Hoo evens UCSB series with walk-off

Jimmy Allen slides home safely for Cal Poly’s seventh run in the fourth inning. Cal Poly wouldn’t score again until the 9th. By Owen Main

Chris Hoo bats ninth in the order, but he may be Cal Poly’s most clutch hitter. After hitting a three-run homer in Friday night’s loss to UCSB, Hoo singled home the winning run on Saturday night in the bottom of the ninth inning to give Cal Poly their first walk-off win of the season, a 8-7 win over the rival Gauchos.

The victory evened the Blue-Green baseball series at 1-1 with Sunday’s 1pm rubber match looming.

Long games

Cal Poly play-by-play man, Tom Barket, talked about the slow pace of UC Santa Barbara during the second inning of the opening game of their series on Friday night.

On Saturday, the fifth inning ended well over two hours into the game. By the that time, the game had seen six pitchers and every UC Santa Barbara batter had a hit.

Every batter in the #UCSantaBarbara has a hit tonight. It's the fifth inning….and yet we're tied, 7-7.

— Shotgun Spratling (@SoCal_CBDaily) April 6, 2014

This series has been a grind so far, which you might expect from a game between conference rivals who are both nationally ranked in the top-20. The first game lasted over three and a half hours. Last night’s did as well, confirming Barket’s observation.

Umpires have also called six balks so far — three in each of the first two games of the series, which is the most I’ve ever seen in such a short span.

Justin Calomeni gave up 11 hits in less than four innings on Saturday. Photos by Owen Main

Bullpens doing work

While there were 14 runs scored in the first half of the game, both teams’ bullpens did a solid job. Reed Reilly pitched the final three scoreless innings for Cal Poly to earn the Saturday win.

Cal Poly will have Taylor Chris fresh after he rested on Saturday and Reilly will almost certainly also be available for today’s afternoon game.

Reilly gets the job done. Three scoreless innings for @Reeder_41, and it's still tied 7-7. Mid 9. #CPBats #Reilliable

— Joshua D. Scroggin (@SLOcollegebeat) April 6, 2014

Also worth noting is the contribution of Bryan Granger. The Cal Poly reliever, who has been a starter in teh past, has worked four innings during the first two games of the series and showed good effectiveness as a long reliever. Pitching depth is something that might have hurt Cal Poly at last year’s regional and Granger, who hasn’t seen a ton of action yet this year, could factor in come postseason time.

For UCSB, Kenny Chapman was Saturday’s relief star, going 4 1/3 innings, striking out four Mustangs, and not giving up a run.

Photos by Owen Main