Cal Poly Baseball’s second win of the series against Washington State University on Saturday night felt unpolished in comparison to their dominant victory in the home opener the evening prior.
Missed offensive opportunities and an abundance of defensive errors defined the clash between the Mustangs (4-2) and the Cougars (2-4). The matchup saw Cal Poly sneak away with a 3-2 win in its first walkoff victory of the season, following a Washington State wild pitch in the bottom of the 10th inning.
The win over the Cougars marked the second straight year in which the Mustangs have won consecutive matches to open play at Baggett Stadium.
The day after on Sunday, Cal Poly failed to clinch a series win, falling 8-3 as the offense struggled to string hits together.
Cal Poly walks off on Saturday
On paper, the Mustangs’ Saturday victory should have been more lopsided in their favor due to an increased number of offensive production. Across 37 total plate appearances, Cal Poly finished with 12 hits. This was the second consecutive game in which the Mustangs have recorded double digit hits.
Hidden behind the flashy numbers, however, was the ugly truth. Of Cal Poly’s 12 hits, only two were for extra bases. Furthermore, throughout the 10 total innings played, the Mustangs only composed two multi-hit innings, and drew just one walk.
The lack of multi-hit innings resulted in nine Mustangs left stranded on the basepaths, six of which were left on base with two outs remaining in Cal Poly’s half of the inning. The Mustangs would notch five hits on the evening before finally scoring in the sixth inning to tie the game at two runs apiece.
Despite the lack of overall results as a team, several players had notable individual performances; eight Mustangs recorded a hit, three of which notched multi-hit games.
Dante Vachini went 3-5 out of the leadoff spot, with three singles. Alejandro Garza and Braxton Thomas also added two hits each.. The duo had identical stats to their performances in the home opener, batting 2-5 and 2-4 in their respective spots.
Right fielder Dylan Kordic and second baseman Jake Downing were the only other batters to reach base multiple times.
Fending off the Cougars
Cal Poly’s pitching continued to ride the momentum provided by pitcher Griffin Naess the night before. Junior Josh Volmerding was given the starting nod from the Mustangs on Saturday, and across two and two-third innings pitched, he would strike out two, allow two hits and give up two unearned runs, both in the third.
The Cougars would not add onto their side of the scoreboard for the rest of the game. The Mustangs would utilize three additional pitchers throughout the rest of the night, who allowed just a combined four hits while sitting down an equal amount on strikes.
Of the seven innings pitched by the relievers, the Mustangs would down Washington State in a 1-2-3 fashion four times, and allowed just one hit in each of the other three frames.
Similar to their offensive counterparts, however, Cal Poly continuously shot themselves in the foot on defense. The Mustang pitchers drilled five batters and committed one error, while the Cal Poly infield added two more errors.
The Cougars did take advantage of the Mustangs’ mistakes; both runners who crossed home plate were a product of an individual error in the top of the third inning.
With the win, however, Cal Poly clinched a series split and will look to seal the series win on Monday.
Sunday struggles push series-deciding game to Monday
On the heels of two contrasting wins to open up their series against Washington State, Cal Poly baseball had a series win in their sights on Sunday afternoon.
Instead, the Cougars retaliated with a cohesive performance, and the Mustangs dropped game three of the series, 8-3.
Junior Laif Palmer made his first start at home in a Mustangs’ uniform after transferring from Oregon State, and gave the team length, going seven innings.
Palmer allowed six hits and walked four, leading to four earned runs, but kept the pitch count down, giving the bullpen rest for game four of the series for which a starting pitcher has not been announced.
The Cougars salted the game away with a four-run eighth inning against left-handed pitcher Josh Morano, who led the Mustangs with a 2.94 ERA last season. The Cougars bunted five times in the inning, putting on a small-ball clinic.
Defense has been a glaring issue for the Mustangs so far this season, a deviation from their play last season, when they finished near the top in the nation in fielding percentage. Cal Poly committed two more errors in Sunday’s loss. The uncharacteristic sloppiness in the field was a point of emphasis postgame.
“That’s kind of what the message was, actually. It was just, you know, we’re not exactly playing our complete brand of baseball right now,” Palmer said. “We know we’re better than that, so, you know, we’ve got a few things to clean up.”
Sophomore shortstop Nate Castellon has been a defensive standout over his time at Cal Poly, and made several smooth plays in the loss.
“Having a guy like that out there is the best thing you can have as a pitcher,” Palmer said. “I mean, he makes plays that shouldn’t be made a lot of times, and it’s super helpful.”
At the plate, Castellon picked up a double and was eventually scored by third baseman Alejandro Garza, who continued his scorching start with another multi-hit game. Freshman Antonio Castro got the start at second base and picked up his first collegiate hit.
The Mustangs had no shortage of baserunners in the contest with 10, but were unable to string together a rally, with frenetic baserunning proving costly at ties.
Cal Poly is eager to put the loss in the rear-view, and will get another chance to win the series on Monday.
“I think all of us are a little ticked off, you know, we don’t think that this is a team that should have beat us, so we want to go out and win the series tomorrow,” Palmer said.