Baseball
The No. 15 Cal Poly baseball team will host UC Davis starting Friday night at Baggett Stadium in a three-game Big West Conference series.
The Mustangs (24-9, 5-4) are coming off a loss to Santa Clara on Tuesday but will have their normal starting rotation in effect for the weekend series.
Cal Poly freshman second baseman Matt Jensen is the reigning Big West Player of the Week after going 5-for-12 against Pacific last weekend.
Jensen currently leads the Mustangs in a multitude of offensive categories including doubles, home runs, walks and RBI.
Cal Poly is currently tied for second place in the conference with UC Santa Barbara, Pacific and Cal State Fullerton. The foursome trail UC Irvine by three games.
The Aggies are struggling through a down year sitting at 6-25 and have won just one game in conference thus far. They were pounded in their last game, a 21-4 loss to Cal on Wednesday.
The Mustangs haven’t lost at home since an opening day loss to now-No. 1 Rice. They have since reeled off 14 straight at Baggett Stadium.
Men’s tennis
The Cal Poly men’s tennis team will kick off the Big West Conference Championships at 9 a.m. Friday in Indian Wells when they take on UC Riverside in a quarterfinal match.
The third-seeded Mustangs (10-9) have won four consecutive matches coming into the matchup with the sixth-seeded Highlanders who went winless in conference this year. UC Riverside has lost seven duals in a row overall.
Felix Macharez and John Park lead the Highlanders at No. 1 and 2 singles and also combine for the top doubles team.
Cal Poly was dominant in their conference opener against the Highlanders on Feb. 28 winning 6-1.
The Mustangs were led most of the season by freshman Andre Dome who has missed the last three duals with an injury. He has been named Big West Men’s Tennis Player of the Week twice this year.
Sophomore Drew Jacobs has replaced Dome at No. 1 singles recently and is second on the team with 12 victories overall. Junior Robert Foy, who has won five straight matches, leads the team with 14 wins. The two are the only Mustangs to have appeared in all 19 duals this year.
The winner will face No. 2 seed UC Irvine on Saturday in the semifinals.
Women’s tennis
The No. 3 seed Cal Poly women’s tennis team will take on fourth-seeded UC Santa Barbara at 1 p.m. Friday in Indian Wells at the Big West Conference Championships.
The Gauchos will play Cal Poly in the first round by virtue of losing a coin flip after being involved in a three-way tie for the fourth seed with a 4-4 conference record.
Junior Brittany Blalock, who posted a 22-10 record on the season and finished a top 100 national ranking, is expected to lead Cal Poly at No. 1 singles. Blalock recorded a victory over No. 8 Maria Sanchez of USC earlier this season, giving Cal Poly its biggest singles win in school history.
The Mustangs defeated UC Santa Barbara 5-2 on February 20. Cal poly swept doubles while junior Suzie Matzenauer, Blalock, senior Whitney Peterson and junior Diane Filip all claimed singles victories.
Matzenauer and Blalock have provided tough competition at No. 1 and 2, as Matzenauer is 22-9 this year.
The winner will go on to face the winner of the match between No. 2 UC Irvine and No. 7 UC Davis in Saturday’s semifinals.
Softball
Fresh off a sweep of Long Beach State, the No. 22 Mustangs will travel to play Cal State Northridge starting with a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon.
The wins over the 49ers propelled Cal Poly (28-9, 7-2 Big West Conference) into a first-place tie with Cal State Fullerton.
Despite a solid overall record, the Matadors (23-14, 3-5) have struggled in the Big West just two games ahead of eighth-place Pacific.
Cal Poly swept the weekly softball awards as sophomore pitcher Anna Cahn was named Big West co-Pitcher of the Week and junior first baseman Krysten Cary was named co-player of the week.
Cary’s conference-leading 12th homerun of the year provided the only run in a 1-0 victory over Long Beach State last Saturday. She would also score the winning run a day later on an Anna Cahn single.
Cahn (18-5) leads the conference in victories and innings pitched. She is also second in strikeouts and fourth in ERA and opposing batting average.