Cal Poly baseball head coach Larry Lee has coached many distinct teams during his tenure, 23 to be exact.

Yet coaching the 2025 Big West champion Mustangs is the most fun Lee has had during his time at Cal Poly, outside of coaching his son, Brooks. Still, Lee has coached many successful teams, and this season’s team stands tall against the rest. Why?

“Well, they’re good,” Lee said with a smirk.

When giving a more thorough analysis of this year’s team, Lee mentioned the intangibles the players possess.

“The teams that I really like are the toughest teams,” Lee said. “They’re not afraid and they get after it and they understand that the game is very difficult and you’re you’re not always going to be on top of your game. You get to see how they respond and then how they turn it around in time.”

The usually stern manager does not always paint the big picture, but just minutes after winning the first Big West Championships since 1998 seemed like an appropriate time to reflect on the joys the team has brought him.

“It’s fun coming to practice, trying to help these guys realize their dreams, and you want them to play in scenarios like this and just the atmosphere,” Lee said. “ I always tell them that when you can play in these big games and these big tournaments, [you] become better as a baseball player. Just proud of the way they carry themselves.”

The Big West tournament sure qualifies as a big tournament. With a second-place conference finish in the regular season in a conference that historically does get two playoff bids, winning the tournament was the only sure way to get the Mustangs into the NCAA tournament.

But doing so involved beating UC Irvine twice, ranked No. 20 in the nation. The Anteaters had their number all season, sweeping the season series and winning by mercy-rule in their first matchup of the conference tournament.

Winning two games against a team Cal Poly was winless against to that point seemed like a tall task, but one the Mustangs were up for, given their tough nature.

In the previous four losses to the Anteaters, the Mustangs could not piece together a cohesive game offensively and defensively.

During the three-game sweep, Cal Poly’s elite offense could not figure out the experienced pitching that UC Irvine has to offer. Despite ranking eighth nationally in batting average and sixth in hits, the offense managed just four runs total in the series’ first two games

For a long time, Irvine was the only Big West team that Cal Poly hadn’t beaten this season. And after a 15-3 beatdown in the second round of the conference tournament, a change in that department didn’t seem likely.

After defeating the University of Hawai’i in the losers’ bracket, Cal Poly was faced with reality. In order to extend their season, Irvine would need to be taken down.

With the resilient nature of the club, spread throughout all corners of the dugout, a chance was all they needed.

“If you have enough of those types of players on the team, then it’s infectious,” Lee said. “They’ve had the ability all season long to just forget about a loss and get to the next game. And it’s a unique trait that not too many teams have, but they’ve done it all season long.”

About an hour after beating Hawai’i, 2-1, the Mustangs took the field once again in another elimination game. It was not an elimination game for UC Irvine, which had the luxury of suffering a loss in the championship before it became do-or-die.

Facing an early 3-0 deficit, reality set in. There was no time to waste; Irvine wasn’t going to ease up.

After just a mere three runs in the previous matchup, the Mustangs’ offense unloaded, taking out any pent-up frustration on the Anteaters’ pitching.

Thirteen hits and 15 runs were the result, all the runs scored in just four innings: four in the third, four in the fourth, four in the sixth, and three in the eighth.

It was a beatdown. Players stormed the field after the eighth inning concluded, the run-rule not allowing a final frame to be played.

The job was far from finished, but momentum had shifted, like a pendulum swinging from the third-base dugout to the first-base dugout, where the Mustangs temporarily resided.

Ethan Marmie got the start for the Mustangs in the biggest game of the year, the sophomore’s first appearance in the tournament. Although Marmie hit a program record seven batters, he also maneuvered through 5 ⅔ scoreless innings. 

He exited the game with a 4-0 lead, and three of the runs were driven in by senior centerfielder Casey Murray Jr. Marmie was relieved by Tanner Sagouspe, also making his first appearance of the weekend. Sagouspe was relied on heavily during the regular season, but struggles in recent weeks put the redshirt junior out of favor.

Sagoupse had a four-run lead to work with, but things quickly went south. A two-out run-scoring error on a routine groundball to the usually sure-handed Ryan Fenn gave the Anteaters life. 

A three-run homer by the next batter knotted things up at four apiece. What should have been still a 4-0 ballgame now was tied, and the momentum swung right back to UC Irvine.

The Mustangs had to respond, but it wasn’t going to be easy. The two pitchers they faced the rest of the way were Big West Pitcher of the Year, Ricky Ojeda, and Irvine’s closer, Max Martin.

Even with their struggles against Irvine’s pitching all year long, Cal Poly’s offense had a different look in their eye, one filled with pure determination.

They immediately went back on top in the seventh and added an insurance run in the ninth. Sagouspe finished the job, tossing three scoreless frames to end it.

The last out was a line drive, fittingly hit right to Murray Jr. in center. All of Goodwin Field held their breath until the ball landed in his glove.

“It [was] an unreal feeling, a feeling that I’m never going to be able to forget,” Murray Jr. said.

Even given the performance he had in the final game, Murray Jr. was quick to deflect the praise to the rest of the team.

“We all played a part,” Murray Jr. said. “It took all of us, and we got the job done.”

It took everyone. To beat a team of UC Irvine’s caliber, it has to. Contributions from up and down the lineup and pitching stepping up when it mattered most propelled Cal Poly from potentially ending their season to a date in Eugene for the NCAA regionals.

The Eugene Regional features No. 12-ranked Oregon, No. 21 University of Arizona and Utah Valley. 

The Mustangs will begin Regionals play against Arizona on Friday, May 30, at 4 p.m. from PK Park.