April 10, 2017 by Mustang News

Monday, A pr il 10, 2 017

C a l P o l y, S a n L u i s O b i s p o

w w w. m u s t a n g n e w s . n e t

E s t a b l i s h e d 1916

Poly Royal rodeo legacy continues

FRANK HUANG | MUSTA NG NE W S

THOROUGHBRED THRILLS | The 77th Poly Royal Rodeo sold out Alex G. Spanos Stadium, as 11,000 attendees watched teams compete in events such as barrel racing, bull riding, tie down roping and more.

Sabrina Thompson @ sabrinaswriting

The term “Central Coast” tends to bring thoughts of crashing waves and surfboards before those of dirt-filled stadiums and saddles. However, Cal Poly proves the coast can have both with its 77-year-strong rodeo. The Poly Royal Rodeo is considered one of the biggest rodeos in the nation and has grown popular through the years. Its popularity moved the event to Alex G. Spanos Stadium this year to accommodate up to 11,000 attendees. Competitors from Cuesta College, California State University, Fresno, University of Nevada, Las Vegas and more came to the sold-out Spanos Stadium April 8 for another year of the coveted tradition. The riders then From its start in 1939 to now, hundreds of titles have been won by dedicated students. Some of these students are brand new to the sport while others have had family showing

them the ropes for generations. “When I got to Cal Poly I wasn’t sure if I was going to rodeo or not,” agricultural science senior Kayla Nichol said. “It’s just something that would be so hard to give up. I couldn’t imagine not having my horse here.” Many of the team’s members started working with horses from a young age and continued the sport after college, some turning their passion into a career. One of the most notable Cal Poly rodeo alumni is Monty Roberts. After competing and winning titles for the National Champion Team Roper in 1956 and National Champion Steer Wrestler in 1957, Roberts created a successful career for himself as a professional cowboy and rodeo coach. Roberts has also published several books, bred award-winning horses and created rodeo camps for beginners, all driven by his love for horses. “It has been my life’s work to develop the best horses possible in the show ring and then in my later years, buy, sell and train championship

thoroughbred racehorses,” Roberts said. “I continue to work with horses to show the world that there is a better way to work with them.” Other rodeo alumni have found success outside of the rodeo, yet still maintain their roots in the sport. Alumnus and 1989 and 1991 AllAround Cowgirl Julie Adair has been in several films as a stunt rider, such as “Lizzie McGuire,” “Charmed” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Alumnus Tom Ferguson, who competed on the rodeo team from 1971 to 1973, found success in the professional world of rodeo. He was the first person to make more than $100,000 in a single rodeo season and make more than $1 million in career earnings, with six consecutive all-around world titles picked up along the way. The riders now Though the team formed in 1939, the first rodeo held on campus wasn’t until 1956. Since then, the team has held 44 national titles and has the most wins of any program in the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association.

Students competing in the rodeo enroll in Advanced Competitive Rodeo (AG 243-02) and meet during competition season. While the rodeo is a competitive and serious sport, the team fosters strong bonds and lifetime friendships among each other and their competitors. Because riders are a part of a relatively small community, interacting with competitors is common at local and regional rodeos. “It’s really fun, it’s like a high school reunion,” Nichol said. “It’s like, ‘Hey how are you doing?’ and catching up with old friends. You can feel the excitement in the crowd and in your competitors.” It’s always about the horse Though some past team members have found great success from the rodeo, life on the team is anything but glamorous. Taking care of animals is no easy task, but it pays off when a strong connection is made. According to Nichol, trust between a human and a horse is a two-way street. “I have to trust when I go in the

arena he is going to do his job and I’m going to do mine. That’s a really special bond that we have,” Nichol said about her relationship with her 12-year-old horse Jelly. Bioresource and agricultural engineering senior Colton Farquer competes as a roper and said these bonds are even more important during his event. “I think it’s a challenge,” Farquer said. “I think the coolest thing about roping is you have a horse and a calf and a person and you have to get all three things to work in sync in order to get a time. All these pieces and components and fundamentals have to come together.” The pieces came together for Farquer; he walked away as the tie down roping winner. Other Cal Poly wins included agricultural communication senior Katie Rice’s tie for women’s all-around cowgirl. Though the preliminary competition Friday, April 7 was moved to the rodeo grounds because of rain, Saturday night’s rodeo at Spanos proved successful and ready to return for a 78th year.

What an art & design degree is worth Nicole Horton @ CPMustangNews

CIRCLE KLEAN

CIRCLE K | COURTE SY PHOTO

| Circle K has participated in beach clean-ups.

Campus club helps provide water to developing nations Cassandra Garibay @ CPMustangNews

Imagine waking up desperate for water. You swing yourself out of bed, you pitter-patter to the faucet to fill up a cup. When you turn the handle, disease-ridden water pours out, unsafe to drink. Or even worse, no water comes out at all. The closest drop of drinkable water is roughly threeand-a-half miles away. This may seem far-fetched in America, but it is a reality for many in developing nations. This is where the Thirst Project comes in. The Thirst Project is a

nonprofit organization that aims to provide developing countries with freshwater resources and water health education. The organization gears its efforts toward simple methods of retrieving water, such as freshwater wells. Cal Poly club Circle K is an extension of the Kiwanis Club for college students and is a volunteer and service-oriented club involved with local community events and national programs such as the Thirst Project. FRESHWATER continued on page 2

Cal Poly is known for a few things: its location in the Oprah-certified “happiest city in America,” its beautiful Central Coast environment and its hands-on approach to the academic disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. While many students spend long days in the lab composing theories and unraveling equations, there are plenty of students who chose cameras and sketchbooks over lab coats and Petri dishes. Within Cal Poly’s College of Liberal Arts, the art and design department supports students concentrating in studio art, photography and graphic design. The Learn by Doing motto weaved into the curriculum on campus is undoubtedly practiced within the art and design department as well. Perhaps it is this take on learning that makes Cal Poly — a seemingly unconventional art school — a strong competitor in the field. Many art and design students at Cal Poly are certain about their future in the field. So why did they choose Cal Poly over schools like Parsons or Rhode Island School of Design to pursue such a career? For art and design sophomore Everett Fitzpatrick, academic flexibility and diversity brought him to Cal Poly. “If I went to a strictly art intensive

school, it would have worked me in that one concentration until I grew to hate it,” Fitzpatrick said. “By going to Cal Poly, I am able to expand my knowledge in other fields and still have a curiosity to pursue my dream outside of the classroom ... With the outside knowledge I have gained at Cal Poly and the social interactions of working with people from majors other than art, I have developed a better understanding of who I am and thus have gained what I came to college for.” Fitzpatrick is moving to New York City at the end of the school year to take on a photography internship. While the number of art and design students at Cal Poly may be low, they continuously leave their mark on campus through exhibitions and projects. However, art and design freshman Madelyn LaBarbera feels her work doesn’t always receive the credit it should outside of the art community. “I feel like the department doesn’t necessarily get the attention it always deserves compared to some other majors like engineering or business, but it’s just as important and has its own home here at Cal Poly,” LaBarbera said. “A lot of my peers and I worked really hard on work we were passionate about for our portfolio so we could get in here and I think people tend to assume we are less intelligent because we are in the arts. The pro-

SOPHIA O’KEEFE | MUSTA NG NE W S

VARIET Y | Students learn different mediums to display their art.

gram had a 13 percent acceptance rate this year and everyone worked really hard to make it.” Despite some stereotypes surrounding the department, the passion of the faculty and students made pursuing a career in art a no-brainer for students like art and design freshman McKenna Krogius. “One cool thing I immediately noticed about the art kids here is that everyone is an individual,” Krogius said. “Everyone knows exactly what they want to do, but they are also so open

News 1-3 | Arts 4 | Opinion 6 | Classifieds 7 | Sports 8

to new ideas and thoughts.” Krogius said learning about branding and aesthetic design has sparked big goals for her. “My ultimate goal would be to become a creative director for a big firm,” Krogius said. “I know I can use my skills that I have learned here so far at Cal Poly to achieve this. It is hard to get rid of the mindset that you cannot achieve anything with an arts major but then once you do, you realize how many amazing opportunities there are for you.”

NEWS 2

BREAKING BOUNDARIES

MUSTANG NEWS

CIRCLE K | COURTE SY PHOTO

| Circle K is a volunteer and service-oriented club that works with programs such as the Thirst Project, which aims to provide developing countries with freshwater resources and water health education.

FRESHWATER continued from page 1

The club had been on a nineyear hiatus and was reintroduced this year. Club president and architecture freshman Nicolas Wright felt the need for a service club to be brought back to campus. “I really wanted to get more out of that [high school volunteering] experience and offer it to other students too, so I decided to start the club,” Wright said. So far this year, Circle K has participated in beach clean-ups, a trail restoration and organized

many other community events. But this quarter Circle K decided to look beyond the San Luis Obispo community. “This quarter, we are focusing on getting more involved with the Thirst Project. Nick has been organizing an entire week to try and raise awareness and funds towards [the Thirst Project],” Circle K Secretary and mechanical engineering freshman Weston Montgomery said. The club has scheduled a fundraiser at Woodstock’s Pizza April 19 and another in May. It has also planned a “Water is Life” week and will be host-

...be aware that there are people out there that don’t have access to water. WESTON MONTGOMERY

ing a guest speaker from the Thirst Project. According to Wright, all proceeds made from the fundraiser will go toward the Thirst Project. The club’s goal is to reach at least $1,000 by the end of Fall 2017. Wright and Circle K were interested in fundraising for the Thirst Project in part because of the freshwater well methods they use to provide water. “They [the Thirst Project] are [providing water] in a way that will work,” Wright said. “It isn’t the newest fad that might work for now, but long term won’t work ... [freshwater wells] is a

long term solution that has been proven to work.” For Circle K, the goal is to help those who don’t have the resources developed countries usually have readily available. “Children and women have to travel miles to go to streams of water and basically fill up gas canisters up to get water. And even that water isn’t always clean,” Montgomery said. “We always take for granted when we turn on a faucet and get water instantly and it’s really great that we have that. But just be aware that there are people out there that don’t have access to water.”

New professor to teach digital communications and culture Brendan Matsuyama @ CPMustangNews

Starting Fall 2017, Aubrie Adams will begin teaching at Cal Poly as a faculty member in the communication studies department. Adams is currently a doctoral candidate at University of California, Santa Barbara slated to graduate this June with a doctorate in communication. She specializes in new media and interpersonal and digital communications. Adams’ work includes co-au-

thorship of the book “100 Greatest Video Game Characters,” academic articles on video game narratives and their effect on behavior and a master’s thesis on teachers’ use of emoticons in communications with students. As part of her dissertation, Adams co-developed a training simulation game called Veracity Education and Reactance Instruction through Technology and Applied Skills (VERITAS) designed to teach law enforcement personnel and civilians how to tell if an individual is lying or telling the truth. “Our training simulation game debunks these myths about deception detection and teaches users research-based approaches to making credibility assessments,” Adams said. “For

example, cues like inconsistency with other statements, negative language and greater cognitive load [thinking hard] are more reliable indicators of deception.” According to Adams, VERITAS makes use of dialogue trees, nonverbal cues, story-based scenarios and immediate feedback to build police officers’ interpersonal communication skills. The project was funded through a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant and further funding for a virtual reality (VR) adaptation of VERITAS is currently pending. Adams was hired through the communication studies department’s search for faculty to fill positions in digital communications and culture. “Their goal was to seek out a

scholar who could enrich their curriculum by improving the digital competencies of students,” Adams said. “This is a broad area of course, but my research expertise in new media and interpersonal communication fits nicely as much of my research examines computer-mediated communication, text interaction, video game research, game-based learning and social media.” Though there are no final plans for which classes Adams will teach in fall, it is possible that she will be instructing Media Effects (COMS 419) and Communication Theory (COMS 311). COMS 419, aside from being an upper division elective in communication studies, can fulfill students’ requirements within the media arts, society and technology and science and risk communication minors. These minors are interdisciplinary programs provided through the College of Liberal Arts’ science, technology and society program that draw from every college at Cal Poly to provide students with a perspective on the intersections between science, technology and liberal arts. “Without a doubt, teaching and research in digital communication requires an interdisciplinary approach,” Adams said. “Cal Poly’s interdisciplinary science, technology and society minor seems like an excellent opportunity to continue pursing interdisciplinary lines of investigation.”

NEWS 3

MONDAY, APRIL 10, 2017

How living under communist rule shaped student’s view on free speech

In the wake of all of the political tension throughout the country at this time, Americans are losing sight of how great this nation truly is. KHANG NGUYEN

AMERICAN PRIDE

EMMA WITHROW | MUSTA NG NE W S

| Khang Nguyen grew up under communist rule in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, which has given him a greater appreciation for democracy and free speech in the United States.

Emma Withrow @ CPMustangNews

Photographs of their dictator hung from the walls of the classroom where the youth group met. Little red scarves were tied neatly around the children’s necks, serving as a reminder of the sacrifices the Vietnamese soldiers made to “fight for peace.” One boy raised his hand and earnestly asked a question about American history; he was scolded, told to sit down and not to speak of such things. Khang Nguyen was only eight years old at the time, but he already knew his youth group leader was spouting lies. “In Vietnam, they don’t teach history or literature; they use those subjects to brainwash students,” Nguyen said. “Their overall goal was to get everyone to believe the West is utterly evil.” Leaving communist rule by moving to America has given Nguyen — a Cal Poly architecural engineering sophomore — a unique perspective on free speech in the U.S. From Vietnam to the U.S. Nguyen grew up in Ho Chi Minh City, which was named after the late leader of the communist party that rose to power within Vietnam in the 1950s. According to Nguyen, Ho Chi Minh continues to be

described to students in Vietnam as a kind and gentle leader aiming to bring peace. However, Nguyen said Ho Chi Minh was a “fascist monster with a human face.” After American troops left South Vietnam because of the anti-war and social justice movement happening in America, Minh had opposition of the communist party massacred by the thousands in a Soviet-style ‘land reform’ campaign. The Vietnamese who didn’t oppose the new government, such as Nguyen’s grandfather, were sent to “re-education” camps. These were used to incarcerate “dangerous” individuals — writers, legislator teachers, supreme court judges and province chiefs — until South Vietnam was stable enough to permit their release. “We are indoctrinated from the time we start school. I was taught that America is the enemy and is trying to destroy Vietnam, but in reality, that couldn’t be farther from the truth,” Nguyen said. “Vietnam’s government is utterly corrupt with unlawful arrests, a state-run media and a series of untruths constantly being taught to the Vietnamese youth.” Appreciating America When Nguyen first came to America in 2014, he was introduced to

a variety of new things: Doritos, Hollywood, but most importantly to him, freedom of speech. “I love many things about America, but freedom of speech and expression has to be my favorite,” Nguyen said. After living under communist rule for 15 years, Nguyen witnessed the dangers of losing freedom of speech. He takes America’s first amendment seriously and criticized those advocating for the administration to restrict conservative journalist Milo Yiannopoulos’ on-campus event. “I think it’s sad that in a college environment students are trying to censor each other, when they should be listening to different opinions and learning from them,” Nguyen said. Nguyen wants Americans to realize how privileged they are to live in a country with a functioning democracy, a free press and a government that works for the people and by the people. “In the wake of all of the political tension throughout the country at this time, Americans are losing sight of how great this nation truly is,” Nguyen said. “If your candidate lost, get over it and move on. Be thankful that you were even given an opportunity to vote for someone you believe in in the first place.”

ARTS 4

MUSTANG NEWS

An inside look at the art & design department Emily Merten Special to Mustang News

Past a dim, narrow hallway, through a warehouse in the art and design department sits the senior art studio — the second home of art and design senior Chloe Millhauser. Canvases are stacked against every wall, reflective of the many hours spent painting by the eight artists that make up the graduating class in the studio art concentration. “It’s nice when we’re all working in here. We all play music and talk a lot about art. It’s an enjoyable little place,” Millhauser said. Cal Poly’s Learn by Doing motto influenced Millhauser’s choice to be an art and design major at a polytechnic university.

“I like to make things rather than just learn about things,” Millhauser said. “I felt that Cal Poly had a good balance of learning the theory, learning the history, learning content — but also really being able to make things.” Studio art concentrations apply the Learn by Doing motto outside of the classroom at the annual Juried Student Exhibition hosted by the art and design department during spring quarter. Art and design students of all concentrations can submit their work to the exhibition. “Outside jurors from the community come in and judge all the work,” Millhauser said. “They determine who gets into the show and who places with awards. I’ve

gotten in every year so far.” Art and design senior Erica Patstone — Millhauser’s roommate — is part of the graphic design concentration. Graphic design students have the opportunity to submit to shows as well. Patstone said she is excited to be a part of the senior show this spring. “All the graduating seniors are able to display the best work that they’ve done over the course of their four years,” Patstone said. “That’s a cool one. It’s kind of like a sendoff and a way to see what [students] have done with their four years in the major.” While all concentrations can participate in yearly shows, Patstone said there are differences between each concentration.

She noticed the social aspect of the graphic design concentration is different from the other two art and design concentrations, studio art and photography and video. “There’s a different relationship with my peers because there’s just more people to get to know,” Patstone said. “I definitely have my close friends [in the graphic design concentration], but I don’t work as personally with them. [Millhauser] has a senior studio, and she has a physically smaller space. We don’t necessarily all work together from the same space because our work is heavily from our laptops.” Cal Poly currently has 252 art and design students — 61 of which declared the studio art concentration.

A small major brings a different experience to the classroom, one that photography and video professor Lana Caplan appreciated when teaching at Cal Poly for the first time Fall 2016. “I think it fosters a really great relationship between faculty and students because we’re working with the same students in multiple classes over multiple years,” Caplan said. “It really allows us to develop their techniques and directions of what they want to do with their work.” Aside from the closeness, Caplan also found that Cal Poly’s art and design department had a different approach to the major’s curriculum compared to her experience at schools created specifically for the arts.

“The focus of the department has a balance of commercial photography and commercial art with the fine arts,” Caplan said. “In a previous art school I taught, the commercial aspect wasn’t a part of what the students were interested in learning — or what the curriculum was really set up for.” This unique approach to curriculum, coupled with a smaller size, sets Cal Poly’s art and design major apart. While each concentration has their own areas of expertise, students of all concentrations have contributed to the art and design department’s student work. Students’ artwork can be found at student shows and on the art and design department’s website under “student work.”

EMILY MERTEN | COURTE SY PHOTO

LEARN BY CREATING | Art and design senior Chloe Millhauser said her program allows her to put what she learns in the classroom into practice.

Work for the

College Media Design Program in the nation. No, seriously. Voted #1 Best College Media Design Program at CMBAM (College Media Business & Advertising Managers) 2017 Contact Erica Patstone for more details. ericapatstone@yahoo.com

OPINION 6

MUSTANG NEWS

Pomp, circumstance, OPINION Neil Sandhu @ CPMustangNews

Neil Sandhu is a biomedical engineering senior and Mustang News opinion editor. The views expressed in this column do not reflect the viewpoints and editorial coverage of Mustang News. I always found the term “commencement” to be a patronizing blend of optimism and devaluation. On the glass-half-full side, it seems to, at least stylistically, offer us a spot in the brave new world that is our lives outside of school. It is a welcome party to the rest of our fruitful existence. On the other hand, it insinuates that the first 20-some odd years of our lives are just a warm up, as if we were playing with training wheels and now we get to start doing something that matters. Fortunately, there is a practical way to further prolong your inevitable arrival into the real world: keep going to school. Oh there are masters and blended’s and doctorates too. There are law schools and med schools and MBAs for you!

rinse and repeat

Fine, maybe the prospect of slamming your face against a book for the next arbitrary number of years isn’t enough to make you start humming the same Seussian tune as me, yet as we get closer and closer to June, I hear more and more of my colleagues talk a little too casually about lacing up for another few rounds of bare-knuckle academia. There are a plethora of reasons for attending graduate school: the opportunity to perform research under industry-leading professionals, an unquenchable thirst for knowledge or even just because you like the sound latex gloves make when you peel them off. There is, however, one reason that certainly does not warrant another trip through the scholastic wringer: being unsure about what you want to do for the rest of your life. The main purpose of a graduate program is to provide candidates with resources they need to study a topic in depth, sufficient enough that they become an expert in their chosen niche field of

study. The purpose of graduate school is not to offer us another chance at academic soul searching and even if it was, it almost certainly wouldn’t work. We have spent the majority of our lives in school. If by this point the classroom hasn’t been able to offer you certainty in

The purpose of graduate school is not to offer us another chance at academic soul searching.

terms of what pinprick-sized area of study you want to concentrate on for the next 30-something years, another year or two of coursework will almost certainly not help. Albert Einstein once said insanity was “doing the same thing

over and over again and expecting different results.” The guy has his own statue on campus; he may be worth listening to on this one. If 16 years of school left you unsure about what you want to do, it may be time to step away, at least for the time being. Working in the industry may offer you insight you never found in the bottom of a cup of Julian’s coffee. Taking an indefinite hiatus from academia isn’t a cop out, it is actually the norm. The average age of students in graduate programs is 33 years old. This number has held constant since the mid ‘80s. This data suggests the majority of graduate students took a leave of absence before they felt ready to return. Similarly sourced data shows older graduate students are far more likely to find success than their baby-faced counter parts. Now, this isn’t a charge against everyone who will make a seamless transition from lowly undergrad to overworked graduate student. If

you are one of the “woke” few who somehow have an idea what pea-sized piece of this world you want to study for the next few years, then I admire your confidence. I wish you the best in your academic pursuits. But if you’re not, I implore you to consider the possibility that continuing school may be as introspectively unhelpful as it has been for the past 16 years. Really, all I’m trying to say here is that flirting with the idea of going back to school is the scholastic equivalent of when old rockstars talk about doing reunion tours. If you are the Mick Jagger of school, your body thrives on minimal sleep and stimulants and you know you were born to do this, then going back to school might be right for you. But if you’re like Leonard Cohen and the only reason you’re doing this is because you have no idea what you’re going to do for money otherwise, it’s probably a good idea to take a breather on the applications.

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SPORTS 8

MUSTANG NEWS

Hyland and Chalmers: Softball’s dynamic duo Ayrton Ostly @ AyrtonOstly

A force of nature is tearing up Bob Janssen Field. Adjacent to baseball’s Baggett Stadium, the softball team has quietly destroyed its competition in the pre-conference part of their schedule. The Mustangs have won 22 of their last 26 games as of April 9 and, with a 28-10 record, have already equaled their win total from last season. They’re poised to have their best year since 2009 when the team went 4112 on its way to a berth in the NCAA tournament. Sierra Hyland The catalyst for dominance this year stands at 5-foot-5 with a cannon of a right arm: senior pitcher Sierra Hyland. The senior started her final season as a Mustang with a flourish at the Kajikawa Classic. She threw a no-hitter in the first game of the season against Purdue and followed it the next day with a perfect game and a threerun homer against Creighton. By mid-season, she secured the Big West all-time career strikeout record with a 13-strikeout game in a 3-0 win against CSU Bakersfield. “[The record] was nowhere near in my mind. It was just

something that came along,” she said before the series at Cal State Fullerton. “I mean, it’s an honor to have that, but it just shows that the work’s paying off.” After her junior season was cut short due to a finger injury, she has come back to be one of the best pitchers in the country. Hyland is the best pitcher in the Big West by far, with a conference-best 193 strikeouts and a 0.88 earned run average (ERA), or average number of runs allowed by the pitcher per game that aren’t errors. The gap in strikeouts from her to second place Brittany Hitchcock of Hawaii — with 122 strikeouts — is bigger than the gap from Hitch-

cock to 10th place. Bump up the competition to a national level and she still shines. Hyland is sixth in the country in strikeouts and 13th in the country in ERA. She’s no slouch at the plate either, batting .330 with a team-high 26 RBI. Lindsey Chalmers But the team’s dominance hasn’t been a one-woman show. Junior right-hander Lindsey Chalmers has stepped up to be a strong counterpart to Hyland. Chalmers finished last season as an All-Big West honorable mention and now sits fourth in conference with 91 strikeouts and third with a 1.46

ERA. During the middle of the non-conference schedule, she went 35 innings with one earned run allowed. Chalmers’ improved play had its roots in the offseason. “I really broke down my mechanics and restructured my motion,” she said. “I think that really helped coming into this season.” Two pitchers are better than one The pitchers form a dynamic duo, as they can rely on each other to maintain a dominating presence from the circle. “It’s great knowing that she has my back and I have her back,” Hyland said. “Whenever one of

us comes in we can shut it down for the other, especially knowing that she’s healthy and we can put her in whenever we need to.” “It was good for me to have Sierra a year above me coming in,” Chalmers said. “She’s challenged me to be better as a pitcher and a player and that’s been really helpful.” The Mustangs sit sixth in the country in ERA as a team and far ahead of the rest of the Big West teams. As a bullpen, Cal Poly’s allowed 66 runs through 36 games. Next best is Hawaii at 97. Every other team in conference has allowed more than 120. The Mustangs’ 1.18 team ERA is almost half that of Hawaii

Mustangs have won

22 of the last 26 games *as of April 9

.88

284

Sierra Hyland’s ERA

combined strike-outs by Hyland and Chalmers

Conference players batting above .300

in second at 2.32. Hawaii, Cal State Fullerton and CSUN are the only other teams with ERAs under 3.0. And with four players batting above 0.300 — Crimson Kaiser (0.361), Chelsea Convissar (0.340), Stephanie Heyward (0.318) and Hyland (0.330) — the Mustangs have enough firepower on offense to win low-scoring games. The team may only score, on average, around four runs per game but the bullpen keeps opponents at less than two runs allowed per game. With outstanding work by the bullpen and a good group of hitters, the Mustangs are a serious contender not only for the conference title, but also for an NCAA tournament bid. “[The NCAA tournament] is our long-term goal,” Hyland said. “Right now it’s taking each series one step at a time. I definitely think we’ll be in there, and right now our record shows we’re putting in the work.” The conference schedule runs through the middle of May. The Mustangs have one Big West series in the books and another six left before the end of the season, making it far too early to call the Mustangs conference favorites. But with a pair of standout pitchers like Hyland and Chalmers, the Mustangs have as strong a chance as any team.