Ariana Elegado didn’t score in the first half, but managed eight points in the game. By Owen Main

In a hotly-contested game that saw the lead change eight times in the second half, Pepperdine beat Cal Poly, 76-69. Down by as many as 15 in the first half, Cal Poly clawed-back and took the lead in the second half. The lead changed hands on seemingly every possession until Pepperdine found buckets down the stretch, made their free throws, and outlasted the Mustangs over the last five minutes or so.

Cal Poly is a young team that is probably going to be prone to some mistakes, especially early-on this year. For example, the team committed 23 turnovers in Tuesday’s game.

But Cal Poly is going to need newcomers Lisa Marie Sanchez, Dynn Leaupepe, and Lynn Leaupepe to play big roles all season alongside sophomore Hannah Gilbert and so they’ll all have to be patient while everyone finds their comfort level for this season.

What I liked

There were lots of bright spots and things to really like if you’re a Cal Poly fan. First of all, the Leaupepe twins are everything they were cracked up to be. They are aggressive, savvy players that do not always look like freshmen. Dynn, who started the game, finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Her sister, Lynn, came off the bench to score 7 points and pull down 8 rebounds.

Sarah Lipton was another bright spot off the bench. She scored five points in the first half and played good defense at the 4 in the second half. Like Gilbert and the newcomers, Lipton is working to find her role. It may take some time, but the minutes off the bench on Tuesday were mostly quality ones from the sophomore.

Gilbert is another sophomore who continues to show promise. While she and the rest of her teammates missed their fair share of inside shots in the game, Gilbert is able to easily sky over other players for rebounds. She’ll get better as the season goes on at picking her spots on the offensive end. She’s a player who should shoot above 50 percent from the floor. As the season wears on, she’ll work her way into being more comfortable with starting minutes.

Kristin Ale is showing this year that she is a lot more than just a spot-up shooter. By Owen Main

What they’re still working on

Dynn and Lynn are both capable of putting the ball on the ground and finishing around the hoop in one-on-one situations. There were at least three such plays in this game that kept the Mustangs close. Unfortunately, once they do that once or twice, help comes quickly at this level. Both players are still figuring out how and when to curb their drives. Cal Poly has open three-point specialists like Kristin Ale, Elegado, and Beth Balbierz. As the season goes on, look for all the wing players on the team to drive with their head up a little more and find their open teammates.

Another silver lining from Tuesday’s game is that Elegado had zero points in the first half and Cal Poly was still able to cut into Pepperdine’s big lead. While Elegado didn’t score a ton, she did push the tempo. The senior managed eight points in the second half, but getting her on the board should always be an early indicator for how the Mustangs will play.

Tempo

In case you didn’t notice, Cal Poly pushes the tempo. Hard. They took 79 shots in the game, but only made 35 percent of them. As the season progresses, look for percentages to go up some. That being said, the Cal Poly women’s style is much different than the men. They can live with 15 turnovers if they’re generally pushing the tempo and getting shots they want.

On Tuesday, Pepperdine took far fewer shots, but got to the free throw line 34 times compared to Cal Poly’s 13. That’s a big discrepancy, especially for a home team who was taking the ball to the basket a lot.

Richardson has a night

Guard Bria Richardson scored 29 points for Pepperdine. She shot the ball 24 times to get there and shot 6-8 from the free throw line. Her mid-range and slashing game was really really good. She has the kind of quickness that is rare at this level of college basketball. Add to that her length — just enough to get good shots over other guards — and you have a recipe for a player who will put up a lot of points this season if she wants.

ShareSLO Tournament

Cal Poly will host the Cal Poly/ShareSLO Holiday Tournament Friday and Saturday at Mott Athletics Center. They will play Ivy League team Dartmouth on Friday, followed by Texas A&M, Corpus Christi on Saturday. Both games are at 5:00 PM and admission is free.

Fans from the city and county of San Luis Obispo made a great showing over the weekend. by Owen Main

If you were there, you know that last weekend’s regional was a special weekend for both Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo baseball fans. Here are a few memorable moments and a some important notes from last weekend.

SLO hosted a regional

The fact that this county hosted a regional is a memorable moment unto itself.

San Luis Obispo hosting an NCAA baseball regional is about as good as it can get for an on-campus sporting event at Cal Poly or anywhere between Santa Barbara and San Jose. Six games in three days were all close. Over 15,000 fans came out to Baggett, making the regional a huge success for Cal Poly Athletics. The teams who were eliminated were all really good. Pepperdine turned out to be a little better than everyone else on this particular weekend.

Larry Lee

If you haven’t read this story from the Tribune on Larry Lee and his coaching legacy in San Luis Obispo, you need to. For him to have been the coach when the Mustangs were first able to host a Regional is pretty important. He clearly has a ton of respect from other coaches — every coach went out of their way to talk about the great job he’s done when describing the Regional. Lee knows what he’s doing and has a pretty clear plan. Seriously — read that story.

Matt Imhof delivers a pitch in his final game at Cal Poly. By Owen Main

Standing ovation for Imhof

On Friday night, Cal Poly ace, Matt Imhof, showed why he is going to be a high draft pick this season. Despite not having his best command, Imhof battled to give Cal Poly the win in their Friday night Regional opener against Sacramento State. Imhof gave up just one earned run in 7 2/3 innings in what will likely be his final game in a Cal poly uniform.

He tipped his cap as fans gave him a standing ovation on his way out of the game. Imhof was expected to be drafted within minutes of this post going live.

Jake Peevyhouse had an all-time meltdown on Friday afternoon in the first game of the Cal Poly regional. By Owen Main

Peevyhouse loses it

Arizona State didn’t have the most memorable of regionals. The Sun Devils lost a one-run game to Pepperdine on Friday afternoon and followed it up with a loss to Sac State on Saturday. The young team from Tempe has good talent, but couldn’t quite put it together over the course of two games in San Luis Obispo.

The whole weekend was frustrating — no moment moreso than a called third strike on Jake Peevyhouse, ASU’s number three hitter. Peevyhouse argued more demonstratively than any college player I’ve ever seen. He would have been tossed by over half the major league umpires out there, but on day one of the NCAA Tournament, the umpire was hesitant to run him.

Sac State avoids” two and queue”

Sacramento State made a good showing in their first NCAA Regional. After losing to Cal Poly on Friday night, Sac State battled against Arizona State to win a Saturday afternoon game before falling to the Mustangs again on Sunday.

This Sac State fan joined a big group cheering for the Hornets. By Owen Main

Sac State head coach, Reggie Christiansen seems to be recruiting the Sacramento area really hard — trying to keep homegrown talent in the state capitol. All I knew about Sac State coming into the weekend was that they had been in a brawl last season with UC Riverside. I came out of the weekend with lots of respect for Christiansen and the Hornets’ program.

Cal Poly makes it to Sunday night

Joe Davidson, who joined my pre-regional podcast last week, asked me a question on Friday — How disappointing would it be if Cal Poly diddn’t win their regional.

It took me a moment to think about. Coming into this season, the Mustangs had never won more than a single game at a regional (last year). They had never been ranked in the top-10 in the country, never been ranked number one, never hosted a regional, and never won a Big West Conference championship.

So, while it was disappointing that the Mustangs didn’t win the four-team regional, it was also a hugely successful season. Walls were broken down throughout the season and, as Lee pointed out after Sunday night’s game, at some point it becomes the norm. Fans in San Luis Obispo had their hearts ripped out by Pepperdine, but the Waves are a deserving team. By making it to Sunday night, Cal Poly showed they belong int his situation. In baseball, anything can happen. If not for two plays in each of Cal Poly’s losses to Pepperdine, the Mustangs might still be playing.

Disappointing? – Yes, but not soul-crushing. I won’t be surprised if attendance continues to go up at Baggett Stadium next year, no matter how good the team is. Cal Poly baseball made itself some new fans to be sure over the weekend. With continued improvement from Cal Poly athletics, San Luis Obispo is the kind of town that will latch onto winning programs.

Brown liner

Aaron Brown’s shoulders make it look as if he were chiseled in ancient Rome. In the championship game, Pepperdine’s cleanup hitter and eventual Regional MVP lined a foul ball down the right field line. The ball hit a Mustang News photographer square on the thigh. I mean square. Dead-on. Brown hit it so hard, the woman barely had anywhere to go as she stood on the warning track down the right field line. It’s a place I stood for many innings during the regional.

To her credit, she didn’t even rub the spot where she got hit. She held onto her camera and finished shooting the game. Mad props.

The weather

I think there were a few high clouds, but the weather was amazing. Hot during the day and cool at night is what SLO is known for. Nobody could have asked for anything better.

Nick Torres’ Sunday night homer was probably his last in Cal Poly green and gold. By Owen Main

Torres and Allen homer in their final game

Junior Nick Torres and senior Jimmy Allen have both also likely taken their last official Baggett Stadium at-bats. Torres will be drafted this year and barring some surprise, won’t be back next season. In the midst of Cal Poly’s five-run comeback on Sunday night, Allen and Torres each homered.

It was a fitting way for both to go out — not in the fact that they lost, but in the fact that they both stepped-up when it mattered most.

The bottom of the eighth

On a night that would end in extreme heartbreak, Cal Poly and its fans had about an inning and a half of pure, exalted jubilation. Between the seventh inning stretch and the end of the eighth inning, Mustang fans found their voice and the Mustangs, finally, found their bats.

First, Nick Torres’ seventh-inning homer, a towering shot into left-center field, brought the Mustangs to within 6-4. After an electric and fast top of the eighth, Cal Poly seemed to clutch hit after clutch hit before the score was tied on a fielders’ choice play that Pepperdine couldn’t turn into a double-play.

Chants of Cal! — Poly! and an atmosphere I’ve only experienced during the Major League Baseball playoffs were stifled in the top of the ninth when Pepperdine grabbed the lead again. For Cal Poly fans though, that inning and a half will leave a lasting memory of the best baseball team Cal Poly has ever fielded.

Congratulations to Pepperdine and good luck at TCU. By Owen Main

Steve Rodriguez and Pepperdine are easy to root for

I don’t know about any other Cal Poly fans, but I’m rooting for Steve Rodriguez and the Waves this week against TCU and the rest of the way. If they face Irvine in the College World Series, I’ll keep my Big West pride and root for the Anteaters, but Rodriguez’ Waves came to this regional ready to play. When teams are closely-matched, execution becomes huge. It seemed as though every Cal Poly miscue led to key runs for the opposition while Pepperdine’s errors didn’t cost them nearly as much. It’s the cruel reality of baseball.

Rodriguez made reference to the fact that the Waves have been on the other end of bad breaks in regionals before. Like Lee, Rodriguez seems to maintain the longview about his team and this tournament. He paid homage to the great season Cal Poly had and came off in press conferences as a coach who is pretty easy to root for.

Cal!

Poly!

Like a UCSB Soccer game at Spanos Stadium, Baggett Stadium was bursting at the seams on Sunday night.

Down 5-0, Cal Poly mounted a comeback to tie the game at 6-6 in the bottom of the eighth. In the process, the Baggett crowd came alive and made for the most electrified baseball atmosphere this county has ever seen.

Pepperdine rallied in the bottom of the ninth, ripping the heart out of every fan who had helped will the Mustangs back into the game and the Regional itself.

Cal Poly lost the game 10-6, but San Luis Obispo and its baseball fans won the weekend. I’ll post some quotes over the next few days in other stories, but here are some photos from the final game of the historic weekend.

Pepperdine’s Aaron Brown was awesome on the mound on Saturday allowing just one run in eight innings. By Owen Main

Pepperdine committed four errors in Saturday night’s game against Cal Poly at Baggett Stadium, but a litany of other mistakes doomed the Mustangs in their 2-1 loss in Saturday’s regional game. With the loss, Cal Poly’s road to the Super Regional round becomes much tougher. The Mustangs will have to win three games in two days in order to continue on to the next round. Pepperdine will simply have to win one.

“Nobody wins or loses individually. We win as a team, and we lose as a team. We have great support for each other, and we just need to stay confident,” said Cal Poly coach Larry Lee after the game. Here are some ways Cal Poly lost as a team last night.

Base running

Cal Poly’s mistakes on the base paths started early. In the second inning, Jimmy Allen got a late break from third on a ground ball to first base. Though the throw beat him by three steps, Allen’s slide made it closer than that. Cal Poly scored their only run of the game in the third inning, but a little better jump might have helped. The more I think about it, the less I think this was a base running error, but the late jump is worth mentioning.

The first real clear error came in the third inning. Brian Mundell singled with one out. Zack Zehner followed with a hard line-drive right at the first baseman. Mundell froze and then ran back to first base, but failed to slide. The play was close and Mundell was clearly out. Had he slid, Cal Poly’s clean-up hitter might have been given the benefit of the doubt.

Unfortunately, Mundell’s tough day on the bases wasn’t over. In the eighth inning, he hit a ground ball to third base that Pepperdine’s Austin Davidson thew in the dirt, sending us photographers on the warning track scurrying. Mundell rounded first and charged toward second. Again, the play was close. Again, Mundell didn’t slide. Again, he was called out. Instead of having the tying run on second base with two outs and Zehner coming up, Cal Poly was headed to the bottom of the eighth still down by a run.

The Collision

Up 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh, Cal Poly left fielder Zack Zehner and center fielder Jordan Ellis collided on a fly-ball, allowing Pepperdine catcher Aaron Barnett to go all the way to third. The run would score on the next pitch, when second-baseman Hutton Moyer doubled off the right field wall to tie the game. Moyer later scored on  a John Schuknecht error, and Pepperdine had all they needed to finish off the Mustangs.

After the game, Zehner took full responsibility.

“There was a lack of communication, actually,” said Zehner. “I called it first, and he came in second. He’s the center fielder, so it’s his ball, and I didn’t get out of the way… . He called it. It’s his ball. I got to get out of the way.”

Flush it

Cal Poly has done a good job all season with coming back from losses, especially at home.

The Mustangs won series against then top-20 teams UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine after Friday night losses at home. They also took the UCLA series after losing the Friday night game.

For both players and fans, their experience throughout the season may prove important over the next 36 hours.

“You have to be able to flush and not be concerned about what happened,” said Lee. “The reality is we have to win three ballgames to get out of here, but we can’t think about tomorrow night at 6:00, we’ve got to think about tomorrow at 1:00. We’ve been resilient all year. We went through the one stretch where we lost four straight, but besides that we never lost back-to-back ballgames. Winning 46 games is good. This is a good group. We just have to stay together.”

Cal Poly’s hitting on Saturday was definitely flushable, managing just three hits all game. The good news is, most of the best pitchers on other teams have been used at this point. Today, Cal Poly will presumably face Sacramento State’s third-best starter.

“The longer this regional lasts, I think there’s a possibility that we are equipped offensively. we have a solid offensive team and once you start playing your third, fourth, and fifth game, now some of the starting pitching is lessened,” said Lee.

Cal Poly starting pitcher, Casey Bloomquist talked about flushing memories of past plays as something he tries to do as well. It’s a mentality that Cal Poly will need to take to heart if they have a chance of winning three in a row.

“I try to have a short memory and not think too much about it,” said Bloomquist. “Just look to the future, because there’s nothing you can do about the past.”

Photos by Owen Main

[See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]

Pepperdine’s Austin Davidson is congratulated by teammates after scoring the game’s first run. By Owen Main

Pepperdine snuck past Arizona State 3-2 in sunny San Luis Obispo on Friday afternoon in the first game of the Cal Poly regional.

Arizona State lost starting pitcher Brett Lilek in the first inning as Lilek tried to cover first on a double play. Lilek and the Sun Devils did not get the double play and Pepperdine scored their first run on the play.

Down 3-0, Arizona State got a run back in the bottom of the second inning on a line-drive home run by Trever Allen. Nate Causey also drove in a run for the Sun Devils in the bottom of the fourth, but neither team scored for the final five innings on a warm day at Bagggett Stadium.

Austin Davidson and Hutton Moyer each had two hits for the Waves, who advance to face Cal Poly Saturday at 6 pm.

Photos by Owen Main

[See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]

Previewing the San Luis Obispo regional, Joe Davidson from the Sacramento Bee and Shotgun Spratling from College Baseball Daily talk about Cal Poly, Sacramento State, Arizona State, and Pepperdine.

For the first time ever, Cal Poly is hosting a baseball regional. On Monday morning on ESPN U, the teams who are coming to SLO were announced.

Pepperdine, Arizona State, and Sacramento State will battle the Mustangs for a chance to go to a super-regional and eventually the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.

Cal Poly baseball players sit at Charlie’s Place and await word about who they’ll face in the San Luis Obispo regional. By Owen Main

Familiarity

Two of these schools are familiar foes for fans of Cal Poly athletics. Sacramento State plays baseball in the Western Athletic Conference, but battles Cal Poly in football each year since the Mustangs football team moved into the Big Sky Conference. Sac State is also a member of the Big West in soccer. Between 1950 and 2009, Cal Poly baseball has played Sacramento State 58 times and has dominated the series, going 43-15. The two teams last played in 2009.

Cal Poly faced Pepperdine on back-to-back Tuesdays just a few weeks ago. In Malibu, Pepperdine threw ace Aaron Brown in the mid-week game to take a shot at the highly-ranked Mustangs. It worked, as Pepperdine handed Cal Poly one of its 10 losses with an 11-4 thrashing. One week later, Cal Poly returned the favor in San Luis Obispo, beating Pepperdine 5-1 at Baggett Stadium. With the split against the Waves this season, Cal Poly is 24-32 all-time against them.

Arizona State

The Sun Devils are the wild card. Cal Poly is no stranger to the Pac 12. They’ve played UCLA, USC, and Cal this season and are slated to play a weekend series at Oregon State next year. But for fans on the central coast, Arizona State is a little under the radar this season. Like Cal Poly, Arizona State has won nine of its last ten games and they are poised to flex their BCS-conference muscle.

The only thing you need to know about ASU is that they beat Oregon State in two of three games in a series in Corvallis early in the season. On Monday, Oregon State was awarded the top overall seed in this year’s tournament.

If you’re looking for a Cal Poly connection, Pat Tillman’s brother, Kevin, transferred to Cal Poly from Arizona State and played second base for the Mustangs before enlisting with his brother.

Cal Poly is 1-3 all-time against Arizona State. The last time they played was 2010 and Cal Poly lost to them then at the “Coca Cola Classic” in Surprise, AZ. The Mustangs went 23-32 that season — the worst year Cal Poly has had under head coach, Larry Lee. Since then, Cal Poly has had a winning record each year and has had 36 or more wins in each of the past three years, including their sparkling 45-10 record this season.

Tickets should go fast…

People, if the games aren’t sold-out already, they probably will be sometime soon. Hosting a regional is a historic event not just for Cal Poly, but for San Luis Obispo. Baseball is probably the most mainstream sport that Cal Poly could ever host NCAA Tournament games for. If you’re a baseball fan and you don’t go when this game is in your back yard, then it’s time to question your fansmanship.

[See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]

Why is this the most important week thus far for the Cal Poly Mustangs? Let me count the ways:

Shortstop, Peter VanGansen always seems to be on base for Cal Poly. By Owen Main

The Big West Title

The Big West Conference doesn’t have a baseball tournament. Instead, the winner of the regular season gets the automatic bid. Right now, the frontrunner is not Cal Poly, it’s UC Irvine.

The Anteaters will visit Baggett Stadium this weekend for the final three regular season home games for Cal Poly. A sweep puts Cal Poly in the driver’s seat for the conference title. A series win gets them well-into the race. A series loss to the Anteaters would make Irvine strong favorites to hold-on during the last few weeks of the title.

Revenge

Cal Poly has one mid-week game loss this season. It was last week. To Pepperdine. This week, the Mustangs have a chance to even things up with the Waves.

Last week, Pepperdine, who had a bye over the weekend, threw their ace pitcher against Cal Poly in an attempt to get their five-game week off to a good start. They beat Cal Poly, but proceeded to lose their next three games to Long Beach State and Loyola Marymount. The Waves did salvage one game against LMU and are looking to beat Cal Poly for the second week in a row.

Cal Poly snapped a four-game losing streak in winning the last two games of their series at UC Riverside last week. They’ll be looking for payback on Tuesday.

Regional Hosts

Cal Poly is all but locked-in to host a regional on the West Coast. I suppose they could lose most of the rest of their games and find themselves bumped, but if the prevailing wisdom is correct, they’ll at least take care of business enough to host a regional. What is more in question at this point is whether they’ll be a national seed going into the NCAA Tournament.

A National Seed

Losing the Big West Conference, or even this upcoming series to UC Irvine could cost Cal Poly a top-eight national seed. National seeds not only get to host Regionals, but are also automatic Super Regional hosts should they advance.

Cal Poly isn’t counting their chickens yet, and neither should their fans, but the road to Omaha is made slightly easier by taking care of business and earning a top-eight seed. Currently, Cal Poly is ranked as high as fifth and as low as eleventh in five major polls. A sweep of Irvine or 3-1 week could make that top-eight ranking and national seed more of a possibility.

The return of Mark Mathias this past weekend could go a long way toward getting the Mustangs back in an offensive rhythm. Cal Poly also hopes that Matt Imhof, coming off his worst performance of the season in Riverside, also gets back into a groove back at Baggett Stadium.