Photo by Ian Billings
Jacob Lauing
jlauing.md@gmail.com
The Cal Poly baseball team won its 10th game in its last 11 after defeating Holy Cross 6-1 on Tuesday night in game one of this week’s two-game, nonconference matchup.
Head coach Larry Lee’s reaction?
“We’ll take it.”
But even after Lee’s Mustangs scored its second highest run total of the season and reached a No. 21 rank in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll this week, the 11-year head coach remains unsatisfied.
“There’s a big concern,” Lee said. “We are not a good offensive team right now. It’s great to win, but we’ve got a long way to go.”
The Mustangs posted a .263 team batting average entering Tuesday’s game, the fifth worst in the Big West Conference.
Cal Poly’s offense has also been steadily declining this season. After hitting .321 in the first four games, the Mustangs’ batting average fell to .234 and .210 in the consequent series.
“The biggest thing is just getting that leadoff runner on,” center fielder David Armendariz said. “Once you do that, you’re able to manufacture runs easier. Tonight that was a big help. We got leadoff runners on.”
Armendariz personally took advantage of those leadoff runners on base tonight, collecting a pair of RBI doubles, breaking out of a slump and raising his average by nearly 30 points.
Reigning Big West Player of the Week Nick Torres added two more hits and an RBI to his stat line, which includes a 9-for-21 split with eight RBIs, four doubles and three home runs in his past five games.
“I try not to get too outside of myself,” Torres said. “It’s all about helping other guys out. It levels you out. Coach Lee lit us up a little bit at the beginning of the game. Generally when he does that, guys tend to spark other guys.”
And while the offense remains afloat, the story in 2013 continues to be Cal Poly’s lights-out pitching staff, which, entering tonight’s game, recorded a conference-best 1.42 ERA.
“We know, no matter what, we are going to be in every game every game,” Torres said. “We rely on our pitching heavily and that’s always huge for a team. It really allows us to relax.”
On Tuesday night, it was right-hander Kyle Brueggemann’s turn to maintain the Mustangs’ pitching dominance. The redshirt senior earned the win after tossing 5 1/3 innings, surrendering only one run and striking out four.
Southpaw reliever Taylor Chris took over in the sixth and escaped a two-on, one-out jam unharmed. Chris kept the Crusaders at bay with one run, paving the way for junior Chase Johnson to close things out in the ninth.
“(The pitchers) are a huge motivation for us,” Armendariz said. “We want to put runs on the board because we know that they are going to do their job. They have been unbelievable so far this season. We want to give them run support.”
The Mustangs are in the middle of a stretch that features eight games in 10 days, providing Lee with the need to keep his players fresh and a chance to test unproven rookies.
Freshman Casey Bloomquist will toe the rubber at 6 p.m. on Wednesday night against Holy Cross, marking his first collegiate start.
“We have confidence in him,” Lee said. “It’ll be good to get his feet wet and get his first college outing. We’d like him to give us a number of quality innings. These midweek games scare me though. They’re not easy.”
After the two-game set against Holy Cross, the Mustangs will hit the road to face Kansas State in a three-game series this weekend.
With three weeks until conference play, Cal Poly owns the best record in the Big West. But still, Lee is far from pleased with the Mustangs and sees plenty of room for improvement.
“We’re not playing to our potential,” Lee said. “We’ve just got to keep on working at it. Your offense during the course of a season is always going to be up and down. It’s just a matter of getting that feeling.”