Mustang Daily Staff Report
sports@mustangdaily.net
The Cal Poly campus plays host to six Division I athletics events Thursday to Sunday, including the baseball team’s home opening series, a nonconference men’s basketball game and two women’s basketball games that could position the team for a late push for a third consecutive Big West regular season title.
Baseball
Four games. Four wins.
The baseball team (4-0) brings its undefeated record to Baggett Stadium for the first time this year for a three-game series against Seattle this weekend. The opening pitch on Friday will come at 6 p.m.
The Mustangs lost just three position starters last season and return David Armendariz, who moved from left field to center. Armendariz ended the 2012 season on a tear, going 14-for-23 and recording 15 RBIs during the Mustangs’ final seven games.
He continued his hot-hitting to start the 2013 season, recording three RBIs and three runs scored over his first 18 at-bats.
However, it has been the Cal Poly catchers who provided most of the Mustangs’ power so far. Elliot Stewart, the Mustangs backup catcher, has belted two home runs, including one against San Francisco that kicked off a seven-run sixth inning. That inning was capped off by a grand slam from catcher Chris Hoo.
The Mustangs also rallied for a victory against Santa Clara on Monday night, using back-to-back two-run innings in the sixth and seventh to earn a 5-4 win.
Against Seattle, Cal Poly will send senior Joey Wagman to the mound on Friday night. He threw six innings and allowed two earned runs on four hits to earn his first win of the season against San Francisco.
Matt Imhof will start on Saturday and will be followed by sophomore right-hander Bryan Granger on Sunday.
The Mustangs have won their past 10 games, dating back to last season when they fell one-game short of tying Cal State Fullerton for the Big West title.
Men’s Basketball
The Mustangs (12-12, 8-6 Big West) will look to extend their nine-game home winning streak on Saturday night at 7 p.m. against Loyola Marymount in a 2013 Ramada Worldwide BracketBuster matchup. It will be Cal Poly’s final nonconference game of the season unless the team makes the NCAA Tournament in March.
While the Mustangs have only lost to Fresno State at home this season, they are 2-11 on the road (edit once tonight’s game is over). At the postgame press conference following Cal Poly’s win over UC Santa Barbara on Feb. 16, head coach Joe Callero said Chris Eversley, who injured his leg against UC Davis on Feb. 9, would not play unless he makes significant improvement.
Callero said he would rather let Eversley, the Mustangs’ leading scorer, rest during the nonconference game and use him for Big West matchups.
Cal Poly currently stands in fifth place in the Big West with four games to play.
Women’s Basketball
The loss of Brittany Woodard has hardly slowed down the women’s basketball team (14-9, 8-4 Big West), which is 5-3 since Woodard suffered a season-ending anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear. The team takes on Cal State Northridge on Thursday night at 7 p.m. then welcomes Hawaii to Mott Athletics Center for the first time at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
The Mustangs lost to both the Matadors and Rainbow Wahine on the road in January.
In its most recent game, the team defeated UC Santa Barbara 65-56 in Isla Vista on Feb. 16. The victory moved the Mustangs into third place in the Big West Conference.
The top two finishers in the Big West at the end of the regular season receive bye weeks into the semifinals of the Big West Tournament.
After losing Woodard for the season, junior center Molly Schlemer has become the team’s main offensive weapon. The tallest player in the Big West, the 6-foot-4 Schlemer is tied with redshirt sophomore Ariana Elegado in scoring, both averaging 11.9 points per game. Schlemer has scored in double figures in 10 of the Mustangs’ past 11 games.
Senior guard Jonae Ervin leads the NCAA in assist-to-turnover ratio, dishing out 3.14 assists for each time she coughs up the ball.