Led by sophomore left fielder Ryan Stafford’s four-hit night and an eight-run third inning, Cal Poly Baseball took down Fresno State by a score of 11-3 on Tuesday, May 9 at Baggett Stadium.
The Mustang (16-30, 9-15 Big West) offense exploded, scoring double-digit runs for the first time since April 25, while the Bulldogs (24-24, 13-14 Mountain West) couldn’t get much going early on.
Cal Poly welcomed back graduate lefty Travis Weston after being out since March 25 with an injury. Weston pitched a scoreless inning before he was relieved by freshman pitcher Freddy Rodriguez, who tossed four scoreless innings of one-hit ball while tacking on two strikeouts.
After neither offense could score in the first few innings, the Mustang offense exploded for eight runs in the third.
The big inning came courtesy of a pair of RBI singles from junior center fielder Jake Steels, a two-RBI double off the bat of Stafford, another two-RBI double from senior catcher Collin Villegas and a two-run single by junior first baseman Joe Yorke to take an early 8-0 lead.
Cal Poly added on in the fourth after Stafford smacked a solo home run over the fence to extend the lead to 9-0.
After the next few innings remained scoreless, the Bulldogs brought two runs across on freshman righty Charlie Royle to chip away at the Mustang lead.
The Green and Gold immediately responded in their half of the eighth after Steels recorded another RBI single and Stafford slapped an RBI single of his own to further extend the lead to 11-2.
The ninth saw Fresno State tack on another run, but it was too little too late as junior righty Kyle Scott shut the door on the Bulldogs en route to the 11-3 win.
The Mustangs will now look toward a non-conference three-game set against the University of Utah from Friday, May 12 to Sunday, May 14 at Rice-Eccles Stadium.