It was a pitchers duel on ace night, with last week’s Baseball America’s national team of the week member Griffin Naess and MLB top 100 draft member Mason Edwards, who came into the game allowing just one hit over 11 innings toeing the rubber.
The two went at it on night two of Cal Poly Baseball’s home series against USC, pushing the game into extra innings before the Trojans broke through in the tenth, beating the Mustangs 6-0 Friday night.
Edwards had gotten through the first eight batters before an error ended his bid at perfection, meanwhile Naess got through the first ten batters perfect before a one out single in the fourth ended his own bid.
Both recovered, and were trading zeroes on the scoreboard, Edwards with his 90-plus miles-per-hour fastball and Naess with his signature changeup.
Cal Poly could not get into the hit column well into the middle innings as Edwards had just been dinged on a couple of walks and the one error.
After inning after inning of dominance from both pitchers, the offenses started to get rolling in the seventh.
USC was first to get traffic on the basepaths, getting to Naess as his pitch count eclipsed 100.
Naess’ night got cut short in the top of the seventh, as the Trojans put a runner in scoring position, leading to Head Coach Larry Lee to make the call to the bullpen.
It was the second quality start in a row for Naess, who dominated Washington State last week. He finished with just four hits, one walk and seven strikeouts in his 6.2 innings of work.
“Its easy to get complacent,” Naess said. ‘We are playing a great squad over there, so just had to keep going and don’t let up.”
First out of the pen for Cal Poly was Nick Bonn, who has starred early and been a go to arm for the Mustangs. He struck out the ensuing batter to escape the first real jam the Mustangs had faced all game long.
The second USC error got Ryan Tayman aboard to leadoff the seventh inning, with a bunt and groundout moving him over to third with two out.
In came Cam Hoiland to pinch hit. Hoiland had been a much missed cog of the lineup for the Mustangs, He drew the two out walk and was promptly pinch run for. The next Mustang batter struck out, and Edwards escaped his first real jam of the game.
Trouble arose in the top of the ninth when Kevin Takeuchi ripped a one out triple into the left-center gap. But as he did in the seventh inning, Bonn got himself out of the jam with back to back foul outs to keep the score deadlocked at 0-0.
In the eleventh USC got runners on second and third after the wind, blowing heavily all night long, fooled the Mustang outfield. A flyball kept carrying and carrying, eventually falling on the warning track. USC would plate six runs in the frame as they looked to complete the combined no-hit bid.
After 10.1 innings without a hit, Nate Castellon shot a grounder up the middle that bounced off the second base bag and collected the first hit of the game for the Mustangs. Any comeback attempt would be short lived as they grounded into a double play the next batter to lose 6-0.
Offensively, the Mustangs have not been the same team that they were just last season. Last year, they ended with seven of their nine regular starters hitting above .300, add on Jake Downing and his work as backup first baseman when Zach Daudet was out and it was eight hitters.
So far this season there are just three hitters above .300, and the team is slugging over 100 points worse than last season. Daudet, Ryan Fenn and Jack Collins are huge losses to the lineup, but the returners are not producing at the same level.
The pitching has more or less held up their end of the bargain, with Naess being the ace the Mustangs need him to be. The bullpen has retooled and has come through in high leverage situations.
It’s only nine games into the season, there is plenty of season to turn it around and the Mustangs started their year last year slow offensively. On the flip side of that coin, Washington State and Campbell do not have the same caliber of pitching as UCLA and Texas A&M were early in 2025.
The Mustangs now need to win both weekend games to split the series. First pitch at Baggett Stadium Saturday is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. with Josh Volmerding matching up against Grant Grovel.