Cal Poly Baseball hosted the Fresno State Bulldogs in a mid-week non-conference matchup on Tuesday, April 9 at Baggett Stadium.
The Mustang (18-13, 9-3 Big West) offense outhit the Bulldogs’ (23-9, 12-3 Mountain West) offense but couldn’t keep up with their powerful lineup.
Early season trend rears its ugly head
Cal Poly struggled to hit with runners in scoring position, which is something they struggled with early on in the season and was the main reason for their sluggish start.
The team started 2-7 on the year and their offensive struggles came to a head in their three-game road series against the University of Texas where they didn’t score a single run throughout the entire series.
Despite the sluggish start to the season, the offense has since turned a corner and sported a 16-5 record since their rough start coming into this matchup.
Despite recording eight hits, none came with runners in scoring position ending the day 0-for-4 in those situations against the Bulldogs.
While Fresno State only recorded two hits with runners in scoring position, it ended up being the difference in the game and three of those runs came via home runs in the early innings.
Cal Poly’s two runs came from a sacrifice fly from junior infielder Zach Daudet in the third inning and an RBI double from senior center fielder Jake Steels in the seventh, but the offense struggled to string together any other hits the rest of the way.
Revolving door of midweek starters
Freshman right-handed pitcher Ethan Marmie was on the mound for Cal Poly in his first collegiate start, but it didn’t start well after giving up a solo home run in the first inning and a two-run home run in the second inning.
Marmie would go four innings before being relieved by fellow freshman pitcher Josh Volmerding.
It’s been a revolving door of freshman midweek starters for the Mustangs after head coach Larry Lee named freshman righty Griffin Naess the Sunday starter a few weeks into the season, replacing redshirt senior Ryan Baum.
Freshman Christopher Downs, Volmerding and now Marmie have all taken a crack at the midweek starter position with Downs recording the most starts of the freshmen with three.
Marmie, however, has gone the deepest into a midweek start of the three with four innings pitched compared to the season highs of Downs and Volmerding with three innings pitched in a start.
An RBI double and RBI groundout off Volmerding would force Lee to pull the southpaw in favor of Baum.
Baum would go on to pitch four shutout relief innings while striking out four to keep Cal Poly in the game, but the offense would stall the rest of the way to close out the 5-2 loss.
Up next, the Mustangs will host their first Big West Conference series since March 22, when they take on CSU Bakersfield in a doubleheader on Friday, April 12 continuing the series on Sunday, April 14 at Baggett Stadium.