Jacob Lauing
jacoblauing.md@gmail.com
Pitching and defense.
Those were head coach Larry Lee’s two keys to success for the Cal Poly baseball team coming into 2013.
And for the second night in a row, pitching kept the Mustangs alive before the bats heated up, as they topped Seattle University 1-0 at Baggett Stadium.
“You have to be consistent in pitching and defense,” Lee said. “If you’re consistent there then you win every ball game.”
After staff ace Joey Wagman threw six shutout innings on Friday night, sophomore southpaw Matt Imhof followed on Saturday, pitching six shutout innings of his own and striking out nine.
“(Wagman and I) always have a friendly competition between how we are going to pitch,” Imhof said. “I see him go out and do what he does. I just try and go out there put the ball in play and get outs.”
Imhof didn’t have much help from the Cal Poly offense, which struggled with runners in scoring position, leaving nine men on base.
“It’s nice to have runs on the board,” Imhof said. “For pitching, it doesn’t matter if we score 100 runs or we score zero runs, my job is to go out there and keep shutting them out.”
But the offense came through late in the game, when freshman shortstop Peter Van Gansen singled to lead off the seventh inning. With a sacrifice bunt by junior Tim Wise, third baseman Jimmy Allen came to the plate with two outs and Van Gansen in scoring position.
“In that position I was looking for a pitch up in the zone,” Allen said. “Two outs all you can really do is just try and hit the ball hard. What I was doing was picturing a strike zone in my hot spot which is up, and look for that pitch and drive it.”
Allen sent a line drive into center field, scoring Van Gansen for the Mustangs’ only run of the night.
“It always starts with getting your leadoff hitter on,” Lee said. “We got our leadoff hitter on once tonight and he scored. It’s pretty simple. We just keep on battling and down the road we should be fine. Until then we need to rely on our pitching and defense.”
Pitching and defense saved the Mustangs in the top of the seventh inning.
Cal Poly reliever Michael Holback entered the game in a no-out, bases-loaded jam, and walked off the mound with three straight outs and a scoreless game.
“(Holback) showed why he’s great,” Imhof said. “(I was) a little bit frustrated in myself for getting in that situation. I knew that we had Holback coming in and I had 100 percent confidence in him. I knew he was going to get out of it.”
With Allen’s RBI in the seventh, Holback earned the win, striking out five and allowing only one hit in the game’s final three innings.
The win over Seattle extends Cal Poly’s winning streak, and marks the Mustangs first 6-0 start in their 19-year Division I history. The team also won seven straight to end their 2012 campaign.
Still, Lee sees room for improvement in the Cal Poly offense, which put up only three runs and 10 hits in two games against the Redhawks, while failing to score until the second half of each game.
“We don’t have that good feeling offensively,” Lee said. “You’re not going to be on all the time offensively. You’ve just got to do what you’re in control of and hopefully our guys will get enough at bats and eventually get that feeling back.”
After finishing up this three-game set with Seattle at Baggett Stadium, the Mustangs will hit the road next week and face Washington on March 1.