Graig MantleIf last weekend is any indication, the Cal Poly baseball team’s bats are hot.
Very hot.
The Mustangs scored 35 runs on 45 hits in their three-game nonconference sweep at Fresno State by scores of 6-4, 16-9 and 13-0.
That kind of production is likely to be harder to come by, though, against Long Beach State, which Cal Poly resumes Big West Conference play against this weekend. The two teams begin their three-game series at 6:30 tonight. The first pitch at Blair Field in the second and third games is at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
“It was good to get away from conference play for a weekend, get back on the road and play in an offensive ballpark,” Cal Poly head coach Larry Lee said Thursday of the Fresno State series. “For the most part, we swung the bat extremely well, took care of the ball. We’ll need to continue going in the right direction in all facets of the game.”
All facets of the game because Long Beach State is once again having a season worthy of the national rankings. The 49ers are ranked 24th in the Baseball America poll and 32nd by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.
The series is even more important, though, for the Big West title race.
Long Beach State (27-14) and UC Riverside (28-16) are tied atop the Big West standings at 7-2. Cal Poly (24-20) is just behind both at 8-4.
Lee said he hopes his team can put its controversial 11-10 home loss to UC Riverside on April 22 – which clinched the series 2-1 for the Highlanders – behind it.
“Losing Sunday’s game against UC Riverside will come back to haunt us, I’m sure,” Lee said. “But that’s in the past. Now we’ll try to win each conference series from here on out.”
Pitching has been Long Beach State’s calling card all season.
The 49ers’ first two starters for this weekend are projected to be southpaw Shane Peterson (2-1, 3.96 ERA) and ace right-hander Andrew Liebel (6-2, 2.14).
“They always pitch and play defense,” Lee said of the 49ers. “They’re a team that will scrap for runs. They’re as strong a team as they’ve always been in the past. We don’t expect anything different.”
One boost Cal Poly is likely to receive this weekend is the return of sophomore center fielder Logan Schafer, who was sidelined against Fresno State with a groin injury. He is fourth on the team with a .305 batting average in 39 games this season.
“Schafer should be back,” Lee said. “He’ll be back in the lineup this weekend, which will better us from an offensive and defensive standpoint. We had some bumps and bruises (but) we should be ready to go this weekend.”
Lee said sophomore southpaw Derrick Saito, a reliever who has shared the Friday night role with Eric Massingham as of late, is “a little tender.”
Massingham (1-0, 4.84) will get the nod for Cal Poly on Friday, followed by freshman southpaw Matt Leonard (3-4, 5.19) on Saturday and sophomore ace right-hander Thomas Eager (8-2, 3.08) on Sunday.
All the arms are crucial down the stretch for a Cal Poly team with only 12 regular-season games remaining – nine of which in conference.
The Mustangs must win the Big West to clinch their first trip to the NCAA Tournament since moving to the Division I level before the 1995 season.
“We’ll see where we sit after this weekend,” Lee said. “We have nine conference games left and we control a lot of our own destiny.”