The Cal Poly Mustangs baseball team secured a share of the Big West Conference regular-season championship after defeating Long Beach State 8-3 on May 16. This marks the team’s first regular-season conference title since 2014, although they will share the honor with UC Santa Barbara, as both teams finished with identical 22-8 records in conference play.
The shared title comes after a dramatic day in which Cal Poly rallied from behind to win at Baggett Stadium, while UC Santa Barbara also came back from an early deficit to defeat UC Riverside. As a result of their head-to-head series earlier in the season, UC Santa Barbara will be the top seed in the upcoming Big West tournament at UC Irvine, with Cal Poly taking the second seed.
Head coach Larry Lee said that focusing on playing well was more important than thinking about titles. “The entire weekend, we didn’t mention anything,” said Lee. “Our message was, play to our standards, take care of what you can control. We never really thought about it (a co-championship). It was never a topic of conversation. I’m glad we finished in first place, but the players understand that there’s more work that lies ahead.” He added: “I always talk about creating opportunities. This is just another opportunity that we have moving forward. We never once mentioned winning the Big West… The message has always been to play the game hard, play the game the right way and play to win.” Lee emphasized staying focused: “If you do that and you’re focused and intent on the job at hand, that’s what you can control… It’s about being in the moment, not thinking about the future or the past.”
To claim their share of this year’s title, Cal Poly had to come from behind for their twentieth time this season during Saturday’s game against Long Beach State. The Mustangs scored four runs in one inning and added more throughout for an eventual five-run victory margin.
Lee described his team’s approach throughout a challenging season: “A little bit of everything,” he said regarding keys to success this year. “I think for the majority of the year, our offense carried us and that allowed us to figure out how to work pitching and allowed certain pitchers to progress as time went on.” Despite losing two starting pitchers midseason due to injury or other reasons—”that was a tough loss for us,” Lee said—other pitchers stepped up when needed.
Looking ahead at postseason goals following last year’s success—including winning nine out of ten conference series again—Lee concluded: “To be able to be co-champs is great… Now we have created an opportunity to play in postseason.”