Cal Poly advances to regional final after beating St. Mary’s

Cal Poly has been here before.

Just one week after playing for a Big West title, the Mustangs are heading into another final. This time, the setting is Jackie Robinson Stadium, and the stakes are a spot in the super regionals.

Cal Poly defeated St. Mary’s 14-1 on Saturday, in a dominant win that came just one day after the Gaels upset No. 1 UCLA in its home regional.

The Mustangs (38-22) are now the lone team in the regional that remains undefeated, giving them two shots to advance in the NCAA tournament. They will face the winner of Sunday afternoon’s elimination game between UCLA and St. Mary’s on Sunday night, hoping to reach the super regionals for the first time in program history.

In Saturday’s second-round game, St. Mary’s got on the scoreboard first, scoring a run in the second inning to grab the early lead and bring life into its dugout.

For a moment, it looked like the Gaels had carried Friday’s momentum into another day. But the lead didn’t last long.

Ryan Tayman answered in the bottom half with a solo home run, tying the game. No one knew then how decisive that swing would become, but from that point on, the Mustangs never let St. Mary’s back on the scoreboard.

“Ryan started it off,” Head Coach Larry Lee said. “We’re down 1-0, he hits a solo home run and then we rolled from there.”

It was Tayman’s 17th home run of the season.

The fourth inning was where the game started to turn in Cal Poly’s favor.

Cal Poly sent batter after batter to the plate in what felt like an endless half hour, scoring six runs and slowly draining any the energy from the St. Mary’s dugout.

It was the kind of inning that changed the feeling of the game entirely.

But baseball has a way of keeping hope alive. A single at-bat and one big hit is all it takes.

St. Mary’s had scored first in the second inning and the possibility still lingered, especially for a team ranked No. 3 in the nation in hitting.

But then, Cal Poly came back in the sixth and did it again, this time putting up five more runs to put the game completely out of reach.

A St. Mary’s team known for its offense didn’t show up against Paso Robles High School alum Carson Turnquist, who pitched six innings with seven strikeouts.

The outburst was a notable difference from last weekend, when the Mustangs scored a total of 11 runs across the whole Big West Championship and struggled at the plate for much of the time.

In Los Angeles, however, that same lineup has looked completely different.

Through two regional games, Cal Poly has scored 20 runs and turned its biggest question from last week into its biggest weapon.

Lee said Cal Poly’s offensive turnaround has been more mental than physical. The difference came from the approach.

“They’re good ball players, they just need to have the right mindset,” Lee said.

The mindset heading into Sunday’s game could make all the difference. Cal Poly knows this position all too well.

Last week, they found themselves in a similar spot before dropping their final game against UC San Diego by a wide margin, forcing a winner-take-all showdown the following day.

That experience is not lost on the team. Tayman made clear they don’t want to let that history repeat itself.

“We’re just playing our standard, we’re not worrying about the other teams,” Tayman said.

It’s a lesson learned the hard way. Tayman acknowledged that during the Big West Championship, the team’s focus drifted by looking ahead to opponents rather than staying locked in on the task in front of them. That cost them.

“Don’t make the same mistake twice,” he said.

A large part of Cal Poly’s roster knows exactly what this moment feels like.

The Mustangs made a run to the Eugene Regional final last year, and with that roster largely intact, they’re not walking into Sunday’s final rattled.

Lee pointed to veterans like Cam Hoiland, Griffin Naess, Dylan Kordic, and Casey Murray Jr. as players who bring that steadying presence to the roster, believing their experience in regional ball should keep the team calm and composed when the pressure is at its highest.

“They’ve all participated in high-leverage games,” Lee said. “They were on the road last year in a regional and actually played their best baseball when it really counted.”

​Cal Poly has been in the regional final before. The question is whether they could go further.

​UCLA and St. Mary’s will meet once again on Sunday at 1 p.m. streamed on ESPNU, and the winner will advance to play Cal Poly at 6 p.m. later that evening.

That game will be livestreamed on ESPN+.

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This story was originally published May 31, 2026 at 9:55 AM.