SAN LUIS OBISPO – Junior righ-hander Joey Wagman tossed a complete-game on Friday night, giving Cal Poly a 5-1 victory over UCSB in the opening game of a three-game series between the Big West Conference rivals.
Cal Poly improves to 31-20 overall and 11-8 in the Big West. UCSB has dropped seven of nine and falls to 24-25 and 10-12 in conference action.
Wagman threw his first career complete game in allowing just one run on five hits as he kept the Gauchos off balance all night long. Wagman ran into trouble just twice on the evening – in the fourth inning when UCSB loaded the bases with two outs, and in the eighth when they scratched across a run on Brett Vertigan’s infield single.
Otherwise, Wagman was terrific in limiting UCSB as the Gauchos only had hits in three innings.
Santa Barbara starter Kevin Gelinas went 5.1 innings pitched and allowed five runs (all earned) while striking out three Cal Poly batters. The Mustangs struck for a run in the first on Mike Miller’s double and Jimmy Allen’s sacrifice fly, a run in the second on David Armendariz’s home run, a run in the third on Allen’s triple and Armendariz’s sac fly and then two in the sixth.
The two teams square off on Saturday in a 1 p.m. game at Baggett Stadium as Big West ERA leader Andrew Vasquez toes the rubber for the Gauchos.
