Graig MantleWith the Cal Poly baseball team down by two runs entering the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday, Wes Dorrell was just hoping to get baserunners however possible.
The Mustangs did that in a big way, stringing together back-to-back triples in the final frame on their way to a 5-4 nonconference win over Washington in front of 641 fans at Baggett Stadium. Dorrell drove in pinch runner Chad Pruett with a two-out single to shortstop for the game-winning run, lifting Cal Poly to a sweep of the three-game series.
“It shows we can overcome adversity,” said Dorrell, a freshman catcher. “It showed that we have heart. You’ve got to win every single pitch and that’s what we’ve been doing.”
Indeed, Cal Poly (8-6) has been winning a lot lately. The Mustangs are 8-2 at home and have won eight of their last nine games overall following the team’s first 0-5 start since moving to the Division I level in 1995.
“We’re a really young team and we needed this under our belt,” Cal Poly starter Thomas Eager said of the sweep. “We’re young enough and brash enough to not really realize what happened. We swept Washington, but let’s just go to the next series.”
The sweep of the Huskies (0-3) was the Mustangs’ first in a three-game series against a Pac-10 school since moving to Division I.
“We got better this weekend,” Cal Poly head coach Larry Lee said. “That was one of the things we preached after starting 0-5 like we did. We had some bad feelings about our performances, but realized we’re a young team and play a tough nonconference (schedule).”
Grant Desme jump-started the Mustangs’ five-hit, ninth-inning rally with a one-out single to right field. He then scored on a triple to right-center by Brent Morel, who slid to third base and was ruled safe on a disputed call. After initially appearing injured on the play, Morel came home on Adam Buschini’s triple off the center-field wall – which looked as if it might clear the 405-foot fence.
“My stomach dropped when I was in the dugout,” Dorrell said of Morel stumbling for a moment on the way to third before sliding in. “Very close. Close enough for me to lose my stomach.”
Buschini was tagged out at the plate on Corey Barthel’s grounder to second base before Pruett advanced to third on Bryan Kepner’s single to right-center.
Dorrell then lined a 2-2 fastball off Washington shortstop Danny Cox’s glove.
“I wanted to get a pitch I could drive to the middle of the field,” Dorrell said. “I didn’t want to get too swing happy. I got behind early in the count, saw a couple breaking balls. I wasn’t really thinking I would get a fastball.”
Of the consecutive triples, Lee said: “It’s a very offensive ballpark, especially during the day. Two real good swings on both those balls. Real good way to finish off the weekend.”
The Mustangs won the first two games of the series 10-1 Friday and 4-2 Saturday. They needed to rally Sunday after Washington jumped to a 4-0 lead behind Kyle Conley’s two-run triple.
After the first, Eager (2-1) settled down to throw six scoreless innings.
“It’s a lesson that as a team and pitching staff you need to learn from,” Lee said. “It happens quite a few times where a quality starting pitcher will give up some runs early and then settle down. (Eager) allowed our team to stay in it.”
The sophomore right-hander finished with 10 strikeouts, gave up seven hits and walked four. Eighty-two of the 122 pitches he threw were strikes.
“I told myself I had to keep making pitches and hopefully our defense would start making plays and we could start fresh in the second inning,” Eager said. “Usually I’m a fastball pitcher. (The Huskies) happened to be hitting the fastball a little bit. I had to go to my slider. Pretty much lived and died off the slider and at the end of the game started going back to the fastball. That was a little different approach I don’t usually do.”
Cal Poly cut the lead in half in the bottom of the first when Luke Yoder led off with a walk, stole second, reached third on Kyle Smith’s full-count double to left-center and finally scored on Desme’s sacrifice fly to right. Smith came home on Morel’s sacrifice.
Cal Poly reliever Evan Reed (1-0) got the win. The junior right-hander notched the final two outs.
Washington closer Elliott Cribby (0-1) was hit with the loss after giving up three earned runs in the final 2/3 of the ninth.
“We just try to convince our players to win every pitch and realize there are 27 outs and a lot of times, the toughest out to get is the 27th,” Lee said.
The Mustangs’ pitching staff combined for a 2.00 ERA for the series, and the offense – led by Desme (4 for 10), Smith (5 for 13), Kepner (3 for 8) and Morel (4 for 11) – hit .281.
Washington left 10 runners stranded Sunday, compared to just two for Cal Poly.
The Mustangs were glad to regain the services of 6-foot-4 junior southpaw Grant Theophilus, who made his season debut after recovering from a pair of knee surgeries. He struck out two, walked one and gave up one hit in one inning.
“It’s big,” Lee said of Theophilus being available. “We’re very thin, especially without (D.J.) Mauldin. It’s just another quality arm that we need to come out of the pen and he should be able over the next three or four weeks to pitch himself into shape.”
Mauldin, the team’s ace to open the season, is recovering from an elbow injury. He has not pitched since a 9-6 Opening Day loss at the University of San Diego on Jan. 26.
Lee said Theophilus will likely continue to see action out of the bullpen and that the coaching staff will “see where he is three or four weeks from now.”
Eager was also happy to see Theophilus return.
“That cat’s been working his tail off,” Eager said. “He’s here all the time. To see him go out there is exciting, especially (to play) as well as he did.”
Eager said the team’s confidence has been boosted since it returned from a four-game road trip to open the season.
“I think it was great,” he said of the team’s season-long 10-game homestand coming to an end. “Playing in front of (home) fans and (on) our home surface, you’re a little more calm out there. We needed that. Going into Santa Clara next week, we’re not going to be so nervous because we’ve played so many games.”
Dorrell credited Cal Poly’s resurgence to pitching and defense.
“Stuff’s been clicking with us,” he said. “We’ve been playing great defense. Our pitching’s been unreal. Our hitting’s coming around. Hitting’s always up and down.”
Cal Poly has outhit opponents 133-114 on the season – including a margin of 42-28 in extra-base hits – and has six starters batting .280 or higher. That comes with only three position starters returning from last year.
The Mustangs host British Columbia in an exhibition contest at 6 p.m. Wednesday, then resume regular-season play when they begin a three-game series at Santa Clara (6-7) at 6 p.m. Friday.
“We’re going to play a lot of different players position-wise,” Lee said of the exhibition. “Players that need some experience and at-bats.”