Graig MantleAfter two years of knocking on the door, the Cal Poly softball team barged into the NCAA Tournament over the weekend.
By winning 3-0 and 3-2 in a home doubleheader against Pacific on Friday, the Mustangs clinched their first tournament berth since moving to the Division I level in 1995. Cal Poly then finished a three-game series sweep of the Tigers on Saturday with a 2-0 Senior Day win to wrap up the first outright Big West Conference title in program history.
“It’s just so exciting because I feel like we’ve been working for it for three years,” Cal Poly senior pitcher Emily Hively said. “It’s nice to finally get that payoff and not leave anything to chance. We know we’re going.”
Senior Day at Bob Janssen Field had all the makings of a storybook ending for the Mustangs, who presented their five seniors accompanied by family with flower bouquets before the first pitch.
Cal Poly (39-15, 14-4), after all, set program records for wins in a season and Big West winning percentage this season. Third-year head coach Jenny Condon – now 101-54 at the helm of the Mustangs – has already surpassed the century mark for wins since coming to Cal Poly.
But despite all that, the Mustangs hardly feel a sense of finality.
“I’m so proud of these guys,” Condon said of reaching the tournament. “This (the Big West) is all said and done. But we’re not going to be happy to just be there. That’s not good enough. There’s too much passion and hard work in these guys. They want to go to Oklahoma State. Now we re-adjust our goal. One weekend at a time.”
Cal Poly found out Sunday it will open the tournament at BYU against the host Cougars at either 11 a.m. or 2 p.m. Thursday. The other two teams in the double-elimination regional, which runs Thursday through Saturday, are seventh overall seed Arizona State (49-15) and Southern Utah (29-29).
A combined five games will be played between the four teams Thursday and Friday to determine who has the right to battle Saturday for an appearance in the round of 16. The Mustangs, who watched the 64-team bracket be unveiled live on ESPNews at Downtown Brew on Sunday, plan to fly to Provo, Utah, on Tuesday.
Hively made Senior Day her own Saturday with the kind of performance Cal Poly hopes will continue into the postseason.
In her third shutout and sixth complete game of the season, Hively gave up only three hits, walked one and struck out four. The right-hander from Fullerton needed only 94 pitches to plow through a game that lasted only 1 hour, 36 minutes.
“I really tried not to get too caught up in Senior Day only because it’s not our last game,” said Hively, who is 9-2 with a 1.85 ERA. “It’s not my last time playing and I needed to just focus on my game.”
Condon added: “That’s the best Emily’s thrown all year. She came out on a mission and was really focused. We talked about it because a lot of times going into Senior Day, there’s a lot of distractions and different things going on, and she settled in right away. She got command of her pitches today and was working her spots really well.”
Helping Hively was a crisp, synchronized defense that finished the regular season second in the Big West with a .972 fielding percentage.
That defense was highlighted in the top of the seventh inning when Cal Poly senior left fielder Kelly Comstock made a diving catch in left field for the second out. The play drew a standing ovation from the crowd of 492.
“She’s my best friend on the team, so I was excited for (Comstock),” Hively said. “Especially offensively, she’s just been getting it done, so it was so nice to see her on the flip side make such a great catch.”
The only two runs Cal Poly needed Saturday came in the first inning, when junior designated player Sarah Iwata and sophomore right fielder Jenna Maiden hit consecutive RBI singles with two outs.
Maiden (2 for 3) was the only player in the game with multiple hits.
On Friday, the Mustangs were lifted to the doubleheader sweep by junior right-hander Robyn Kontra’s one-hitter in the first game and sophomore shortstop Melissa Pura’s seventh-inning, RBI single to center field in the second.
Kontra (12-6, 2.18 ERA) said the team earning its first tournament berth and Big West championship in the same weekend was not too much to take in all at once.
“I don’t think it’s overwhelming because we’ve had this as a goal for so long,” she said. “This has been our objective since day one. It’s the only way we could guarantee ourselves a bid into regionals.”
That Cal Poly did, ending years of frustration after being controversially left out of the tournament in 1997, 2005 and 2006.
Several ex-Mustangs were present to witness the history firsthand, among them Chelsea Green (class of 2006) and AmyJo Nazarenus (2005).
“It’s not just this year and this team even though this is when we happened to get it done,” Kontra said. “We’ve been building since two years ago. Those seniors helped build what we have today and helped establish our standard of excellence we have now. They’re a big part of it.”
Condon agreed.
“That first (senior) class (in 2005) helped create the mindset and mentality and the belief,” she said. “That first class of seniors had the belief, ‘let’s go get it – we have nothing to lose.’ And it’s carried over. The incoming freshmen have learned that’s the way it is, and that’s the way Cal Poly softball’s supposed to be. This is their conference championship too.”
Now Cal Poly will try to win a championship of a different kind – a national championship.
“I definitely think we can do something, especially coming off the past two series,” Cal Poly senior center fielder Lisa Modglin said of the Mustangs going 5-1 in their final two series against Cal State Fullerton and Pacific. “We have a really good shot of getting out of the first regional and continuing from there. We definitely have the talent to do it. All season we’ve said, ‘Oklahoma, Oklahoma.'”
Kontra also thinks the Women’s College World Series – hosted by Oklahoma State – is a possibility.
“I think we’ve got a lot left,” she said. “Within the past couple weekends, we’ve gotten back to how we’ve been playing at our best.”
With a surprising four Big West teams receiving at-large bids to the tournament Sunday, the conference has its most teams in the tournament since 1992, when it sent six – including eventual Women’s College World Series participants Fresno State and Long Beach State.
The only conferences to send more teams to the tournament this year were the Pac-10 (eight), the SEC (seven) and the Big 12 (six). The ACC also sent five teams.
“It was really surprising,” Maiden said Sunday in a phone interview. “That just shows how strong our conference was. It feels great. I feel that our conference has made a name for itself. If we’re being compared to the Pac-10, that’s something to say for itself.”
Maiden said the Mustangs should benefit from going 19-6 on a 25-game, 31-day road trip earlier this season.
“Our coach from the beginning said, ‘we’re going to show up to play no matter what name is on across the (opposing team’s) jersey,” Maiden said. “It’s just the fact that we are playing.”
Cal Poly officially concluded its regular season with its awards banquet Sunday morning in Morro Bay. Awards went to the entire pitching staff (Pitcher of the Year), Modglin (Offensive Player of the Year), senior catcher Jackie Gehrke-Jones (Defensive Player of the Year), freshman first baseman Krysten Cary (Newcomer of the Year), Pura (Most Improved Player of the Year) and Iwata (Mustang Pride Award).