Thorpe throws a gem as Cal Poly baseball blanks Nevada in season opener

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -Freshman right-hander Drew Thorpe tossed 7 2/3 scoreless innings of one-hit baseball and Brooks Lee and Tate Samuelson both collected two hits as Cal Poly opened its 2021 season with a 4-0 victory over Nevada on Friday night inside Baggett Stadium.

Thorpe (1-0) struck out seven and walked two for the win, facing just two batters over the minimum. Nevada had five baserunners while Thorpe was on the mound, but two Mustang double plays and a caught steal kept the Wolf Pack from scoring.

Dylan Villalobos secured the final four outs, two by strikeout, and gave up the only other Nevada hit of the game.

Cal Poly, now 7-2 in its last nine season openers and 12-7 in Larry Lee's 18-plus seasons as head coach, scored a run in the third inning and added three more in the fifth.

Brooks Lee, who made his first collegiate start and singled on the first pitch he saw in the opening inning, singled to right field with one out in the third. Samuelson also singled and Lee scored on Myles Emmerson's single up the middle.

In the fifth, Taison Corio singled deep in the hole at shortstop and Lee made it to second base on a dropped fly ball down the left-field line, Corio stopping at third. Samuelson's double to dead center field scored both runners.

Samuelson took third on a wild pitch and, after Nevada made a pitching change, came home on another wild pitch.

That was more than enough for Thorpe, who threw 96 pitches in his first Friday night start after making four starts in series finales a year ago, and Villalobos.

Nevada's only two hits of the game were a sixth-inning leadoff single by Wyatt Tilley and a single by Dario Gomez with two outs in the ninth frame.

Second game of the four-game non-conference series will be played Saturday night at 6 with Boise State transfer and southpaw Travis Weston to start for Cal Poly against Nevada sophomore right-hander Owen Sharts.

The two teams wrap up the series with single games Sunday at 1 p.m. and Monday at 3 o'clock.

Article courtesy of Cal Poly Athletics