In their most important series of the season, Cal Poly Baseball took two out of three games from the No. 9 ranked team in the nation, UC Irvine.
The Mustangs (28-17, 17-7 Big West) pulled off the series upset behind multiple offensive outbursts, while their pitching staff shut down the Anteater (34-10, 15-6 Big West) offense.
Cal Poly is now closer than ever to the Big West Conference title with their first series win over a Top-10 ranked opponent since 2011.
With the series win, the Mustangs now hold tiebreakers over now No. 16 ranked UC Irvine, No. 25 UC Santa Barbara and CSU Northridge.
Big eighth inning propels the Mustangs in game one
Down 4-1 going into the top of the sixth inning, scorching hot freshman designated hitter Braxton Thomas stepped into the batter’s box.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Thomas slapped a hanging curveball back up the middle, scoring junior infielder Zach Daudet and junior outfielder Dylan Kordic to make the score 4-3.
Thomas has seemingly come out of nowhere as Cal Poly’s best hitter as of late.
The true freshman didn’t play in a single game until the Mustangs’ series against UC Davis on April 26.
Thomas hit a walk-off fielder’s choice in his second collegiate at-bat in game one of that series before recording RBIs in each of his next four games, including Friday’s game where he recorded a team-leading four RBIs.
That would be the start of a six-run eighth inning capped off by an RBI hit-by-pitch from Daudet to score senior first baseman Joe Yorke to take a 10-4 lead.
Daudet has also seen a late-season surge after starting the season hitless in 15 at-bats through his first 16 games played.
Through his last nine games, the junior transfer is 9-for-28 (.321 average) with four home runs and 14 RBIs.
Redshirt sophomore lefty Jakob Wright had a rocky start against the top-ranked offense in the Big West Conference.
Wright gave up four runs through his first two innings of work but didn’t allow a single run through seven innings after that point.
Wright finished with a line of seven innings pitched, four runs allowed while striking out nine Anteaters.
Redshirt sophomore reliever Tanner Sagouspe relieved Wright in the final two innings only allowing one run and striking out three en route to the 10-5 win and a statement win to set the tone for the rest of the series.
Brooks’ seven strong innings not enough as Cal Poly loses in extras
Although junior Saturday starter Steven Brooks shut down the UC Irvine offense through seven innings, it wasn’t enough for Cal Poly to capitalize as they dropped game two of their three-game set, 4-3 in extra innings.
The Anteaters once again jumped out to an early lead against the Mustangs in the first inning, but Brooks didn’t allow a single hit from then on.
Brooks finished with seven innings pitched, two earned runs and seven strikeouts.
Cal Poly’s offense tied things up in the fourth inning after an RBI triple from redshirt junior infielder Ryan Fenn and an RBI fielder’s choice from Yorke.
It would continue to be a pitcher’s dual from then on out as the Anteater’s starter, Trevor Hansen, finished with six innings of two-run ball while striking out eight Mustangs.
Despite both teams having runners in scoring position in the ninth inning, neither could capitalize and the game would go to extra innings.
Cal Poly scored on an error on the UC Irvine defense scoring junior catcher Ryan Stafford.
The Anteaters responded right away in the bottom of the tenth with an RBI double and a walk-off RBI single to take game two in a 4-3 final.
Yorke powers Mustangs past UC Irvine to series win
Yorke, weeks removed from becoming the all-time program RBI leader, continues to deliver for the Mustangs, belting his first home run of the year to propel the team to a series-clinching win over UC Irvine.
The Mustangs beat the Anteaters on the road by a score of 11-2, fueled by a team-wide offensive outburst to secure the series win.
With the win, they creep closer to the top spot in the Big West and position themselves squarely in third, just three games back of first place UC Santa Barbara.
The Mustangs now hold tiebreakers with the three other top teams in the Big West: UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, and CSU Northridge.
Yorke led the way on offense, going 3-for-5 with three RBIs and a home run.
The home run was Yorke’s first since March of last season, but he has contributed regardless and holds a .313 batting average on the year.
It was truly a group effort; every Mustang in the starting lineup collected at least one hit, and six different players collected RBIs and multiple hits.
Kordic had his second three-hit game of the series, going 3-for-5 with two RBIs and a run out of the sixth slot in the lineup.
The Mustang pitching was on point too, as freshman starter Griffin Naess threw four innings of two-run ball before handing it over to fellow freshman Josh Volmerding, who finished with five shutout innings and earned the win.
This was Volmerding’s longest outing of the year, as he has been used primarily for one to two-inning appearances out of the bullpen. This performance dropped his earned run average (ERA) to 3.12 on the season.
Securing the series win against the No. 9 ranked team in the country was the first time the Mustangs had beaten a Top-10 opponent in a series since 2011.
They will now travel to Santa Clara University for an out-of-conference midweek game on Tuesday, May 7 at 5 p.m.