Cal Poly Baseball redeemed an earlier home loss to Fresno State by going to Fresno and picking up a 13-8 victory.
The Mustangs (26-16, 15-6 Big West) will ride a four-game winning streak into a pivotal Big West series after taking down the Mountain West Conference-leading Bulldogs (27-17, 14-7 Mountain West).
Cal Poly currently sits in fourth place in the Big West Conference behind No. 9 UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and CSU Northridge who are in a three-way tie for first place.
The Mustangs had some help from a couple of late-season breakout players in junior third baseman Zach Daudet and freshman designated hitter Braxton Thomas.
Daudet’s six RBI night is the highest mark this year for a Mustang, beating out five RBI nights from Stafford and senior first baseman Joe Yorke.
Daudet started the season with a rough 0-for-15 through his first 16 games played.
It’s been a much different story through his last eight games, however, as he is 8-for-25 (.320 average) with four home runs through those games.
Thomas carried over his hot start in this past weekend’s UC Davis series against the Bulldogs after blasting another home run.
Thomas has hit two home runs in the past four games and five RBIs.
It took four pitches for senior center fielder Jake Steels to hammer a pitch to deep left center and give the Mustangs a 1-0 lead.
Daudet doubled the advantage in the second inning with a full-count home run.
Not to be left out, junior catcher Ryan Stafford, who extended his hitting streak to 22 games, powered a two-run blast to make it 4-0.
Freshman starter Christopher Downs wouldn’t make it out of the home half of the second as Fresno State jumped on him and fellow freshman Ethan Marmie for five runs and the lead.
Daudet would take the lead back in the third with his second home run of the game, this one a three-run home run to take the lead 7-5.
The Bulldogs would get one back in the bottom of the frame on their homer, but Stafford would get the run back with an RBI double.
Yet again Fresno State cut the deficit to one, and Cal Poly responded in their next at-bats. Junior outfielder Dylan Kordic had an RBI single before Daudet yet again plated two runs on a single.
Stafford would follow up a clean inning for the Mustang staff with his second home run of the game, while Thomas hit his second home run in four games to make it 13-7.
Fresno State homered in the bottom of the ninth but there wasn’t any more trouble for the Mustangs as they took the victory 13-8.
Cal Poly will look to take their momentum into a three-game road series against Big West-leading No. 9 UC Irvine from Friday, May 3 to Sunday, May 5 in Irvine, CA.
