking ahead

After finishing their 12 game home stand 10-2, Cal Poly hits the road for a season-long 10-game road trip. How they fare against the likes of Grand Canyon, Sacramento State, and Wichita State will go a long way toward knowing how legitimately scary this team can get going into conference play.

One of the wonderful things about college sports is that, at any given time, opportunities for teams abound. Cal Poly has put itself in a position to have a very successful pre-conference season. There are still some questions. At least for now, though, we have a few answers. This team is capable.

Find all the photos from most of the Mustangs’ early games here.

The Cal Poly baseball team had question-marks all over the field this preseason. They emphatically answered some of those questions with a four-game sweep of former Big West opponent University of Pacific.

Kyle Smith was dealing on Friday night. By Owen Main

On Friday, Kyle Smith calmed questions about the pitching staff. The left-handed sophomore struck out six Tigers in the first two innings and nine overall in the complete game 6-2 victory. Smith only walked one batter and threw 108 pitches.

Saturday’s doubleheader started in dramatic fashion. In the first game, with the score tied at 6-6 in the 10th inning, freshman catcher Nick Meyer punched a single into right field to plate Michael Sanderson and put Cal Poly up 2-0 in the series.

The series advantage was pushed to 3-0 in the nightcap behind a strong start from junior pitcher Slater Lee. Lee went seven and a third innings and gave up three runs while scattering ten hits and striking-out eight batters. He walked just two Tigers.

In the final game on Sunday, Cal Poly was able to flex some offensive muscle, jumping out to a 15-0 lead and winning the game 18-2 to get to 4-0.

Great starts

Friday night was one to remember for Kyle Smith. There isn’t any understating a Friday starter who throws a complete game and gets a win to start a weekend. Smith’s velocity has never been super high, but his ability to keep hitters off-balance and think his way through a start is obviously advanced. The fact he’s left-handed doesn’t hurt either. To see him strike out six batters in the first two innings was great.

Catch and throw

To see Cal Poly make no errors behind Smith on Friday had to lower Larry Lee’s blood pressure a little bit. The Mustangs had defensive question-marks coming into this season, but committed just three errors in the four games this weekend. It’s not a number to hang your hat on, but considering the fact that they made seven errors in their first three games last season, we’ll call it a good sign.

Freshman center fielder Alex McKenna belted two home runs in Cal Poly’s 4-game sweep of Pacific. By Owen Main

McKenna flexes

With lack of experience all over the field, it was great to see a freshman step-up. Alex McKenna did just that, belting two home runs over the weekend en route to a Big West Player of the Week award. McKenna went 6-12 with two home runs and a triple on the weekend. He also walked seven times. In the crazy first weekend stats department, McKenna now sports a 1.817 OPS — not bad for a leadoff hitter and center fielder. He’s going to be an exciting player to watch over the next few years.

Barbier’s bat

Brett Barbier also had a very nice weekend. The junior played catcher, first base, and left field on the weekend and leads the team with a .571 batting average out of the three-hole. Barbier’s presence in the lineup provides both versatility and a steadying influence. When he goes well, this lineup looks like it can be dangerous.

Bruin Invasion

Cal Poly will host UCLA for three games and Michigan for one game this weekend as part of a Saturday doubleheader. The Bruins were a top-10 team coming into the year and have fallen off a little after going 1-2 last weekend. Their coach was not happy with his team’s performance, so you know they’re going to come to Baggett looking for blood.

Head coach John Savage said today was the worst #UCLA has looked in 10 years. Said he was embarrassed and disappointed.

— Shotgun Spratling (@ShotgunSprD1) February 22, 2016

The series will be a great test for this young Cal Poly squad. First pitch on Friday night is 6:00pm.

Photos by Owen Main. To view them all, click here.

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