SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — A year ago, the Cal Poly baseball team captured the Big West Championship as the second seed and qualified for an NCAA regional playoff berth.

Coach Larry Lee’s Mustangs seek to do the same this week in the second edition of the five-team event that was revived after a 26-year hiatus.

Armed with a six-game winning streak and a co-championship in the regular season of the Big West, No. 2 seed Cal Poly takes on third-seeded UC San Diego, making its first Division I postseason appearance, on Thursday at 6 p.m. on UC Irvine’s Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark.

The four- or five-day event opens Wednesday with a play-in game between No. 4 Hawai’i and fifth-seeded Cal State Fullerton at 6 p.m. The winner plays top-seeded UC Santa Barbara, the other Big West regular season co-champion, on Thursday at 1 p.m.

Thursday’s winners square off Friday at 1 p.m., followed by Thursday’s two losers in an elimination game at 6 p.m. The loser’s bracket final is set for Saturday at 1 p.m. with the winner advancing to the championship game at 6 p.m. An extra championship contest, if necessary in the double-elimination event, is scheduled for Sunday at noon.

All games will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Steve Quis providing the play-by-play and John Kentera serving as the analyst. Links for the video streams and live stats of games involving the Mustangs can be found on the Cal Poly baseball schedule page at GoPoly.com.

The Gauchos and Mustangs finished tied for first place in the Big West with 22-8 records. UC Santa Barbara (37-16 overall) earned the top seed by virtue of their series win over Cal Poly (33-21) at Baggett Stadium in early April.

UC San Diego (24-26 overall) claimed third place with an 18-12 mark, followed by fourth-place Hawai’i (16-14) and fifth-place Cal State Fullerton (15-15). UC Irvine, the conference’s regular season champion and top seed in last year’s Big West tournament, and UC Davis both finished one victory shy of a 2026 postseason berth at 14-16.

Thursday’s matchup between the Mustangs and Tritons will feature the same pitchers who faced off in the opening game of their three-game Big West series in April.

Cal Poly junior right-hander Griffin Naess (6-4, 4.68 ERA) squared off against UC San Diego redshirt sophomore righty Steele Murdock (4-2, 5.73 ERA) on April 17 at Triton Ballpark. The Mustangs won the game 11-3 en route to a series win as Naess allowed two runs and four hits over six innings with six strikeouts. Murdock surrendered six runs (three earned) and five hits in 4 1/3 innings, also with six strikeouts.

Murdock has eight no-decisions among his 14 starts this year, did not earn a victory in his last five starts of the regular season and did not complete five innings in seven of his appearances on the mound. Nevertheless, the Herriman (Utah) High School graduate struck out 93 opposing batters, fourth in the Big West, and has exceeded 100 miles per hour with his fastball this season, striking out 17 in eight innings of a 4-3 win at UC Santa Barbara.

Naess fanned 14 Washington State batters over seven frames in a 9-0 Mustang win Feb. 20 and also has earned victories against Hawai’i, Cal State Bakersfield, UC Riverside, UC San Diego and Long Beach State. The three-time All-Big West honorable mention’s 20 career wins over three seasons at Cal Poly ties him for ninth place in the Mustang record book with Paul Souza and Shannon Stephens.

Cal Poly leads the Big West in hitting with a .307 team batting average and also is No. 1 in runs scored (368), hits (597), doubles (147), RBIs (326), slugging percentage (.480) and on-base percentage (.383).

Individually, Mustang leaders in the Big West include junior catcher Ryan Tayman in slugging percentage (.673), OPS (on base and slugging percentages) (1.137), RBIs (53), home runs (16), caught steals (16), putouts (465) and total chances (523), Alejandro Garza in hits (83), doubles (21) and at bats (246), Nick Bonn in saves (12), Carson Turnquist in fewest hits allowed (45) and Chris Downs in wild pitches (11).

Nationally, Cal Poly is No. 2 in doubles, No. 10 in hits and tied for 27th in batting average. Individually, Garza is 10th with 21 doubles, 10th in toughest to strike out (once every 16.4 at bats) and tied for 12th with 83 hits, Tayman is tied for 75th with 16 home runs, Casey Murray Jr. is tied for 19th with five triples, Nick Bonn is tied for third with 12 saves and Nate Castellon is tied for fifth in toughest to strike out (once every 17.0 at bats).

Tayman, named Big West Co-Field Player of the Year this week, is Cal Poly’s top hitter with a .351 average, one of 10 Mustangs hitting at least .284. Garza is at .337 with 25 multiple-hit games this spring while Castellon sports a .335 mark. Murray, named defensive player of the year in the conference, has a .315 average.

Named Big West Coach of the Year for the second time (sharing the honor with UC Santa Barbara’s Andrew Checketts), Lee earned his 1,200th career victory in 40 seasons at Cal Poly and Cuesta College with an 8-6 triumph at UC Irvine on May 3. He is 746-573-2 in 23-plus seasons with the Mustangs and, combined with his 16 seasons at Cuesta College (460-241-3), is 1,206-814-5 overall as a head coach.

Lee guided Cal Poly to the Big West tournament crown in 2025 with a 4-1 mark and his program’s fourth trip to the NCAA postseason, going 2-2 in the NCAA Eugene Regional. The Mustangs earned their second Big West regular season title by sweeping Long Beach State last weekend inside Baggett Stadium. The other was in 2014 when Cal Poly hosted the NCAA San Luis Obispo Regional.

Cal Poly’s numbers this season included a 7-3 mark in midweek games, an 8-0 start to Big West play, a 10-game winning streak in the first half of March and 20 come-from-behind wins. The Mustangs won nine of 10 Big West series for the second consecutive year and have claimed 26 of 30 conference series over the last three seasons.

The Mustangs also won 15 of 20 games to close out the regular season, including the last six contests, hit .325 in 30 Big West games, won 30 of 33 games when outhitting the opposition and produced double-digit hits 33 times, including three games with 20 or more hits.