Lauren RabainoAfter falling 10-1 at Alabama in its season opener Friday night, the Cal Poly baseball team won 16-7 and 6-2 in a doubleheader Saturday at Sewell-Thomas Stadium to claim the series 2-1.
In the second contest, in which the Mustangs compiled 15 hits, junior third baseman Brent Morel had three of them to go with three RBI.
Sophomore shortstop Kyle Smith, senior second baseman Pat Pezet and sophomore catcher Wes Dorrell chipped in two hits apiece for Cal Poly, which tacked on eight unearned runs in the seventh inning.
Junior lefthander Derrick Saito pitched 5.2 innings in the victory, before sophomore righthander D.J. Mauldin gave up just one run the rest of the way for the save.
Alabama, which suffered its most lopsided defeat since an 11-2 mishap against LSU in 2004, gave up its most runs since 2000.
Sophomore Steven Fischback accrued the victory in the latter game, surrendering just one earned run and four hits in seven innings of work while striking out a career-high 11 batters, walking only one.
In relief, sophomore righthander Kevin Castner struck out four while holding the Crimson Tide scoreless.
Three of the Mustangs’ runs came in the first inning, courtesy of RBI singles by junior centerfielder Logan Schafer, Morel and Dorrell.
The rest of Cal Poly’s runs came in the third, fourth and fifth innings.
Cal Poly next faces San Diego State, San Diego, Missouri and Fresno State in single outings in San Diego on Thursday through Sunday.
Despite setting several school records, swimming and diving teams each finish fifth at Big West Conference Championships
The Cal Poly swimming and diving teams each finished fifth of six teams at the four-day Big West Conference Championships at Belmont Place in Long Beach from Wednesday through Saturday.
On the side of the women, whose 417 points were 229 ahead of last-place Cal State Northridge yet 509 behind winner UCSB, freshman Gloria Benefield qualified provisionally in the 200 butterfly with a Cal Poly record of 2 minutes, .65 seconds.
In the 400 free relay, Benefield, along with senior Stacey Sorensen, freshman Karin Schleicher and freshman Melody White, swam to fifth place, at a season-best 3:29.91.
On Thursday, Benefield came in second in the 500 freestyle finals, qualifying provisionally for the NCAA Championships with a school-record 4:50.81.
For the men, who earned 386 points, 129 more than last-place Cal State Northridge but 470 fewer than champion UCSB, freshman Matthew Waggoner won the 1,650-meter freestyle Saturday.
Waggoner, whose NCAA provisional-qualifying time of 15:23.57 set a school record, did so three days after coming in second in the 1,000 freestyle, in which he also established a Cal Poly standard, with a time of 9:12.88.
Another Cal Poly record-breaker was fellow freshman Peter Kline, who came in second in the 200 backstroke, at 1:47.92, setting his third school mark at the championships.
Kline also broke the Cal Poly 400 individual medley record (finishing second Friday at 3:54.20) and its 100 backstroke one (coming in fourth Friday at 50.25).
Amidst Friday’s competition, Cal Poly’s Carter Richards placed third in the 100 breaststroke with a season-best 55:36, qualifying him provisionally for the NCAA Championships.
Day comes in fifth at USA Indoor Track and Field Championships
Cal Poly’s Sharon Day came in fifth in the high jump Saturday at the USA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Boston at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center.
The senior cleared 5 feet, 10 _ inches. Three-time Olympian Amy Acuff of Tri-Valley Asics won the event by leaping 6 feet, 3 « inches.
Lack of production off the bench hurts men’s basketball team in loss at Fresno State
Even though the Cal Poly men’s basketball team had four starters score at least 12 points, it got just two points off the bench in a 76-70 loss at Fresno State before 10,431 at the Save Mart Center on Saturday.
Guard Eddie Miller led the Bulldogs with a game-high 25 points on 8-of-14 shooting, including a 6-of-12 performance from 3-point range. Guards Kevin Bell and Dwight O’Neil added 19 and 15 points, respectively. Bell distributed a game-high nine assists.
Overall, Fresno State hit 10 of its 23 attempts from behind the 3-point line.
Cal Poly was led by guard Lorenzo Keeler, who netted a team-high 21 points on 7-of-15 shooting. Guards Trae Clark (19 points) and Shawn Lewis (14), and center Titus Shelton (12) also scored in double figures for the Mustangs, who shot just 4 of 17 from deep and tallied seven assists to Fresno State’s 14.
Only one basket was scored by a Mustang besides those four.
Clark had team highs of four assists and four steals before fouling out.
The Bulldogs (13-15), who led 41-33 at halftime, re-established their biggest lead at 53-43 with 13:58 remaining before Cal Poly (10-15) reeled off a 15-4 run over the ensuing 7:08 to take a 58-57 lead.
Miller’s final 3-pointer of the game, with 2:28 left, permanently regained the lead for Fresno State, which made 9 of 10 free throws in the final 1:06 to preserve the Mustangs’ third loss in four times taking the court.
Cal Poly hosts UC Riverside at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Women’s basketball team squanders late lead again
For the second time in three days, the Cal Poly women’s basketball team surrendered a substantial lead late in the second half, giving up a 17-4 run Saturday during the final 6:17 of regulation in a 75-69 overtime loss to Pacific at Mott Gym.
The loss, the Mustangs’ eighth in 10 games, came following Thursday’s 53-47 defeat by UC Davis, which ended that matter on an 11-0 run over the final 4:18.
Forward Janae Young polished off the Pacific (12-15, 7-7 Big West Conference) surge with a 3-pointer from the left corner of the arc for a 65-62 lead after trailing 58-48 just 5:18 prior.
Cal Poly hit three free throws to send the game to overtime at 65-65, but made just 1 of its 6 shots after regulation.
Young made 11 of 17 shots from the floor for a game-high 26 points.
Forward Megan Harrison contributed team highs of 14 points and 10 rebounds for Cal Poly (9-17, 6-7), which committed 25 turnovers after yielding 26 to UC Davis.
Wing Toni Newman added 14 points and six rebounds, while guard Sparkle Anderson chipped in 12 points and six assists in defeat.
Cal Poly, which was supplanted in fourth place in the Big West by the Tigers, visits UC Riverside at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Men’s tennis team doesn’t get taken beyond two sets in rout of DII squad
The Cal Poly men’s tennis team swept Division II Sonoma State 7-0 at Mustang Courts on Saturday, finishing each match in two sets.
Drew Jacobs (8-0) stayed undefeated in singles play by sweeping Jeremy Heckley 6-2, 6-2.
In its first Big West Conference match of the season, Cal Poly (5-3) will host UC Santa Barbara at noon March 2.