Now that is more like it. It wasn't pretty at times but the Aggies found away not only to win but they swept the Gauchos this past weekend. The Aggies starting pitching was still impressive but they did struggle at times, in turn the bullpen still struggled but was also decent at times. Dayne Quist set the stage again with a solid outing on Friday

Friday-

Quist was on top of his game again in his second to last start of the year. The young southpaw went 7 innings, giving up just 2 runs. Those 2 runs Quist gave up were in his last inning of work, when the Aggies already had a 6 run lead. Scott Chew came in on the 8th inning but was ineffective, only retiring 1 batter whiling giving up 4 hits and 3 runs. Matthew Lewis came on in relief of Chew and was much more productive than his last appearance. Lewis went the final 1 and 2/3 innings in the game while only giving up 1 hit.

Offensively the Aggies were on top of things. They were assisted by some rough defense by the Gauchos, only 1 of the Aggies runs were actually earned. David Popkins started his Big West player of the week series off with a bang going 3 for 5 with 2 RBI. The two Scott's, Lyman and Heylman went a combined 4 for 8 with 2 runs scored and 1 RBI.

The Aggies being able to hold off the surging Gauchos late in the game was a big step in the right direction for this young team as they look to be more competitive in Big West play next year.

Saturday-

This time the Aggies played from behind and were able to make a come back late, with 7 runs scored in the last 3 innings. Sean Watson struggled, something that is unusual after his last couple outings, but Scott Heinig picked up the slack going 3 and 2/3 innings in relief. Heinig would only allow 2 walks while not giving up any hits.

The Aggies offense was even more in sync than Friday, David Popkins was 4 for 5 with 2 runs and 1 RBI. Scott Lyman did his job as clean up man, driving in 6 off his teammates on the day. 3 of Lyman's RBI came on his 5th home run of the season in the 7th inning. Seth 'The Secret Weapon' Batty was on top of his game on Saturday, going 3 for 5 and chipping in both a run and RBI.

The win on Saturday secured the 3rd conference series win for the Aggies and give them their 7th win in conference. The Aggies winning from protecting a lead and coming from behind was something that has to make Coach Rex Peters feel good. The momentum was in their favor heading into the Sunday match-up.

Sunday-

The Aggies seemed to be in the fast lane heading into Sunday but would soon fall behind 8-0 by the 5th inning. Scott Lyman struggled on the mound and at the plate but was picked up by his team mates in both aspects. Nathan Slater and Matthew Lewis combined to go 6 innings, allowing 2 hits and only walking 1 Gaucho.

Offensively the Aggies top of the lineup carried the team on Sunday. Justin Schafer went 2 for 5 with 2 runs scored an 1 RBI. Scott Heylman went 1 for 5 with a walk, 2 runs scored, and 1 run batted in. David Popkins finished off his amazing weekend going 4 for 5 on Sunday, he scored twice and drove in 5 Aggies.



Looking Forward-

The Aggies only have 3 more games on the schedule this year after Tuesday nights game in Palo Alto got rained out. They'll travel down to the Inland Empire and take on the UC Riverside Highlanders for the final weekend series of the year.

While there has been plenty of negatives this year as far as performance goes, David Popkins has not been party of that. The Aggie DH/OF became the first position player to get Big West player of the week since Kyle Mihaylo received the honor in 2008. The switch hitting slugger leads or is tied for the lead in the following categories; in batting average, runs scored, hits, triples, runs batted in, total bases, slugging percentage, and on base percentage. I for one would like to congratulate Popkins on an amazing year.

Labels: Big West, David Popkins, Recap

The big story of the weekend was great starting pitching, unfortunately the other story of the weekend was the bullpen and not for the same reason as the starters. The Aggies looked to bounce back after struggling in Big West Play, they showed a lot of good things on the field as well as bad things. The 12 inning battle on Friday set the tone for the rest of the weekend.

Labels: Big West, Cal Poly, Dayne Quist, Recap, Scott Lyman, Sean Watson

To say the Aggies had been struggling in conference play might be an understatement. They had been swept by both Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine, while taking 2 out of 3 against Long Beach State. The Aggies went into Northridge this past weekend with a conference record of 2-7 and were occupying the basement of the Big West Standings. The Aggies opened up their weekend series putting their ace southpaw, Dayne Quist, on the mound.

Friday-

Quist on a solid but unspectacular outing. He went 6 innings while giving up 5 runs, all of which were earned. He did strike out 8 Matadors on the day while only walking 2. Overall the outing from Quist was not the dominant performance the Aggies had come to expect early in the year but it was an improvement over what he had thrown in some recent conference games. Nathan Slater and Matthew Lewis worked in relief of Quist, with Lewis picking up his 5th save of the year. While the Aggies pitching was decent, the story of the weekend for the Aggies was the offense.

The Aggies put up 15 hits against Northridge on Friday in route to scoring 9 runs. Kyle Mihaylo, Eric Johson, Paul Politi, and Scott Lyman lead the way for the Aggies going a combined 9 for 18, scoring 7 runs, driving in 6, and walking 2 times. Mihaylo and Lyman both went yard on Friday also giving them 5 and 4 on the year respectively at the time. The Aggies played with a a lead for all of the game, the final score coming in at 9-7.

Saturday-

Everything that went right for the Aggies offense on Friday, didn't on Saturday. The Aggies managed 6 hits and 4 walks but only one of the Ags had more than 1 hit, Scott Kalush had 2. The Aggie hitters were stifled by Junior righty Paul Tremlin, he went the full 9 innings on 117 pitches. Tremlin was abled to spread the hits and walks around and only give up 1 run on a Seth "the secret weapon" Batty sac-fly.

Aggie pitching struggled on Saturday, Sean Watson started but only lasted 4 and 2/3 innings while giving up 4 runs. Scott Heinig came on in relief of Watson but struggled even more than Watson did, giving up 7 runs in 3 and 1/3 innings.

Sunday-

The Aggies offense was firing on all pistons on Sunday to finish out the series and they didn't even have one of their best hitters in the line-up. Scott Lyman took to the mound for the Ags so, given the plan that has been set out by Rex Peters, Lyman would not be hitting that game. The Aggies didn't even have help from David Popkins, another one of the most dangerous hitters on the team, he struggled going 0 for 3 on the day.

The offense was lead by Senior outfielder, Kyle Mihaylo. After going yard on Friday, Mihaylo did it again. Thats gives him a team leading 6 home runs on the year. Mihaylo finished the day 3 for 6, scoring 3 runs and driving in 4. Paul Politi and Eric Johnson were in sync again to finish out the year, going a combined 8 for 12 on the day. they scored 8 runs and drove in 3. While the offense was slugging on Sunday, they didn't need to score much to win because of the performance that Scott Lyman had on the mound.

It took the Aggies starter 105 pitches, his third highest total on the year, to get through 8 innings and hold the Matadors scoreless. He only allowed 3 hits and walked 1 batter while striking out 6. Lyman was named Big West pitcher of the week for his outing in Northridge. Mattew Lewis came in to finish the game and only needed 8 pitches to retire the last three batters.

Looking forward-

The Aggies have a match-up in Santa Clara on Wednesday this week before a weekend series at Dobbins Field against Big West Rivals the Pacific Tigers. The Aggies are currently tied for last in the conference but will have a better chance at wins moving forward because they already faced the three hardest teams in the division in Long Beach, Fullerton, and Irvine. The Aggies still have 4 more conference weekend match-ups to play with Cal Poly, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Riverside on the schedule after Pacific.

Labels: Big West, CSUN, Kyle Mihaylo, Recap, Scott Lyman

The Aggies had a week off from conference play after their series against the Long Beach State Dirtbags. The Aggies played 5 games, 2 at home in Dobbins and 3 during a weekend series when they made a trip down to Bakersfield to take on the Roadrunners of CSUB. The Ags came out of the week with a 2-3 record with a win against San Jose State and 1 in Bakersfield. This past weekend the Aggies had their 3rd conference series, this time against pre-season top 10 team UC Irvine. Coming into the weekend the Aggies stood at 16-16 overall and 2-4 in conference play and the visiting Anteaters came in at 21-13 and 5-4 in conference play. By the end of the weekend the Ags fell to 2-7 in conference play and the Anteaters improved to 8-4.

Friday-
Not a lot went right for the Aggies throughout the weekend, Sean Watson would fall into 1 of the few things that did. Watson struggled some by hitting three batters and balking 1 time but given the struggles the Aggies have had with their third starter since Anthony Kupbens' injury. Watson finished his day with 7 and 2/3 innings, allowing 11 hits, 7 runs, only 3 of which were earned but the reason they were unearned was Watson's fault.

Offensively there was pretty much nothing happening for the Aggies, in total they sent 28 batters to the plate throughout the game, for those of you keeping score at home that's one more than the minimum. Daniel Bibona and Kyle Hooper combined to 3 hit the Aggies through 9 innings in only 109 pitches. Bibona struck out 8 batters as he improved to 7-2 on the year.

The Anteaters were in full force offensively by scoring 8 runs on 13 hits. They were lead by Casey Stevenson who went 4 for 5, scoring 2 runs and driving in 3. Brian Hernandez also chipped in going 3 for 5 and drove in 3 runs as well.

Overall the game on Friday was not one the Aggies want to remember offensively and did not set a good tone for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday-
The Aggies hoped to get their offense on track after the sub-par showing on Friday but that was not in the cards on Saturday afternoon. The Aggies started off the game with a single by Daniel Cepin, driven hard in the hole between shortstop and third base. That single by Cepin accounted for the totality of the Aggies offense on Saturday. Christian Bergman pitched a masterful game for the Anteaters, facing the minimum amount of batters after Cepin was caught stealing later in the 1st inning. Bergman held the Aggies scoreless while moving through the rest of the game without allowing another base runner. He struck out 6 and only required 89 pitches to get through the 9 innings.

Unfortunately for the Aggies their Ace was not in the same form as Bergman. Dayne Quist took the mound Saturday after a decent outing in Bakersfield the week before but his numbers against the Anteaters were, to put it bluntly, bad. The southpaw finished the day going 5 plus innings, surrendering 11 hits while walking 2, he also doubled hit hit batter number by plunking two Anteaters on the day, one positive was that he did strike out 4 batters. Given how strong Bergman was pitching it didn't really matter how many runs the Aggies pitchers surrendered but the 13 that Quist and Scott Heinig ended up allowing added an extra string to the loss.

Sunday-
Heading into Sunday the series had already been decided both mathematically and emotionally but the Aggies still hoped to but forward a better offensive showing than they had the previous two games, while they were unable to come away with the win their were definitely positives to take away from the Sunday game. Those positives were mainly the offense showing up and Nathan Slaters performance in relief of Scott Lyman.

The offense came away Sunday with 11 hits, 6 of which were split between Scott Heylman, Eric Johnson, and Paul Politi. Those players also combined for 3 runs sored and 3 RBI. The Anteaters offense was still in full swing on Sunday, scoring 10 runs, 8 against Lyman. They were lead by Brian Hernandez, Jeff Cusick, and normally light hitting DJ Crumlich. Cusick was 2 for 4 with 1 run scored and 4 RBI, Hernandez went 1 for 3 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI, and Crumlich chipped in going 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored and 1 batted in.


A look forward-
It was clear the the Aggies were outmatched by the Anteaters this past weekend, but there are good things to take at least from Sundays game. They are still a young team and there will still be growing pains throughout the rest of the year. The Ags will be at home Tuesday taking on the Golden Bears of Berkeley before heading down to Northridge this weekend for a three game series against the Matadors of CSUN. The Aggies have a tough match up this weekend, while they currently have a 6-9 record while away from Dobbins and the Matadors have a 12-10 home record.

Labels: Baseball, Big West, Irvine, Recap