Naess allowed just the one base runner through six innings of work, and only three Cougars reached base against him all night, two of them by errors.<\/p>\n
By the top of the seventh inning murmurs of a no-hitter spread throughout a packed Baggett Stadium, and it felt plausible despite Naess likely working with a pitch count limit. A collective groan was let out when Washington State tallied its first hit on a weak ground ball. After the hit, Naess didn\u2019t sulk, instead striking out the side, doubling his previous career high of seven strikeouts.<\/p>\n
Finishing with nine swinging strikeouts and five looking, everything was clicking for Naess.<\/p>\n
\u201c[I was] just getting ahead and then just being patient for the strikeout,\u201d Naess said. \u201cMy pitching coach does a good analysis of the other team, and we had our meeting today. And it just worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friday nights are Naess\u2019 time to pitch, and they make for an engaged atmosphere, even with the frigid weather in San Luis Obispo lately.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really special here, especially Friday nights,\u201d Naess said. \u201cI\u2019ve had multiple new guys that just transferred in here, and they\u2019re just like, this is the most fun I\u2019ve ever had playing baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lights-out pitching and a dynamic offense make for \u201cfun\u201d baseball, and that\u2019s what the Mustangs are hoping to deliver regularly.<\/p>\n
Naess was given an early cushion from the offense, which struck for four runs in the first and two in the second. They registered 13 hits as a group, with four players posting multi-hit games, including the top three in the order.<\/p>\n Dante Vachini<\/a> went 2-5 out of the lead-off spot, with Nate Castellon<\/a> (3-4) and Alejandro Garza<\/a> (2-5) following suit. First baseman Braxton Thomas<\/a> had a big game as well, going 2-4 with two RBIs.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Mustangs were aggressive on the base-paths all night, implementing hit-and-runs and taking the extra base with balls in play. This has been a big part of Cal Poly\u2019s offensive identity, and they plan to wreak havoc all year.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s part of our game,\u201d Garza said. \u201cWe hit and run, we drag, we push, we do a lot of stuff, little, small ball stuff, to have teams panic and make sure they play catch.\u201d<\/p>\n Cal Poly isn\u2019t just a small-ball team, however. They pair those tendencies with bats that constantly put the ball in play and display power to the gaps. This combination creates an overall offense that is tough to deal with.<\/p>\n \u201cI think hands down, we\u2019re one of the best [offenses] in the country,\u201d Garza said. \u201cFor us not to be one-dimensional really makes us that much more valuable \u2026 they\u2019ve got to not only defend us hitting-wise, but they also have to defend the small ball, and that\u2019s what makes us one of the better teams in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Cal Poly will continue to try to give Washington State headaches throughout the rest of a four-game series. First pitch on Saturday is at 3:05 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cal Poly Baseball\u2019s home opener on Friday felt familiar. Dominant pitching and an explosive offense posting crooked numbers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[18422,76412,5,15540,76413,15545,15549,75293,15552,76414,33169],"class_list":["post-584649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-alejandro-garza","tag-baggett-stadium","tag-baseball","tag-big-west","tag-braxton-thomas","tag-cal-poly-baseball","tag-dante-vachini","tag-griffen-naess","tag-larry-lee","tag-nate-castellon","tag-washington-state"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116108235982619488","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Briote-JohnsonC-Baseball-UCR-001.jpg\")
<\/a>Cal Poly Baseball will have three more looks at Washington State in the four-game series at home and will look to build off Friday\u2019s momentum. Credit: Chloe Briote-Johnson \/ Mustang News<\/p>\n