Kyle Brueggemann spent just one year at the United States Military Academy at West Point, but he learned a lot playing for the Black Knights. Things such as discipline, balancing workloads and plain old hard work that he brought to the mound on Saturday as the Mustangs (20-10, 4-2) defeated UC Irvine 8-1 to sweep the series.
“Something that I’ve been able to use playing here is how to focus in on the task at hand,” Brueggemann said. “When you’re at the ballpark, you’re at the ballpark, and that’s the only thing on your mind.”
But there’s one more thing Brueggemann would like to replicate during his time at Cal Poly: A trip to the NCAA Regionals.
A week after Cal Poly dropped two of three games from Long Beach State, the junior from Olathe, Kan., pitched into the eighth inning and gave up one run on five hits to put the Mustangs one game out of first place in the Big West and one step closer to that elusive postseason bid.
The bats came alive early for the Mustangs, six days after being one-hit by Long Beach State. Mike Miller started the game with a single, and Tim Wise reached on a well-placed bunt down the third base line, and following a fly out by Mitch Haniger, singles by Jimmy Allen and Nick Torres plated the two runners.
David Armendariz got his first of four hits to bring in Allen and the hot-hitting first baseman Tommy Pluschkell completed the rally with the inning’s sixth single to score Torres and chase the Anteater’s starting pitcher Phillip Ferragamo.
“(While) watching video, we saw some holes in my swing, and we changed some stuff up,” Armendariz said. “I’m just trying to have quality at-bats throughout the season, and when you get the feel of having quality at-bats, it starts rolling.”
Armendariz completed his perfect four-for-four day with a home run to deep left off Nick Hoover. It was his first career four-hit performance.
“(Hoover) fooled me twice on the first two strikes, he had a great split,” Armendariz, who swung through those pitches, said. “I was thinking ‘Zone hit and see the box,’ and I saw (the pitch) in, it was a four-seam fastball and it felt good off the bat.”
Last week head coach Larry Lee lamented his team wasn’t making competitive outs in its series against Long Beach State, but was more satisfied with Cal Poly’s response against the Anteaters.
“We had a great approach, a great mindset, and we created an opportunity to do what you need to do if you’re going to compete for a Big West title,” Lee said. “We brought up last week’s game (to the team), and today was just the opposite.”
From the mound and in the field, the Mustangs were nearly flawless in their three games against UC Irvine as the pitchers combined to hold the Anteaters to three runs and the defense committed one error — a catcher interference call on Chris Hoo.
Hoo more than made up for the error on Saturday as he drove in two on a double to deep left center field in the third inning to put the Mustangs up 6.
Going into the year, Cal Poly wasn’t expected to have the type of success they are experiencing from the pitching staff. The weekend starters, Wagman, Anderson and Brueggemann, were in their first year in that position, and Chase Johnson had been moved to the bullpen.
The team was relatively inexperienced at the plate; five batters in Lee’s lineup started fewer than 17 games last year and two (Torres and first baseman Tommy Pluschkell) didn’t play at all for the Mustangs.
But Lee isn’t one to pay attention to what outsiders say about his team, he had confidence that his team could perform at a high level from the beginning.
“I thought we would have starters that can be three-pitch mix guys,” Lee said. “I thought we had the chance of developing our bullpen, and that’s where we are right now with three solid starters and three guys at the end of the game that are of quality.”
The only run Brueggemann allowed on Saturday came in the fifth inning as UC Irvine loaded the bases with one out. Facing Tommy Reyes, Brueggemann forced the second baseman to fly out to left field which brought Jerry McClanahan home. He escaped when the next batter, Jordan Fox, grounded sharply to second base.
“Brueggemann had good fastball intent with good conviction on each pitch he threw,” Lee said. “When the fastball has that life and you have fastball command, usually your off-speed pitches follow.”
Matt Imhof didn’t allow a hit in two-thirds of an inning and Johnson shut the door on the Anteaters in the ninth after Torres threw Justin Castro out at home following a single by McClanahan. A double play erased McClanahan on the basepaths and ended the game.
It marked the first time since 2006 that UC Irvine was swept in the Big West; the Anteaters hadn’t dropped a conference series opener in 25 straight attempts.
Seven Mustang starters had hits, only Haniger and Evan Busby were held off the basepaths.
Cal Poly travels to UC Santa Barbara for a non-conference game on Tuesday then go to Cal State Northridge for a weekend set against the Matadors which are 1-4 in conference play. The team returns home to play against Fresno State on April 17 but don’t have another Big West home series until Pacific visits on April 27.