Cal Poly baseball team begins year with three straight wins against Pacific
In the weeks leading up to the start of the college baseball season, Cal Poly head coach Larry Lee stressed the importance of playing at a high level in all three facets of the game.
For a program needing to replace six players who were selected in last year’s MLB draft, the Mustangs laid a solid early foundation built around talented underclassmen and junior college transfers.
Sophomore left-hander Kyle Smith set the tone in the season opener Friday night. The crafty southpaw pitched the second complete game of his career, striking out a career-high nine batters against one walk in a 6-2 victory.
“Standing in centerfield, his changeup was dirty,” said Alex McKenna, one of five true freshmen to start in the series. “You throw that pitch in there with a good fastball — he’s spotting up both sides of the plate — and he just kept them off balance all night.”
McKenna, Kyle Marinconz (second base) and Nick Meyer (catcher) all started in their collegiate debuts Friday night. Fellow freshmen Cooper Moore (first base) and Cam Schneider (pitcher) started the second game of the series, which Cal Poly won in walk-off fashion in extra innings.
Meyer hit a game-winning single through the right side to secure a 7-6 victory.
Among the many new faces Mustang baseball fans will get to know this spring are junior college transfers Jake Mavropoulos and Michael Sanderson.
Mavropoulos, a designated hitter, is one of the older players on Cal Poly’s roster. He graduated high school in 2011 and attended the University of Chicago, appearing in 10 games as a true freshman. Mavropoulos transferred to Oxnard College, redshirted in 2013 and developed into a standout as third-year sophomore in 2014.
After transferring to Cal Poly before last season, Mavropoulos was granted a medical redshirt as he recovered from a back injury. His two-run double in the season opener provided Smith plenty of breathing room, and he went 2-for-4 in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader.
“Scoring in the first inning kind of gave us some momentum,” Lee said following Friday’s game. “We created a lot of opportunities offensively that we didn’t cash in on, but at least we’re creating those opportunities.”
Saturday’s Game 1
The first collegiate hit of Nick Meyer’s career proved to be the game-winner.
With the score tied in the bottom of the 10th inning, the freshman catcher roped a walk-off single through the right side to bring home Michael Sanderson, who doubled during the previous at-bat.
True freshman Cam Schneider made the first start of his Mustang career and was touched up for two runs on five hits before being pulled in the third inning.
The 6-foot-7, 230-pound right-hander struck out one, walked one, and left the game with a 4-2 lead. The Tigers rallied to take a 6-4 lead when junior Danny Mayer hit a solo home run over the fence in left centerfield.
Cal Poly tied the score in the bottom of the frame on the strength of Josh George’s two-out, two-run single back up the middle off Pacific reliever Jordon Gonzalez. The score stayed that way until Meyer’s walk-off single.
Saturday’s Game 2
Cal Poly’s Slater Lee earned his first win in a 6-3 victory over Pacific in the second game of the doubleheader on Saturday.
Lee scattered 10 hits over 7 1/3 innings, giving up three earned and striking out eight. The three runs by Pacific all came in the eighth, before the bullpen put an end to the rally.
Josh George had a double, a triple and a pair of RBI for the Mustangs (3-0). Michael Sanderson and John Schuknecht each had an RBI their own.
Austin Dondaville pitched 1 1/3 innings for the save, his first of the season, striking out two.
This story was originally published February 20, 2016 at 9:20 PM with the headline "Cal Poly baseball team begins year with three straight wins against Pacific."