Influx of youth paves the way for new-look Cal Poly baseball team

Two years removed from capturing its first Big West Conference title and hosting an NCAA regional, the Cal Poly baseball team enters the 2016 season with a handful of questions and few certain answers.

After finishing 27-27 overall last spring, the Mustangs graduated six seniors and lost four juniors to the MLB draft. Two-time first-team all-Big West performer Mark Mathias— selected in the third round by the Cleveland Indians — highlighted a group of six all-conference departures.

That left 14th-year head coach Larry Lee and his staff recruiting prep standouts potentially capable of contributing right away. Though the Mustangs also lost their top two high school prospects to the draft, 15 freshmen and nine sophomores now make up the core of Cal Poly’s new-look baseball program.

“It’s a team that works hard, has a good attitude, and we’ve seen improvements both individually and as a team,” Lee said. “But we’re still pretty far away from where we need to be to compete against the better teams.”

The Mustangs are scheduled to begin their season at 6 p.m. Friday against former Big West opponent Pacific inside Baggett Stadium. A 1 p.m. doubleheader is set for Saturday, and the four-game series finale starts at 1 p.m. Sunday.

For a team with more than two-thirds of its roster comprised of underclassmen, there’s likely a benefit to opening the season with a 12-game homestand. Younger players can get acclimated to college competition before playing 10 straight games on the road in March.

“The one thing I do notice with this team is we do have a lot of hard workers,” said outfielder John Schuknect, one of Cal Poly’s two seniors. “They’re putting in the time. If they’re struggling at something, they do work on it. They’re trying to improve every day. So, I think that’s one of our biggest strengths.”

Schuknect posted a .237 batting average with six home runs and 24 RBIs last season, and he brings 113 games of experience to the Mustangs’ outfield. Some combination of sophomores Josh George and Ben Polshuk and freshman Alex McKenna will likely join Schuknect in the starting outfield against the Tigers.

Fourth-year junior Brett Barbier will anchor the Mustang defense from behind the plate, and he’ll split time at first base as well. Needing to replace all-conference performers at second base, shortstop and third base, Cal Poly expects to be inexperienced at those spots early in the year.

Freshmen Michael Sanderson (first or third), Kyle Marinconz (second) and Dylan Doherty (shortstop) could potentially be in line to start on Friday night. Junior Alec Smith made 14 starts at second base last spring and is expected to challenge for consistent playing time at third this year.

“This team really needs to get off to a good start to gain that confidence,” Lee said. “Then, if they can do that over the course of the first three weeks at home, then they start believing in themselves and the team starts believing that we can compete with anybody.”

Lee made it clear that pitching remains the biggest question mark heading into the season.

Eight of last year’s 13 pitchers return, and they posted a combined record of 15-18 with an 8.70 earned run average. Sophomore left-hander Kyle Smith won five games as a true freshman, and he could be in line as the Friday night starter.

Junior right-handers Justin Calomeni and Slater Lee will be leaned on for more innings, as will sophomore Erich Uelmen.

Barbier, a 36-game starter at catcher last season, might have the best perspective on the Mustangs’ young pitching staff.

He praised Uelmen and Smith for their consistency in practice, and said 6-foot-7, 230-pound freshman Cam Schneider has “been pretty lights out” since coming back from winter break.

“From a hitting standpoint, as long as you see a lot of pitches in intrasquads and in practice, you can pretty much translate that into a game,” Barbier said. “But I feel like from a pitching standpoint, it’s going to be a little more challenging for some of these young guys when it’s Friday night, the lights are on and your name gets called out of the bullpen.

“That’s kind of when you show everyone what you’re made of.”

This story was originally published February 17, 2016 at 2:03 PM with the headline "Influx of youth paves the way for new-look Cal Poly baseball team."