During Cal Poly Baseball’s final regular season game on Saturday, fans at Baggett Stadium were monitoring more than one baseball game. UCSB’s matchup against UC Riverside had big implications for the Mustangs, and everybody knew. If the Gauchos lost and the Mustangs won, Cal Poly would be crowned the outright Big West regular season champions.
Instead, both teams finished off series sweeps of their opponents, and concluded the season as Big West co-champions. For Cal Poly, this is the third overall conference title in the program’s D1 history, and eighth overall. Due to UCSB having the tie-breaker, the Mustangs will be the No. 2 seed in next week’s conference tournament. Their first matchup will come against No. 3 seed UCSD on Thursday evening.
The Mustangs (33-21, 22-8 Big West) ended the season on a high-note, defeating the Long Beach State Dirtbags (17-35, 11-19) by a score of 8-3 on senior day. Six seniors were honored pregame: Casey Murray Jr., Dylan Kordic, Nick Bonn, Erik Kvidahl, Cam Hoiland, and Xander McLaurin. The Mustangs have gotten strong contributions from their seniors this season, and they were sent off appropriately in their last game at Baggett.
“Today, taking this field for the last time, [I was] just like taking everything in, taking every moment in, and just being grateful for every moment and every opportunity I’ve [been] given,” Hoiland said.
Murray Jr., Kordic, and Hoiland all collected hits in the win, part of the team’s 14 total. Every starter picked up a hit and nobody had more than one RBI in a balanced attack. Cal Poly should finish top-10 in the nation in hits for a second straight year, as well as top-two in doubles.
Josh Volmerding got the start and struck out five batters in three innings, allowing three runs. The bullpen pitched a shutout, as Troy Cooper, Brady Estes, and Nick Bonn evenly split six shutout frames.
Getting a series sweep right before next week’s tournament gives Cal Poly momentum at the perfect time.
“We want all the momentum we can get going into that tournament. It’s filled with great teams, good ball,” Murray Jr. said. “We’re looking to play our best ball.”
Cal Poly took two out of three games from UCSD in their matchup this season, and the Mustangs will look to take the positives from that series into Thursday’s game.
“They’re all around a good ball club, and so it’ll take us bringing our A-game each and every inning, each and every pitch, and I think we are more than prepared to do that,” Hoiland said.
If the Mustangs want to repeat as tournament champions, they’ll more than likely have to beat UCSB for the first time this year. There are parallels to last year when Cal Poly beat UC Irvine twice to win the tournament after losing the first four matchups. The message before the final two games was simple: it’s really hard to beat a good team five times. Whether it will be four or five against UCSB, the same mantra will be spread next week in Irvine.
“We’re obviously hoping to see them,” Murray Jr. said. “When we played them all three times, we didn’t play too badly, but we weren’t where we are now. So we’re excited to see what we are now against them.”
No matter who Cal Poly faces, the group is confident they can make another run, and the door is wide open for them to do so.