Lately I’ve been getting pretty interested in Cal Poly’s baseball team, mostly because of its recent success. Now, I don’t follow every college baseball team as much as football or basketball, but I usually have a pretty good idea about what’s going on and who’s doing what. And it occurred to me that this is really the first time I’ve seen Cal Poly’s name in the headlines of the college baseball world.
So just to check up on the success of our team, I recently decided to go watch a Friday night baseball game with some friends at our very own Baggett Stadium. I wasn’t exactly expecting much in terms of entertainment because baseball has never seemed to be one of the biggest things on campus. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
I showed up to a completely packed stadium filled with college students and locals. What was most entertaining was the atmosphere and intensity of the crowd around the diamond. Every person in the crowded stadium was at full and loud attention for the entire game, and it only got better as the innings went by. Granted, it was a Friday night and it was conference play, but it was much more than I was expecting. The hot dogs were great (but not cheap), the fans were great, the extra-innings game was great and it was all for free admission. I don’t know if it’s like this every year or if it’s just because of Cal Poly’s run at a championship, but either way it’s well worth the walk to the stadium.
So if you’re going to take my advice and actually go to a game, the time to go is this weekend. The Mustangs will play host to Big West Conference rivals Cal State Fullerton in a weekend series that will potentially have dramatic post-season implications for both teams.
Cal Poly is currently ranked No. 12 in the Baseball America Top 25 standings, just six spots behind the Titans. I’m not so surprised at Fullerton’s impressive numbers, as they seem to find themselves at the College World Series in Omaha year after year. But now Cal Poly has the chance to do something it’s never done before, and it only seems fitting that standing in our way is the notoriously impressive Titans.
In fact, the whole Big West Conference seems to be running on all cylinders this season. Three teams from the Big West are in the top 12 of Baseball America’s Top 25 rankings right now. This just gives more praise to Cal Poly’s success.
So the Mustangs will close out the season with series against Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State and UC Riverside. Cal Poly is currently locked in a three-way tie for second in the Big West standings behind No. 1 UC Irvine.
It seems that the Mustangs have a great chance at making the postseason regionals, which includes 64 teams fighting to make it to Omaha, Nebraska, the home of the College World Series.
This weekend will surely be a huge deciding factor in Cal Poly’s fate. This doesn’t happen often for Poly’s baseball team, so I seriously recommend catching a game before the season ends. Hopefully, if things go well, you’ll also be able to watch them on television come June in Omaha.
Tyler Jauch is a political science sophomore and Mustang Daily sports columnist.