In the penultimate game of the Cal Poly Baseball’s regular season, the bats were on fire from the first pitch, as they jumped over Long Beach State starter Luke Howe on their way to a 6-2 win.
The Mustangs (32-21, 21-8) had every player record at least one hit while the Beach (17-34, 11-18) were efficient with two of their three hits scoring a run.
Carson Turnquist tore through Long Beach in what could be his final regular season start of his collegiate career. The draft-eligible right hander only gave up one earned run, a solo shot in the sixth inning, and struck out nine while walking just one.
At one point Turnquist caught five straight hitters looking at strike three.
On the offensive side all of the damage was done to Howe, but it was enough for the Mustangs to walk away victors.
Dylan Kordic started the party with an RBI double in the first, before Ryan Tayman singled him in to make it 2-0.
The Beach got an unearned run in the second but Cal Poly poured it on in the third, with RBI’s from Casey Murray Jr., Cam Hoiland and Dante Vachini making it 6-1.
“The theme of the year has just been not to do too much, pass it to the next guy,” Hoiland said. “Teammates really alleviate all the pressure from the situation and allow you to be like ‘look, if I don’t come through in this moment my teammates got me.’”
Reliever Jaxon Baker did a much better job, holding the Mustangs to just three hits across the last five innings. For the Mustangs Chris Downs locked down innings seven, eight and nine to earn the three inning save and the series win for the Mustangs.
Tayman led the way with three hits, while Hoiland had two doubles.
Cal Poly hosts Long Beach for senior night on the final game of the regular season, Saturday May 16. The game starts at 1 p.m. but senior day festivities are slated to start earlier.
