Stephan Teodosescu
steodosescu@mustangdaily.net
After just four innings Sunday afternoon, the No. 22 Cal Poly baseball team found itself in an early and daunting hole. No. 23 UC Irvine scored 11 straight runs out of the gates and never looked back as the Mustangs dropped the rubber match of a three-game series 11-1 at Anteater Ballpark.
“We just didn’t pitch well from the beginning,” head coach Larry Lee said. “They had the best guy on the mound today. We were just outmatched.”
UC Irvine (31-15, 13-8 Big West) vaulted over Cal Poly (33-16, 12-9) for sole possession of third place in the conference standings with the win, and the Mustangs dropped to a tie for fourth with UC Santa Barbara. The Gauchos lost their game to Cal State Northridge on Sunday.
The game got out of hand for the Mustangs early as UC Irvine clobbered sophomore starter Bryan Granger in the first two innings, scoring three runs off the right-hander. Granger was pulled in favor of reliever Michael Holback after just 1 2/3 innings, but the Anteaters continued to pour it on, scoring three more times before the second frame was over.
And they weren’t done there. The Anteaters added another run in the third and put up their second four-run inning in the fourth as they cruised to an early 11-0 lead.
“We wanted to get our regulars out of there and make sure we got quality innings from anybody out of the bullpen,” Lee said of how his team’s strategy changed after the first few innings.
The day belonged to UC Irvine’s starting pitcher Andrew Morales (10-0), who allowed no runs on four hits in seven innings of work. While the offense was manufacturing runs for him through the first four innings, Morales took care of business himself, striking out 10 batters during that stretch to baffle the Mustangs lineup.
Meanwhile, Cal Poly couldn’t gather any steam on offense as Lee pulled most of the starters in the fifth inning in hopes of getting the bats going.
In the first inning, UC Irvine got on the board and scored its first two runs before the Mustangs even recorded an out. Chris Rabago got the inning started with a walk and advanced to second off a single to center from Dominique Taylor before Spencer doubled to send both men home and give UC Irvine a 2-0 early lead.
The Mustangs got a single run back in the eighth inning when freshman second baseman John Schuknecht doubled to left center to score freshman shortstop Peter Van Gansen from third. Van Gansen reached on a leadoff walk, then moved to second on Mark Mathias’ groundout, before advancing to third on a wild pitch and scoring on Schuknecht’s RBI.
“I was just trying to get more guys on base and trying to make something happen,” Schuknecht said. “I was just trying to get people on a score a few more.”
Cal Poly used six total pitchers on the afternoon, but the loss went to the starter Granger, dropping his record to 5-4 overall. The Mustangs have seven regular season games left, including three at home next weekend to second place Cal State Northridge. The Matadors are coming off a series loss to UC Santa Barbara this weekend.
Cal Poly returns to action at Baggett Stadium on Tuesday with a nonconference game against Cal State Bakersfield, before welcoming Cal State Northridge next weekend and finishing the season at struggling Pacific the following weekend.
“I’m still pretty confident,” Schuknecht said of his team’s chances of earning an at-large bid for the NCAA regionals later this month. “I love all the guys on the team, everyone’s talented and we can definitely give it a run.”