Cal Poly baseball team rallies to win first game of doubleheader

This Cal Poly baseball team seems to have a flair for the dramatic.

For the second straight game and third time this season, the Mustangs got a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth inning to complete a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over San Francisco in a nonconference baseball game at Baggett Stadium.

Trailing 1-0 in the ninth, Cal Poly (8-2) got three straight singles from Brett Barbier, Kyle Marinconz and John Schuknecht to tie the score. Reserve Kevin Morgan — who hit the game-winning single in a 6-5 walk-off victory against Pepperdine on Tuesday — put down a sacrifice but to move the runners up and Michael Sanderson was intentionally walked to load the bases.

True freshman Cooper Moore then hit a one-out RBI single over the shortstop’s head to score Schuknecht and give the Mustangs their third straight victory. Cal Poly and San Francisco met in the second game of Friday’s doubleheader at 4 p.m.

The Dons (2-9) broke a scoreless tie in the eighth inning when Aaron Ping hit a two-out, RBI single to score Beau Bozett, who also singled earlier in the inning. Cal Poly starter Kyle Smith responded by striking out leadoff hitter Harrison Bruce on three straight pitches to end the inning.

Making his third start of the season, Smith (1-1) seemed to have everything working against the Dons. He allowed only one hit through the first seven innings and retired nine consecutive batters during one stretch.

Smith surrendered three hits, struck out eight and walked two in eight solid innings. Freshman reliever Austin Dondanville was credited with the first victory of his collegiate career after allowing one hit during a scoreless top of the ninth.

San Francisco starting pitcher Anthony Shew (0-1) held the Mustangs in check for most of the game. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound senior scattered four hits over seven shutout innings before being pulled in favor of lefty Frank Waliczek.

A second-team all-West Coast Conference selection as a junior last season, Shew turned in a much cleaner performance than his season debut against Hawaii last week when he allowed seven runs on nine hits in an 11-3 loss.

Both of Cal Poly’s runs were scored against the Dons’ third pitcher, James Kannenberg, who played two seasons at Cuesta College and was a first-team all-conference performer for the Cougars.

Barbier, Marinconz and Schuknecht had two hits apiece to lead the Mustangs offensively.

Cal Poly and San Francisco are scheduled to meet in the series finale at 1 p.m. Saturday. After that, the Mustangs open a 10-game road trip beginning at 2 p.m. Tuesday against Pepperdine.

This story was originally published March 4, 2016 at 5:37 PM with the headline "Cal Poly baseball team rallies to win first game of doubleheader."