Cal Poly Baseball dropped another Big West series over the weekend, falling in two of three against UC Davis from Friday, May 5 to Sunday, May 7 at Phil Swimley Field.
That’s now four straight conference series losses for the Mustangs (15-30, 9-15 Big West), while the Aggies (17-26, 7-14) inched closer in the standings.
Friday
The series opener was the definition of a pitcher’s duel, as UC Davis edged Cal Poly 1-0 in a game that had just seven total hits.
The lone run of the game came early, as an RBI sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first inning was enough offense to earn the win for the Aggies.
Junior righthander Bryce Warrecker did his job for the Mustangs, as he buckled down and tossed eight innings, allowing one run on four hits and two walks. However, he was tagged with his fourth loss of the season.
The Cal Poly offense never threatened UC Davis, leaving six runners on base while only having one runner reach third base.
Saturday
On Saturday, the Mustangs took the lead and never looked back en route to an 8-1 win.
The game was delayed almost three hours due to rain, but that did not affect Cal Poly on either side of the game.
The Mustangs struck early, as sophomore catcher Ryan Stafford doubled down the left field line with a runner on second to plate the opening run in the first inning.
The scoring continued in the top of the third when junior shortstop Aaron Casillas doubled with the bases loaded to plate two more runs. Junior first baseman Joe Yorke followed that with an RBI sacrifice fly to score another run and make it 4-0.
Cal Poly busted the game open in the fourth inning. With runners on first and second, a sacrifice bunt by junior center fielder Jake Steels was thrown away by the UC Davis defense, allowing one run to score and runners to advance to second and third.
Redshirt sophomore third baseman Ryan Fenn then reached base and plated another run on a squeeze play.
Steels scored on a wild pitch later in the inning and Stafford knocked in Fenn with an RBI sacrifice fly to make it 8-0.
UC Davis then plated a run in the bottom of the fourth, but sophomore right-hander Steven Brooks made the most of his homecoming start by scattering six hits across seven innings and only allowing that one run.
Junior Kaden Sheedy came in from the bullpen and locked the rest of the game down, giving up a lone hit in two scoreless innings of relief.
Cal Poly had 10 hits, with multi-hit games from Steels, Fenn and Casillas.
Sunday
The Mustangs let the rubber match get away from them early on and couldn’t recover for an 8-0 loss and a series defeat.
Redshirt freshman southpaw Jakob Wright drew the start but didn’t pitch past the first inning after allowing five runs. Redshirt junior righty Ryan Baum relieved Wright and proceeded to toss 6 1/3 innings without allowing a run and tacking on five strikeouts.
UC Davis broke the game open in the first inning after scoring six runs courtesy of a two-RBI single, a bases-clearing double and scoring on a wild pitch to take a 6-0 lead.
Despite traffic on the bases and runners in scoring position in multiple innings for the Mustangs, they couldn’t bring any runs across.
In the eighth, Baum was taken out for junior right-hander Kyle Scott who gave up a two-run home run that extended the Aggie lead to 8-0 with Cal Poly unable to score in the ninth.
The Mustangs will now return home for a midweek non-conference game against Fresno State on Tuesday, May 6 at 6 p.m. at Baggett Stadium.
