The Cal Poly baseball team won 8-4 Sunday afternoon at Baggett Stadium winning its series against No. 8 Cal State Fullerton and moving into second place in the Big West Conference.
Friday
The Mustangs (18-20, 8-4 Big West) lost 7-4 in the series opener Friday night, but opened the game by running out a 4-1 lead by the end of the third inning. After Scott Hurst’s run on a throwing error put the Titans (24-14, 6-3) on the board first, Cal Poly sophomore catcher Nick Meyer singled to center field to score Bradlee Beasley. Josh George singled to score Michael Sanderson and Colby Barrick hit a RBI single to plate Meyer before Elijah Skipps brought George home to cap off a four-run scoring spree. The Mustangs headed into the fourth inning with a comfortable three-run lead.
But it didn’t last long against the top-ranked team in the conference.
Cal State Fullerton responded with a pair of unearned runs in the top of the fourth that cut the lead to 4-3. Later on in the seventh inning, the Titans evened the score following Sahid Valenzuela’s RBI to score Hank LoForte. They notched another run in the inning with a bases-loaded walk to cap off the comeback and lead 5-4 with two innings left.
After a pair of scoreless innings by the Mustangs, Titans Taylor Bryant hit a two-RBI single in the top of the ninth that proved too much for the Mustangs to overcome. Junior pitcher Erich Uelmen was credited with his sixth loss of the season after giving up seven hits and five runs in six and 1/3 innings pitched.
Saturday
After a disappointing loss Friday night, the Mustangs returned Saturday night to even the series in a 13-6 win. The two teams traded runs in the second inning as the Titans scored on a grounder to second base before Alex McKenna singled down the left side to score Barrick.
Starting sophomore pitcher Bobby Ay kept the Titans relatively at bay in the third inning, giving up a single to Hurst that pushed Fullerton’s lead to 2-1. And then the Mustangs got hot.
The third inning scoring started with a run by Marinconz after Scott Ogrin was hit by a pitch. Barrick was then hit by a pitch as well to plate Michael Sanderson and Kevin Morgan hit a two-RBI single to score Ogrin and George. McKenna then tripled to score Morgan and Barrick to finish off a six-run inning and put the Mustangs up 7-2.
The Titans responded with a run in the fourth before Ogrin tripled to bring home George and Barrick singled to third base to plate Ogrin as well. Fullerton scored another three runs in the top of the fifth but Cal Poly rattled off four unanswered runs by the end of the game and even the series at one game apiece.
Sunday
The Mustangs maintained the scoring through to Sunday’s game, tying the score 1-1 after the first inning before notching five runs in the bottom of the second.
Morgan doubled down right field to score Barrick and George before McKenna doubled to score Ogrin. Morgan and McKenna both scored to give the Mustangs a 6-1 lead after two frames. The Titans came back over the third and fourth innings to score three runs and cut the lead to 6-4 before Ogrin singled down the left side to score Meyer in the bottom of the fifth.
The Mustangs added another run in the bottom of the eighth when George scored an unearned run to put the game away for good at 8-4.
With this series win, the Mustangs have won all four conference series on their schedule so far this season and 10 of their last 14 games. They play another game Tuesday against Fresno State at 6 p.m. in Baggett Stadium.