The Cal Poly baseball team ranked No.9 — the highest ranking in school history — in Perfect Game’s latest weekly poll.
Stephan Teodosescu
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The Cal Poly baseball team (8-2) achieved its highest national ranking in school history when Perfect Game tabbed the Mustangs No.9 in its latest weekly poll, released Monday.
Cal Poly went 2-1 this past week with a 5-3 win at San Jose State on Tuesday and split a doubleheader against USC on Sunday. Friday and Saturday nights’ contests against the Trojans were rained out, but the teams were able to get two games in on the final day of the series.
Junior left-hander Matt Imhof (2-1) struck out seven and allowed one run in seven innings of work to beat USC 5-1 before the Mustangs were blanked in the nightcap 16-0. Freshman starter Slater Lee (2-1) got the loss after allowing six runs and three hits in 2 1/3 innings.
Cal Poly is also ranked No. 11 by Baseball America, No. 13 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, No. 14 by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and No. 16 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll for this week.
“Getting there is one thing, now we just need to do everything in our power to stay there,” head coach Larry Lee said. “Cracking the top 10 out of 300 Division I baseball schools is pretty good. That’s one of the goals we set out for.”
Cal Poly’s previous high was No. 12, during the 2009 season after the Mustangs jumped out to a 17-4 start that year.
The Mustangs started this year with a three-game sweep of then-No. 22 Kansas State before taking two of three from defending national champion UCLA on Feb. 21-23. The win against the Bruins garnered national attention as Cal Poly jumped by as many as 12 spots in the various polls.
“Each and every win for us is very important,” Larry Lee said. “It could be the difference between getting a postseason berth and not getting one.”
Only a handful of Cal Poly athletic programs have been ranked as high as the 2014 baseball team, including the volleyball team’s No. 1 ranking for a week in 1985.
Cal Poly takes on Santa Clara in a one-game series at Baggett Stadium on Tuesday.
Denzel Quarterman contributed to this article.