Cal Poly Baseball is looking to repeat as Big West tournament champions, and the quest to punch a ticket to another regional begins on Thursday, May 21, in Irvine.
Despite not qualifying for the tournament themselves, UC Irvine will host the five schools participating: UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly, UC San Diego, Hawai’i, and Cal State Fullerton. The regular season concluded with UCSB and Cal Poly knotted at the top of the conference standings, but UCSB will enter this weekend as the top seed due to its head-to-head record over Cal Poly.
The No. 2 seeded Mustangs will take on the No. 3 seeded UCSD Tritons on Thursday evening in a matchup that will presumably set up a date with UCSB. Cal Poly will send out Griffin Naess, while UCSD will start right-hander Steele Murdock.
Naess was named to the Big West All-Honorable Mention team after pitching to the tune of a 4.68 ERA in 14 starts. Murdock’s ERA finished at 5.73 in his 14 starts, and he can rack up strikeouts in a hurry. Murdock finished with 93 punchouts in 66 innings, including an unbelievable 17-strikeout game against UCSB in April.
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The Tritons went 10-4 in games Murdock started, and his pure stuff should be enough to hear his name called in the upcoming MLB Draft. He has struggled with command, especially since the UCSB start, so the Mustangs will need to take advantage of free passes.
The Mustangs took two of three in their series against the Tritons in April, including an 11-3 win in the exact pitching matchup that we’ll see on Thursday. The Mustangs are a good matchup against Murdock, as they limit strikeouts as a team, finishing with a conference-low 364 strikeouts in the regular season.
If they manage to get past UCSD, Cal Poly will face the winner of UCSB vs. Hawai’i/Fullerton on Friday. The Gauchos will have some decisions to make when it comes to their ace Jackson Flora.
If Flora pitches in the team’s first contest, he most likely won’t pitch again in the tournament. Gauchos coach Andrew Checketts could potentially save the projected top-five pick for Cal Poly or UCSD, or even the championship game if they get there.Â
Carson Turnquist will likely be the choice for Cal Poly’s second game, and a pitching matchup between Turnquist and the nation’s ERA leader, Flora, would be a good one.
Turnquist has an ERA of 2.60 in his last five starts, all of which have been Mustang victories. Turnquist has been garnering pro attention and wields a devastating fastball that touches high-90’s in velocity. Josh Volmerding, Corden Pettey, and Brady Estes are candidates to start the potential remaining games.
Despite the early-season injury to starter Laif Palmer, the Mustangs have a deep pitching staff that should be valuable if they end up playing deep into the weekend.
Cal Poly’s offense is bringing plenty of hardware into the tournament, including the co-Big West Field Player of the Year, awarded to catcher Ryan Tayman. Just as they did last year, the Mustangs finished top-10 in the nation with 596 hits, and they batted over .300 as a team.
The Mustangs’ 147 doubles were one shy of Texas Tech for the NCAA lead. The bats will need to stay hot throughout the weekend when they face some of the premier pitching staffs in the country. Hawai’i and UCSB ranked third and fourth, respectively, in total ERA this season, while Fullerton also slotted into the top 50.
Cal Poly is not in a position to get an at-large bid to an NCAA regional, so their path to the playoffs must come through the Big West tournament. The Mustangs have all the pieces to get it done for the second consecutive season, but the road is far from easy.