Mustang baseball set to return to winning ways

The Cal Poly baseball team is ready for redemption after finishing last season with an overall record of 24-32, their worst since 1999. Mustangs head coach Larry Lee has high expectations for his team with 18 returning players, including juniors Luke Yoder and Wes Dorrell who were recently placed on the Brooks Wallace Player of the Year watch list.

“Collectively, it’s a really good group,” Lee said. “Barring injury, this should be one of the better offensive and defensive groups and they add a lot of different elements to the game. There’s enough returners to add experience and leadership from an offensive and defensive standpoint. We should be solid 1-9 in our line-up.”

According to Lee, the health of the pitching staff will really determine the success of the team as a whole.

“The bottom line to how well we do this year will be dependent on the pitching staff,” Lee said. “It has the chance, when healthy, to be very solid, but we’re just not going to be healthy right off the bat. We’re hoping to get the majority of our pitchers healthy by conference time and that means being without some of our better guys for the first month of the season.”

Stepping up to the Friday night position in the pitching rotation will be senior southpaw Jared Eskew who was the team’s No. 2 starter last season. He will be taking the place of junior right-hander Steven Fischback who was supposed to start in the Friday role, but will be unavailable when the Mustangs open their season tomorrow against No. 3 Rice.

Sophomore lefty Matt Leonard, who missed last season due to arm surgery, will move into the Saturday role and expected to take the Sunday start will be junior right-hander DJ Mauldin who returns with experience as both a starting pitcher and a reliever.

“If we can get Fischback back in a timely manner, then he’ll start in one of the spots in the rotation and that should make us much stronger both from a starting pitching standpoint and out of the bullpen,” he said.

According to Lee, there will be different players available behind the plate with junior college transfer Ross Brayton, senior Justin Hensley who caught a few games last season, and Dorrell who can catch when he is not playing first base.

Expect some familiar faces in the field as senior Ryan Lee returns to center, junior Adam Melker to right and Yoder returns to left field after a season as designated hitter. Sophomore DJ Gentile will fill the DH spot for the majority of this season and freshman Matt Jensen will start at second base.

Returning from injury are juniors Adam Buschini who will start at third base and Kyle Smith starting at shortstop. Buschini missed all of last season because of arm surgery and Smith missed part of the season due to a wrist injury.

The Mustangs will be without the big bats of Brent Morel (White Sox) and Logan Shaffer (Brewers) who were both lost in the third round of the draft after last season. According to Yoder, the team expects big offensive numbers to come from himself, Dorrell and Ryan Lee.

“Offensively, those guys will probably be the three that will put up big numbers this season,” Yoder said.

In 2007, the Mustangs had the fifth toughest schedule in the country; last season they had the seventh toughest. Although this season’s schedule is not quite as difficult, Lee still expects to face tough competition, starting with the 2003 College World Series champions, Rice.

“It’s a quality schedule,” Lee said. “There’s about 300 Division I baseball teams in the country and in 2007 we had the fifth toughest schedule, last year we had the seventh; this year is not quite as difficult but still we have those difficult games.”

The Mustangs will also play two games against defending national champion Fresno State, including the team’s first away game on Feb. 24, after they finish the 3-game set against the Owls.

As for competition in the Big West Conference, Yoder expects to be challenged by both Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State. Fullerton returns all but one of their starting players and was picked to finish first in the Big West. Long Beach is expected to finish second.

“One of our important goals as a team is to do everything we can to make it to playoffs,” Yoder said. “The big thing first is that we have to win conference because if you win conference, you get an automatic bid, and once you’re in the playoffs, anything can happen.”

Last year’s national champion Fresno State is an indicator of the truth in Yoder’s statement. Despite finishing eight games under .500, the Mustangs would defeat the eventual national champions three-of-five times in 2008.

“If everyone is healthy, we definitely have a really good shot as far as getting to the playoffs and maybe even making it to Omaha,” Yoder added.