Toro Baseball Team Travels to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

The Cal State Dominguez Hills baseball team, which has won four of its first five California Collegiate Athletic Assn. games, will open a three-game series against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo tonight with a single game at 7.

The teams will play a doubleheader at 2 p.m. Friday.

San Luis Obispo (11-7, 1-2 in the CCAA) finished in a three-way tie for first in the conference last season and reached the NCAA Division II playoffs. The Mustangs are ranked seventh in the latest Division II poll by Collegiate Baseball magazine.

Each team has a strong pitching staff. Although San Luis Obispo’s Dan Chergey, a Division II All-America selection last year, has struggled with a 1-3 record, the Mustangs have received strong efforts from starters Eric Hill and Paul Souza. Hill is 2-1 with a 2.75 earned-run average and Souza is 1-1 with 18 strikeouts in 18 innings.

As a team, the Mustangs are batting .291. They are led by second baseman Duke Dodder, who is batting .406, and shortstop Juan Rojo, who is batting .341.

Dominguez Hills (7-8-1) is ranked 17th in Division II. They have been led by starting pitchers Mark Tranberg, a senior, and Tom Ball, a junior. Tranberg was a Division II All-America selection last year.

The Toros’ best reliever is junior Armando Plascencia, who has two saves in three appearances.

Dominguez Hills has four players batting .316 or higher, led by outfielder Ernie Soto and catcher Shawn Wickoff. Soto, a senior, is batting .385 and Wickoff, a junior, has a .370 average and a team-leading 12 runs batted in.

The Toros return to Carson to play host to Keio University of Japan in an exhibition game at 1 p.m. Saturday.