Cal Poly sophomore Mark Mathias and Long Beach State senior Josh Frye helped engineer series victories for their squads in earning Big West Baseball Field Player and Pitcher of the Week honors, respectively.
Blazing Mathias Captures Second Straight Hitting Honor
Cal Poly second baseman Mark Mathias (Fremont, Calif./Irvington HS) terrorized opposing pitching en route to his second straight Big West Baseball Field Player of the Week award.
Mathias had 11 hits in 20 at-bats as the Mustangs posted a 4-0 record, including a Big West series sweep of Cal State Fullerton. Cal Poly became the first Big West school since UC Riverside in 2007 to take all three games against the Titans in a conference series.
The sophomore went 8-for-16 (.500) in the Cal State Fullerton series with three doubles, a home run and five runs scored. He also went 3-for-4 with three runs scored in a midweek win against Cal State Bakersfield. Mathias finished the week with three games of three or more hits.
In the series opener against CSF, Mathias finished 3-for-5 with a double and three runs scored. He posted a career-high four hits, including two more doubles, in Friday’s 13-inning, 4-3 victory. Mathias led off the 13th with a single and scored the game-winning run on a double by Nick Torres. He had an .850 slugging percentage for the week.
Mathias led off Saturday’s 3-0 shutout victory with a solo home run to left field, the first home run of his career. He has hits in 28 of his last 29 games with a 17-game hitting streak and a current one of 11 straight.
Others nominated: Clay Williamson (Cal State Fullerton); Brett Balkan (Cal State Northridge); Garrett Hampson (Long Beach State); Tanner Bily (UC Davis); Thomas Walker (UC Riverside); Steven Ventimilia (Hawai‘i)
Frye Tosses Complete Game Shutout
Long Beach State senior Josh Frye (Long Beach, Calif./Millikan HS) posted his first career complete game shutout to garner Big West Baseball Pitcher of the Week accolades.
The 6-7 local product handcuffed No. 17 UC Santa Barbara, throwing a five-hit shutout and needing only 91 pitches to finish off the 1-0 pitcher’s duel. In just his fourth career start, and the first in front of his hometown crowd at Blair Field, Frye did not issue a walk and struck out two in the series-clinching victory.
Frye did not allow a Gaucho runner to reach third base with only two runners advancing to second all night. He got stronger as the game progressed, retiring the final seven batters he faced.
Frye has now pitched 25 consecutive scoreless innings dating back to his first career start at Cal State Northridge on Mar. 29. He lowered his team-best ERA to 1.13, which ranks third in the Big West.
Others nominated: Reed Reilly (Cal Poly); Grahamm Wiest (Cal State Fullerton); Jerry Keel (Cal State Northridge); Elliot Surrey (UC Irvine); Ben Doucette (UC Riverside); Shane Bieber (UC Santa Barbara); Scott Squier (Hawai‘i)