Stephan Teodosescu
steodosescu@mustangdaily.net
The only other year — 2009 — a Cal Poly baseball team made it to the regional round of the NCAA Division I tournament, two straight losses sent the Mustangs packing their bags almost as soon as they had arrived.
Fast forward four years later and Cal Poly is back in the postseason.
But the only reminder remaining from that team is the presence of now-senior second baseman Denver Chavez. Back then, he was just a redshirt freshman who watched on TV as his team failed to make a splash in its first-ever postseason appearance.
The comparisons begin and end with Chavez, though, as Cal Poly will have a shot at winning its first postseason game in its second-ever NCAA regional when the team takes on the University of San Diego this Friday in a first-round pairing at the Los Angeles Regional hosted by UCLA.
“When you’re redshirting, it’s weird,” Chavez said. “You don’t really feel like you’re part of the team, so I kind of felt left out, but I’m excited about it now.”
The Mustangs posted a Division I-school record 39 wins this season and finished tied for second place with UC Santa Barbara in the Big West Conference standings en route to their regional bid. Cal State Fullerton, the overall No. 5 seed in this year’s tournament and conference champion, was the only other team to finish higher than the Mustangs.
In what head coach Larry Lee says will feel like another conference road trip, Cal Poly will first play a San Diego team that features the nation’s home run leader, junior infielder Kris Bryant. Bryant is hitting .340 with 31 jacks to go along with his 73 hits and 62 RBIs.
The Toreros (35-23) enter Friday’s matchup coming off a West Coast Conference championship where they defeated San Francisco 2-0 for the title and an automatic bid to a regional.
“Obviously, UCLA playing at home and having that comfort level is deserving of a host site and a No. 1 seed,” Lee said. “They’ll be the favorite, but there are three other teams that if they can play to their capability level, will have a chance to compete.”
Cal Poly (39-17) will either play host to UCLA or San Diego State in the second game of the four-team, double-elimination format tournament, which will continue with two games on Saturday and Sunday and, if necessary, a final game Monday.
Friday night ace and senior right-hander Joey Wagman (12-3) will get the start on the mound for Cal Poly. He leads the team with 100 strikeouts in 104 1/3 innings pitched on the season, and his 12 wins rank him No. 4 in the country.
One more victory will give him a single-season school record 13 wins, but he’ll be more focused on making sure his team prevails rather than on any personal records.
“At the start of the season, at the start of the school year, we had our goals set high and this is just the first step of them,” Wagman said. “The regular season is over and it’s a new season now.”
Wagman and the dominance of the rest of the Cal Poly pitching staff has been the main difference between this year’s team and 2009’s, according to Lee. Even last year’s squad that went 36-20 and was snubbed from a regional bid was missing the key pitching.
“This team is much better pitching wise,” Lee said. “In my mind, that’s the reason we’ve won so many games. We have a select group of pitchers that have done well for us.”
The rest of the weekend rotation includes Matt Imhof on Saturday and, if necessary, Casey Bloomquist on Sunday to toe the rubber.
On offense, the Mustangs will be anchored by the senior leadoff man, Chavez who was recently announced to the All-Big West first team along with Wagman, sophomore closer Reed Reilly and right fielder Nick Torres.
After redshirting his freshman year and battling several injuries in the time since, Chavez has emerged as Cal Poly’s most lethal offensive weapon this season, as he leads the conference in hits, runs scored and steals, among other categories.
He didn’t get a taste of postseason play the last time Cal Poly was in the tournament, but Chavez doesn’t need the experience to understand how balanced this year’s Los Angeles Regional is, he said.
“I think it’s just going to be a hard regional to get out of,” Chavez said. “I feel like all the teams are pretty evenly matched.”
First pitch for Friday’s game against San Diego will be at 2 p.m. San Diego State will face UCLA in the following game.
Winner of the Los Angeles Regional will face the champion of the Fullerton Regional (Cal State Fullerton, Columbia, Arizona State and New Mexico) in the Super Regionals for a chance to play in the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
All games of the Los Angeles Regional will be broadcast on ESPN3.com.