RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KEYT) - In a game featuring a lost glove, a 41-pitch first inning, seven home runs and the most runs and hits compiled by a Mustang team in 16 years, Cal Poly breezed to a 22-4 victory over UC Riverside in the opener of a Big West series Friday afternoon.
The Mustangs scored crooked numbers in six of the nine innings at the Riverside Sports Complex, including eight in the fifth and six more in the eighth, and Jake Downing and Alejandro Garza produced four-hit games as Cal Poly improved to 15-9 for the season and 9-1 in conference games.
UC Riverside fell to 7-18 (2-5 Big West).
Cal Poly's 22 runs and 25 hits are the most since a 25-run, 32-hit outburst in the final game of the 2010 season against Cal State Bakersfield. The five Mustang home runs are the most since Cal Poly slugged six in a win at Fresno State two years ago.
Griffin Naess (4-1) rebounded from two sub-par outings on the mound (allowing nine runs and 16 hits over eight innings against Cal State Bakersfield and UC Davis). The junior right-hander did not give up a run or a hit over the first three innings Friday and finished with three runs and four hits allowed in six innings for his fourth win of the year, striking out four.
Brady Estes, Arlo Pendleton and Luke Kalfsbeek each tossed an inning in relief to seal the victory for the Mustangs. Kalfsbeek was struck on the shoulder with a line drive in the ninth but remained on the mound to wrap up the victory.
Southpaw Jack Becker (0-1), the first of seven Highlander pitchers used in the game, surrendered four runs and six hits over two frames in absorbing the loss.
Downing's first career four-hit game as a Mustang included two singles, a double and a triple, all in his first four trips to the plate, and he knocked in three runs. A .150 hitter at the start of the game, Cal Poly's hitter in the ninth spot in the batting order lifted his average to .197 and had two more chances to hit for the cycle, but struck out and grounded out.
Garza garnered his fourth career four-hit game and second of 2026 with three singles and a three-run home run in the fifth inning. Hitting .269 after the Hawai'i series, Cal Poly's junior second baseman now sports a .343 average after going 19-for-41 (.463) over his last nine contests.
Right fielder Cam Hoiland and catcher Ryan Tayman both smashed two-run home runs in the second and fifth innings, respectively. Right fielder Dylan Kordic added a solo blast in the eighth and backup infielder Antonio Castro closed Cal Poly's scoring in the eighth with a full-count grand slam to right field, his first home run as a Mustang.
Two Mustangs extended their double-digit hitting streaks. Center fielder Casey Murray Jr. singled up the middle in the first inning to drive in a run and increase his streak to 14 games while Hoiland's two-run home run in the second advanced his streak to 12 games.
Hoiland also suffered some embarrassment in the eighth inning when he leaped against the right-field wall to try to catch Jarren Sanderson's long fly ball. Both Hoiland's glove and the ball landed over the fence and the game was delayed a bit to retrieve Hoiland's glove.
Becker threw 41 pitches in the top of the first inning when Cal Poly scored the first two runs of the game and never looked back.
Naess made a nice back-handed stab to field a comebacker and end the bottom of the second inning.
Cal Poly has produced double-digit hits in 11 of its last 14 games.
In addition to the four-hit games by Garza and Downing, Tayman finished with three hits while Murray, shortstop Nate Castellon, left fielder Xander McLaurin and designated hitter Owen Meli all added a pair of hits for Cal Poly.
Second game of the series will be played Saturday at 1:05 p.m. with Cal Poly freshman right-hander Corden Pettey (2-1, 4.55 ERA) to face UC Riverside senior southpaw Matthew O'Brien (1-3, 5.45 ERA), a transfer from Hawai'i-Hilo prior to the 2025 season.
Sunday's series finale also starts at 1:05 p.m.
(Article courtesy of Cal Poly Athletics)
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