Mustang Daily Staff Report
sports@mustangdaily.net
In what may prove to be a crushing blow to its postseason hopes, the No. 18 Cal Poly baseball team dropped the rubber match of a three-game series against Long Beach State 9-5 at Blair Field on Sunday.
The loss dropped the Mustangs to 8-7 in conference play and 28-13 overall as they slid all the way into a tie for fifth place with UC Santa Barbara in the Big West standings. The series loss comes just a week after vying for the conference lead when the Mustangs faced Cal State Fullerton at Baggett Stadium last weekend.
The Dirtbags (20-21, 9-6 Big West) scored four runs in both the sixth and seventh innings, including a grand slam in the seventh and added another run in the eighth to win the series over Cal Poly and simultaneously vault over the Mustangs in the conference standings.
The day started off well for the Mustangs as sophomore starter Bryan Granger managed a no-hitter through five innings, but gave up a single and a walk in the sixth, which prompted head coach Larry Lee to pull him in favor of junior reliever Michael Holback.
Holback allowed an ensuing two-run double followed by a two-run triple that gave Long Beach State its first lead of the afternoon, 4-3.
On offense, Cal Poly jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third inning with the help of senior second baseman Denver Chavez’s two-run single that scored freshman Peter Van Gansen and junior David Armendariz. Chavez then came around to score on Ellis’ single to the third base side later in the inning before the Dirtbags unloaded for a four-run sixth off Holback.
Chavez scored another run on Nick Torres’ single in the seventh for the Mustangs, and Elliot Stewart‘s grounder up the middle resulted in two Long Beach State errors and another Cal Poly lead.
But Juan Avila’s grand slam off Reed Reilly (2-3) in the seventh put the game out of reach for the Mustangs.
Chavez led Cal Poly offensively, going 3 for 5 at the plate and collecting three singles with two RBIs and two runs on the day. Both Torres and Ellis finished 2 for 4 on the day. With that, Ellis extended his hitting streak to nine games.
Reilly got the loss for the Mustangs, allowing four runs on five hits in just one inning of work.
The Mustangs return to the diamond Wednesday when they take on Pepperdine in a nonconference game in Malibu before returning home next weekend to face UC Riverside.