FROM CBD NEWS SOURCE
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Home series against Oklahoma State, Washington, San Diego State and UC Irvine highlight the 2012 Cal Poly baseball schedule announced by Mustang director of athletics Don Oberhelman and head coach Larry Lee.
Cal Poly will open the 2012 season by hosting Oklahoma State for a three-game set Feb. 17-19 and also will entertain Washington for three games March 9-11 and San Diego State, coached by Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, for a quartet of games March 23-25.
The home Big West Conference slate includes a three-game series against NCAA super regional qualifier UC Irvine on April 5-7. Cal Poly also will host Long Beach State on March 30-April 1, Pacific on April 27-29 and UC Santa Barbara on May 18-20.
“This is another challenging schedule featuring teams from a number of power conferences and a mixture of playing at home and on the road against some of the better programs in the country,” said Lee, noting series against Big 8, Big 10 and Pac-12 schools.
“We’re always trying to put together a competitive schedule that will prepare us well for a very challenging Big West schedule,” Lee added.
Cal Poly’s home midweek games will be against Santa Clara on Feb. 21, Dartmouth on March 21, Fresno State on April 17 and Pepperdine on May 1. The Mustangs host Cal State Bakersfield for a three-game series May 11-13.
Cal Poly will play its first six Big West games at home (Long Beach State and UC Irvine) before playing 12 of its final 18 conference contests on the road against Cal State Northridge on April 13-15, Cal State Fullerton on April 20-22, UC Davis on May 4-6 and UC Riverside to close out the regular season May 25-27.
Cal Poly’s non-conference road schedule includes a four-game series at Loyola Marymount (Feb. 24-26) and a three-game set against Minnesota (March 17-19) in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. The Mustangs also will play four games in the Aztec Invitational hosted by San Diego State on March 1-4, facing the Aztecs, University of San Diego, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the University of San Francisco.
Cal Poly will play midweek games at Santa Clara on March 6, UC Santa Barbara on April 10, Fresno State on April 24 and Cal State Bakersfield on May 15.
In all, the Mustangs will play 29 of their 56 games at home and 12 games against 2011 NCAA regional qualifiers — three-game series with UC Irvine, Oklahoma State and Cal State Fullerton, a pair of midweek games against Fresno State and a single game against San Francisco in the Aztec Invitational at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
A year ago Cal Poly finished 27-26 overall, posting its ninth winning season since 2000, and placed third in the Big West Conference at 15-9.
