Survive and advance, that’s the name of the game in postseason play, and Cal Poly baseball has done just that.
In an elimination game against the University of Hawai’i, the Mustangs escaped with a narrow 2-1 victory.
Nothing was pretty for the usual high-octane Mustangs offense, but they did just enough to advance to the championship in the Big West Conference tournament.
The Mustangs will face UC Irvine at 7:05 p.m. in another elimination game. The game is not an elimination game for the Anteaters, however, as they have yet to lose in the tournament.
Irvine is the only Big West team that Cal Poly has not beaten this year, as they are winless in the team’s previous four meetings, including a 15-3 loss in their second game of the tournament this year.
If the Mustangs can change their fortune against the nationally ranked Anteaters, they will force a final game on Sunday at 3 p.m.
In the win against the Rainbow Warriors, the pitching led the way.
The Mustangs were in trouble early, as redshirt junior pitcher Luke Kovach surrendered a run just three batters in, then proceeded to load the bases with still nobody out. Kovach then struck out two and induced an inning-ending ground ball to get out of the jam.
It was smooth sailing from there on out for the pitching staff. Josh Morano came in for relief in the third inning and was dominant.
The sophomore Arizona transfer pitched a season-high six ⅓ innings, allowing just three hits and no runs.
The southpaw’s previous season high in innings pitched was five, and he had pitched more than three innings just three times all regular season.
Despite all of this, head coach Larry Lee rode the hot hand and kept Morano in the game until base hits in the ninth forced him to make a change.
With two men on and one out in the ninth, redshirt senior Jake Torres took the ball for the Mustangs, looking to close things out and send Cal Poly to the final round.
Two ground balls later, the Mustangs were celebrating on the field and physically punching their ticket to the championship on the big bracket board.
Offensively, Hawai’i’s pitching was stellar, holding the Mustangs to just four hits. Three of those hits came in the fourth inning, the inning in which both runs were scored.
Redshirt senior Ryan Fenn continued to swing a hot bat, starting the inning off with a base knock to left center. Sophomore Alejandro Garza followed with a hit of his own, and after a wild pitch, moved the runners over; freshman shortstop Nate Castellon tied the game with a sacrifice fly.
A slow dribbler that Casey Murray Jr. beat out, scored the go-ahead run, and that’s all the offense needed to secure the win with the work that the left-handed pitching trio did.
The Mustangs are now two wins away from winning the first Big West tournament since 1998, but it will take two wins against a team that has provided them with trouble all season long.