Cal Poly baseball kicked off Big West Conference play with a rollercoaster win over CSU Fullerton capped off with a walk-off RBI single from Dylan Knowles sent Cal Poly home 10-9 in extra innings.
It took the Mustangs (7-6, 1-0 Big West) 11 innings to fend off their opponent as the Titans (4-9, 0-1 Big West) overcame a seven-run deficit.
Cal Poly’s offense stayed hot in this one and came out firing out of the gates. The Mustangs posted a five-run first inning and added three more runs in the fifth, including a two-run blast from senior outfielder Dylan Kordic that traveled 434 feet. These outbursts gave the Mustangs a comfortable 8-1 lead going into the seventh inning.
The Titans rallied for six runs in a seventh inning that required four Mustang pitchers before tallying a run in the eighth and ninth innings and claimed the lead.
Chaos ensued in the bottom of the ninth as the Mustangs, on the verge of heartbreak, rallied to send the game to extras in a sequence that involved multiple wild pitches.
Knowles plays hero
Knowles, who often comes in late in games to pinch run, did so in the ninth inning after Alejandro Garza drew a walk.
The outfielder stayed in the game to play first base and played two defensive innings before finally getting an at-bat in the 11th. With a runner on second and one out, Knowles had the chance to be the hero.
“Baseball is already a hard enough sport, and one of the hardest things to do in it is to come off the bench and go hit,” Knowles said.
But that’s exactly what he did. After working himself back into the count from down 0-2, Knowles smashed a line drive into center field, his first hit of the season.
A crowd filled with pure bliss streamed from the Cal Poly dugout as the winning run crossed the plate.
“It feels really good,” Knowles said. “Blessed to be here, blessed to be a part of this team.”
Shaking off the collapse
In the fifth inning, senior center fielder Casey Murray Jr. hit his first homerun in a Mustangs uniform, a two-run shot into the trees in left field, extending the lead to seven.
Everything was going the Mustangs’ way until it wasn’t. Substandard pitching and a dormant offense led the Titans right back into the game. After blowing a seven-run lead, it’s easy for a team to hang their heads. The Mustangs did just the opposite.
“We’re resilient,” Murray Jr. said. “Things happen, baseball happens, they put up good swings and we answered back.”
When faced with a gut-punch like the Mustangs experienced, part of the mentality is trusting one another and keeping the line moving, something that Murray Jr. preaches.
“Just keep stacking at-bats,” Murray Jr. said. “Keep putting up good at-bats after good at-bats, and good things happen.”
Sagouspe saves the day
Cal Poly closer Tanner Sagouspe pitched some big innings in the win, needing to provide length to a depleted bullpen.
Sagouspe threw 3 2/3, including both extra innings, his longest outing of the year so far. The redshirt junior gave up his first earned run of the year in the ninth in the form of the go-ahead run, but two shutout frames in extras kept the Mustangs afloat before emerging victorious.
“It was my game to lose,” Sagouspe said. “So just keep fighting, keep putting up zeros until they finally pulled away.”
The Mustangs will look to carry their momentum into the second game of the series against CSU Fullerton, which begins at three p.m. on March 8 at Baggett Stadium.