Leading up to Saturday's opening day at the 2015 NCAA Division II Baseball National Finals, we will look at the first-round match-ups, give a bit of a preview, and share our thoughts with the regional tournament results and what is ahead. I will be doing my best to put up a recap post following each day in Cary, and a preview post for the next day's action.
Our preview post for today is looking at the final game of the opening weekend of action, as West champion Cal Poly Pomona takes on South champion and perennial contender Tampa.
(Team (Region): Overall Record (SOS Rank, Opp. WP))
Cal Poly Pomona (West): 43-15 (79th, .536)
Tampa (South): 39-13 (13th, .579)
Of the four games to kick off the the national finals, this will probably be the one that draws the most attention, and deservedly so. CPP has been at the top of the West region nearly all year, one of the toughest regions in the country, while Tampa can intimidate anyone at any time with their recent success. Despite struggling a bit in the middle of the season, the Spartans probably enter the weekend as the favorites, but if we were ranking the teams 1-8 this weekend, this is probably a top-3 match-up.
The Broncos of Cal Poly Pomona were the class of the CCAA most of the season, winning or splitting every conference series on the season. After sweeping through the CCAA Tournament with a pair of wins over CSU Dominguez Hills sandwiched around a victory over UC San Diego, the Broncos went on to go 4-1 in the West Regional Tournament, beating Point Loma to begin the weekend, falling to Dixie State, and then rebounding for three straight wins over Cal Baptist, Azusa Pacific and UC San Diego to take the title.
CPP will probably roll out one of their two aces for this game with sophomore Ryan Olson, a transfer from San Diego. Olson dominated Point Loma in the opener of the West regional, throwing eight one-hit innings with four strikeouts and one walk to earn the victory. He came back a few days later to start the title game against UCSD, although he struggled a bit, allowing four hits and three runs in 2.1 innings of work. Fortunately for CPP, his counterpart Justin Donatella struggled to nearly the same line, allowing three runs and five hits in 2.2 innings to keep the Broncos in the game as the bullpen nailed down a victory and a trip to Cary, the school's first regional title since 1985.
On the year, Olson is 11-0 with a 1.67 ERA in 13 starts (16 app.), with 78 strikeouts and only 50 hits allowed in 80.2 innings. Along with Cody Ponce, a projected first-round MLB Draft Pick in a few weeks, the Broncos boast what could be the top pitching staff in Cary. Their shutdown reliever, Austin Boyle, is 1-1 with a 1.59 ERA in 26 appearances with 35 strikeouts and 18 hits allowed in 28.1 innings. Michael Koval (4-0, 2.09 ERA, 37 K in 43 IP) and Zach Williams (2-2, 2.17 ERA, 31 K in 29 IP, 12 H allowed) don't make things any easier in the middle innings, either.
The Broncos' offense is led by a trio of big bats, including one of the best in the country in senior center fielder Kyle Garlick, who hit two home runs in the victory over UCSD to claim the regional title. On the season, the lead-off hitter is batting .341 with a team-leading 64 runs, 14 doubles, 16 home runs, 48 RBI, 141 total bases, a .641 slugging percentage, a .443 on-base percentage and 7 stolen bases. He is the do-it-all hitter in the CPP lineup, and does a great job at knocking in the two leading hitters for the Broncos in sophomore catcher Christian Kelley (.349, 40 R, 11 2B, 26 RBI, .422 SLG, .423 OBP) and senior 2B Nick Cooksey (.345, 38 R, 77 H, 11 2B, 3 HR, 45 RBI, .453 SLG, .410 OBP). CPP *is* prone to the strikeout as a team, whiffing 362 times this season, and those three hitters are the only guys batting over .300 on the team, making it a little easier to pitch around guys in late-game situations if needed.
Tampa, the pre-season #1 team, got off to a hot start on the year, winning 14 of their first 15 games, 15 of 16 if you include an exhibition victory over the MLB's Philadelphia Phillies, but that seemed to be the kiss of death for the Spartans, as they went on to go a very un-Tampa-like 12-10 after that victory, including a sweep at the hands of Nova Southeastern, the first time they had been swept since 2011.
As the Spartans are known to do, however, they came back in a big way, performing well in the clutch at the regional tournament, where they swept through, going 4-0 with wins over Florida Tech, Nova Southeastern, West Alabama and another over the Panthers of Florida Tech to win the title.
Tampa always has a spectacular offense. However, this season, the offense has had to be even better than usual to mask a pitching staff that hasn't quite been up to par for usual Tampa standards.
The Spartans don't have a starting pitcher with an ERA under 3.40, unusual for a team that usually has power arms and MLB Draft Pick potentials in their rotation on a yearly basis. If they hold to their regional rotation, this game should feature senior Chase Sparkman on the mound, who is 9-2 with a 4.11 ERA in 15 starts this year, with 63 strikeouts and only 11 walks in 85.1 innings of work. However, he is prone to baserunners, allowing 113 hits and a .308 batting average against on the season.
If there is one team that is going to shut down the Tampa offense in this tournament, it is going to be the Broncos of Cal Poly Pomona, and they will need to be on top of their game as Tampa comes in with what is pretty clearly the top offense of any team in Cary.
Every starter in the Spartans lineup will have a batting average over .320, and as a team Tampa is hitting .335 with 111 doubles, 20 triples and 66 home runs. They feature three hitters with at least 10 home runs and seven hitters with at least 34 RBI. The offense alone could be its own blog post, but I will point out the team's leading hitter in senior left fielder Brett Jones (.390, 32 R, 3 HR, 38 RBI, .534 SLG, .433 OBP), a couple all-region players in junior infielder Cody deNoyelles (.367, 45 R, 12 2B, 9 HR, 44 RBI, .583 SLG, .425 OBP) and senior shortstop Giovanny Alfonzo (.360, 58 R, 18 2B, 10 HR, 46 RBI, .606 SLG, .413 OBP). Not to be outdone, the team's top power hitter is senior right fielder Stephen Dezzi (.333, 47 R, 14 HR, 45 RBI, .660 SLG, .472 OBP), while junior first baseman Nick Flair (.330, 42 R, 13 2B, 9 HR, 57 RBI, .557 SLG) leads the team in RBI and senior catcher Nick Tindall (.322, 36 R, 16 2B, 10 HR, 34 RBI, .598 SLG, .415 OBP) is one of the top backstops in the nation (and began his career in the Midwest region!).
Basically, it is a hearty good luck to any team in Cary to keep the Spartans from scoring a handful of runs in each game. I don't know that it will happen, especially when it is a team chock-full of players and coaches who have been in Cary each of the last few seasons, won the title a few years ago, and know what it takes to go deep in to this tournament. Having one of the toughest schedules in the country and playing in the hardest region doesn't hurt, either.
As I said before, though...if there is a pitching staff here that is going to have a chance to keep their own offense in the game, it is CPP with that stellar pitching staff. As usual...in a one-game situation, who knows what could happen.
That does it for the preview posts leading in to this weekend. I will be doing a recap post following each day's action throughout the duration of the tournament, so keep tuning in!
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