Baseball falters against Bakersfield. SPORTS, pg. 8
Volume LXXVI, Number 121
Monday, May 14, 2012
WORD ON THE STREET What is mad cow disease?
“I guess a bacterial disease that is spread via meat.” • Aaron Pasterski electric engineering sophomore
“The cause of it is cows being fed their own meat.” • Daly Sombat mechanical engineering freshman
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Case of mad cow not a threat to Poly cows ERIN HURLEY
erinhurley.md@gmail.com
The fourth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, in the U.S. was confirmed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in a dairy cow carcass from Tulare County on April 24. The infected animal did not enter any human food, according to the USDA report, and the dairy in question along with another related dairy are under quarantine. This case isn’t a cause for concern, according to animal science professor Robert Delmore, because of the low number of cases seen today and the protocols in place to prevent it from spreading. “People don’t need to be afraid,” Delmore said. “I tell them in my class, ‘I’d be worried about a lot of other things before even remotely worrying about this.’” BSE develops because of abnormally-folded proteins called prions in the brain, said Dr. Michael Lyon, a veterinarian at the Large Animal Practice veterinary clinic in San Luis Obispo. It
ERIN HURLEY/MUSTANG DAILY
Dairy Science Club President Nick Southfield said the recent case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy shows that the dairy industry needs to do a better job educating people about how dairy products are safe from the disease. spreads when cattle ingest feed containing those prions from an infected cow’s tissues, Lyon said — primarily the central nervous system. These materials are called
“specified risk materials.” According to a statement from the USDA’s Chief Veterinary Officer John Clifford on April 24, this case of BSE was found during “our
targeted surveillance system” and determined to be atypical — “a very rare form of the disease not generally associated with an animal consuming infected feed.”
Clifford’s statement also said the USDA will conduct “a comprehensive epidemiological investigation in see MAD COW, pg. 2
Cycles, suspenders and wool
“I have no idea.” • Barrett Floyd business administration freshman
VICTORIA BILLINGS/MUSTANG DAILY
VICTORIA BILLINGS
victoriabillings.md@gmail.com
“A disease that affects the nervous system of cows.” • Niki Todaro agricultural education freshman
San Luis Obispo cyclists traveled back to the turn of the 20th Century, yesterday, for the second Tweed Ride. Riders put on their finest tweed, wool, trimmed facial hair and pageboy caps before meeting at Triangle Park, near the Amtrak station, and embarking on a leisurely bicycle tour of the city. The event is about uniting vintage style and love of cycling, Tweed Ride coordinator Leslie Bloom said.
“It’s all about the fashion of riding your bicycle; turn of the century chic, if you will,” Bloom said. The Tweed Ride is one of many events for San Luis Obispo Rideshare’s Bike Month, which is held in May to celebrate cycling. Bloom was inspired to start the Tweed Ride after finding out about a similar event held in London, called the Tweed Run, established in 2009. “We’re just trying to channel the British style I suppose; tea and crumpets, a jolly fun time,” Bloom said. As a part of Bike Month,
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ARTS, pg. 4
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Freshman columnist busts first-year college myths.
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the Tweed Ride also helps raise awareness about alternative transportation, and celebrates San Luis Obispo’s bike-friendly streets, said Sara Malloy, who is putting on her own ride for fashionistas called the Cyclista Ride on May 27. “Bike Month is to create awareness and honor San Luis’ bikeable attitude,” Malloy said. Malloy found out about the Tweed Ride from the Bike Month schedule of activities, while planning her own ride, she said. Malloy knew she had to participate
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and dress up. “Every day is an excuse to put on a costume,” Malloy said. Last year, everyone who participated enjoyed the ride, Bloom said, and this year, approximately 100 people showed up, many of them first-timers, to participate. All cyclists met at Triangle Park at 1 p.m. where the Crustacea Jazz Band was playing music from the beginning of the 20th century. Children and adults danced and played lawn games before setting out on the ride at 1:30 p.m. The festivities help make the ride appealing, said Anne
INDEX News.............................1-3 Arts..............................4-5
Abler of the Crustacea Jazz Band, which also played at last year’s Tweed Ride. “They’re just getting together for a Sunday afternoon of fun,” Abler said. The Tweed Ride’s path, which created a loop around San Luis Obispo, followed Santa Barbara Street down to Meadow Park, before taking Buchon Street back up to Morro Street and through downtown. All in all, the ride took an hour-and-a-half to complete, because the group purposefully goes at a leisurely pace, see TWEED, pg. 2
Opinions/Editorial...........6 Classifieds/Comics..........7 Sports..........................7-8
MDnews 2 TWEED continued from page 1
Bloom said. “We ride nice and slow so that everyone can stick together,” Bloom said. The cyclists were all ages, from young families to college students to retirees. Retired judge Chuck Porter, who was riding for the first time, said he’d read about other Tweed Rides in the past and was eager to participate in one for himself. “I read about the one in The New York Times, and then, I happened to see
about this one, so we’re here,” Porter said. Other cyclists found out about the Tweed Ride from friends, such as Kiara Egan, who was invited by Bloom. Egan is a self-proclaimed bike enthusiast, so a chance to ride with friends is always appealing, she said. Dressing up for the event was a little challenge though, Egan said. She had to borrow to find a bike-appropriate outfit from the era. “I just raided my roommate’s closet and found something that wouldn’t get stuck on my bike chain,” Egan said.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Greek life donates thousands
ALLISON MONTROY/MUSTANG DAILY
President of the Greek Week executive board Sarah Ortiz presented $600 from the week to the Maxine Lewis Homeless Shelter. ALLISON MONTROY
allisonmontroy.md@gmail.com
The Greek Week committee donated more than $6,000 in checks and canned food to local organizations at the end of University Union (UU) Hour May 3. President of the Greek Week executive board and mathematics junior Sarah Ortiz and Student Life and Leadership Director Diego Silva presented $1,600 to the Miracle Mile for Kids, $2,000 to Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo County, $1,800 to the Lucia Mar Unified School District and $600 to the Max-
MAD COW continued from page 1
conjunction with California animal and public health officials and the FDA” to look into the case. For Delmore, this atypical case is favorable. “If you have to have a case of BSE, it’s better,” Delmore said. “It’s not a case where someone did something wrong.” And this case doesn’t change anything, Delmore said. The USDA has also tested the cow’s offspring, which was found negative for BSE. Since BSE can only be transmitted through infected feed, Delmore said the steps the USDA has taken were “in an abundance of caution.” This news also won’t change anything about the way Cal Poly produces its beef at the soon-to-be-open meat processing center, Delmore said. The center will follow federal regulations for harvesting cattle and dealing with the specified risk materials — and it already refrains from using meat and bone meal for cattle feed. The USDA has to be present whenever cows are harvested, Delmore said, and will be there when Cal Poly’s animals are harvested. Until 1997, meat and bone meal containing materials
ine Lewis Homeless Shelter. All of the money was raised during Greek Week events last month, such as the lip-sync and doughnut eating competitions, a fundraiser with The Habit Burger Grill and a canned food contest. Approximately 1,800 cans of food were collected during the canned food contest and donated to the San Luis Obispo Food Bank. “It was a great, successful Greek Week,” Silva said. “We raised more this year than last year and superseded our goals.” Silva said the most rewarding events during Greek Week were the ones where students
were able to interact with kids. Each organization expressed its gratitude to Cal Poly’s greek life as they joined the representatives onstage, and Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo County even presented a decorated canvas to Silva to thank the students who participated. “It’s really neat to know we raised this much money,” Ortiz said. “It feels really, really good to know that greeks supported these organizations.” Interfraternity Council director of public relations and agricultural business sophomore Jason Colombini, said he was thrilled about the suc-
cess of Greek Week. “I expected a lot, but I did not expect it to be this great,” Colombini said. “I’m really excited about it.” During Greek Week, approximately 30 fraternities and sororities came together in a week of games, sports, philanthropy and team bonding. Silva said in consideration of the Delta Sigma Phi and Sigma Pi fraternity investigations that happened before and during Greek Week, this success is “a rejuvenator for sure.” “The fruits of our labor were showed today,” Silva said, “and everyone feels more accomplished.”
from cows was allowed to be fed to other cows in the U.S., but that year the FDA enacted a ban on the practice to reduce the risk of the disease spreading — and “virtually every country in the world” has taken the same kind of action, Delmore said. That ban also outlawed those materials from being put into products sold and consumed by humans. Because of the safeguards put in place, Lyon said a case of BSE would ideally occur as a mutation in one cow and end there, with no way for it to spread — and the odds of people being infected are unlikely. He said there are other foodborne illnesses, such as salmonella, he would worry about more than mad cow disease. Thirty-five million cows are harvested each year in the United States, according to Delmore — some grown specifically for meat, while the rest are dairy cows. BSE is seen in cows older than 30 months, Delmore said. Dairy animals are typically younger than beef cows when they are harvested, he said, but that doesn’t mean beef cows are more at risk for BSE. Cal Poly’s dairy cows shouldn’t be a source of worry for consumers either, because BSE can’t be transmitted through milk, Dairy Science Club President Nick
Southfield said. This case was a mutation, he said, not an issue of food safety or the result of a mistake. But Southfield said it’s still cause for concern because it could happen again. However, he said the government has good protocols in place to react to this situation — implementing the quarantine and making sure no other cows were infected. “It’s an isolated incident, and it was contained and it still is being contained,” Southfield said. “They’re doing more than enough to contain the problem.” Unfortunately, not all consumers know that dairy products are safe from BSE, Southfield said, and this occurrence shows students at Cal Poly that the dairy industry needs to be better at educating consumers about the facts. While it’s highly unlikely that a cow at Cal Poly would be at risk for BSE because of the small number of animals here, Delmore said, if an animal were to show any symptoms, it could be tested by the USDA. There isn’t any screening test for BSE, Delmore said, so the USDA can’t test an animal until it develops visible symptoms. This case of BSE doesn’t trouble agricultural communications professor Scott Vernon either — he said it is natural.
“When we’re dealing with food, it’s a natural product and it has some natural enemies,” Vernon said. “Where BSE might show up in the future, no one can predict.” And Vernon was impressed by the industry’s reaction to this case — he said they did an excellent job communicating with the media, government and consumers. Vernon also echoed Delmore’s confidence about the safety of Cal Poly’s meat processing practices after this newest case of BSE. The opening of the unit will be “under quite a bit of federal scrutiny,” he said, and students will be trained on how to safely process and handle meat. However, Vernon also said consumers are partly responsible for food safety as well. He advises consumers to be more careful about how they handle food and inform themselves about food safety issues. The numbers of BSE are continuing to decrease, Delmore said — to the point where it almost can’t be measured. It would be a stretch for meat and bone meal to be out there, Delmore said. “At the end of the day, I still have to come back to the numbers,” Delmore said. “This is one animal. Anytime any animal has it we’re unhappy with it, but this doesn’t change our at risk.”
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MDnews 3
Monday, May 14, 2012
UCSB gets big donation SLO 5-0 Saturday, May 5 12:49 a.m. An assault was reported on the 1100 block of Garden Street. 4:01 a.m. An assault was reported on the 200 block of Chorro Street. Sunday, May 6 1:24 a.m. An assault was reported on the 700 block of Higuera Street. 2:32 p.m. A hit and run was reported on the 500 block of Ramona Drive. Monday, May 7 11:49 a.m. A hit and run occurred at the C-7 parking lot. 9:35 p.m. Someone shot an airsoft gun at someone else near the Administration Building. Tuesday, May 8 2:14 p.m. Theft was reported at the Fremont Hall area. 10:16 p.m. An assault was reported on the 300 block of Santa Rosa and Olive streets. Wednesday, May 9 10:20 a.m. An assault was reported on the 900 block of Industrial Way. 9:59 p.m. An assault was reported on the 100 block of Grand Avenue and Slack Street. Thursday, May 10 5:18 p.m. Petty theft occurred between April 25 at 3 p.m. and May 9 at 5 p.m. at Fremont Hall. 9:53 p.m. An assault was reported on the 1000 block of Railroad Avenue. Friday, May 11 1:33 p.m. Grand theft occurred between May 10 at 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the H-12 parking lot. Saturday, May 12 12:37 a.m. An alcohol violation occurred at Santa Lucia Hall.
LARRY GORDON
Los Angeles Times
University of California, Santa Barbara, according to old stereotypes, may still conjure up the image of a lush campus by the beach, where students can squeeze in a few hours of surfing after class and live in a nearby neighborhood that is one of the nation’s best-known party zones. But in reality, UC Santa Barbara over the last three decades increasingly has become a center of scientific research, and its move in that direction was strengthened Saturday with the announcement of a $50-million private donation to energy efficiency research and engineering programs. The gift is the largest in the history of UC Santa Barbara and is from Jeffrey Henley, who is chairman of the board of software giant Oracle and graduated from the college in 1966. Approximately half the money will help construct a building to house the Institute for Energy Efficiency, an interdisciplinary research center that looks at such things as light bulbs that use less electricity and how to transmit Internet data with less heat. The rest will support engineering programs in other ways. Henley, 67, said he and his wife, Judy, want their donation not only to support such research but also to set an example of private giving at a time when the 10-campus UC faces severe economic problems because of cutbacks in state funding. “I’m a product of it and I love it,” he said of the University of California (UC) system. “People like myself have to step up more and more to help the UC system. It’s one of the remaining crown jewels of California and is a great economic engine for California and the United States. We can’t let it deteriorate or stand still.” Henley also said in a telephone interview Saturday that he hoped the public’s perception of UC Santa Barbara as just a fun campus would come to match the reality of a school that has five Nobel laureates on its faculty in such disciplines as physics, chemistry, electrical engineering and economics. The campus was strongly ranked in the National Research Council’s most recent survey of research doctoral programs, placing first in the country in materials sciences based on a compilation of scores in various categories. Its total scores for chemical engineering placed it third, after the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley, and its electrical engineering department was fifth, after Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Caltech.
UC Santa Barbara Chancellor Henry Yang noted that the campus, which enrolls about 19,000 undergraduates and 3,000 graduate students, is proud of its oceanside location and the fact that “our students are very happy here and have a lot of fun on weekends and evenings.” He said he expected the Henleys’ gift would bring more attention to the school’s academic reputation and further “enhance the quality of research and teaching.” Of the Henleys’ total pledge, $25 million upfront will help finance a new building, which will be named Henley Hall and will house the Institute for Energy Efficiency, and $5 million will be for recruiting and retaining institute faculty. The university needs to raise an additional $25 million for the building. Rounding out their gift, the Henleys have pledged $20 million to be paid from their estate at a later date to support the College of Engineering, including faculty recruitment, graduate student support and equipment. Although the Henleys’ gift is far from the largest in the UC system’s history, it is a significant boost to UC Santa Barbara’s campaign to finish raising $1 billion in donations in the next four or five years. Including the new donation, the campus has $718 million in hand or pledged, officials said. The new building will be designed to be a model of efficiency in heating, cooling and lighting even as the work inside strives for further advances in those areas, according to John Bowers, a professor of electrical and computer engineering who is director of the 3-year-old Institute for Energy Efficiency. For example, he said, if teleconferencing becomes more efficient, that could lead people to drive less to attend meetings, thereby reducing pollution. “We waste more energy than we consume, but with scientific and technological breakthroughs we can change that — permanently,” said Bowers. UC Santa Barbara hopes to add about 5,000 students to its rolls over the next 15 years, if it wins the California Coastal Commission’s approval for construction plans and finds enough funding, according to Yang. The demand for enrollment there is strong, according to the UC admissions office. UC Santa Barbara received 54,831 applications for freshman admission next fall, making it the fourth-most popular of the nine UC undergraduate campuses; the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, San Diego attracted the most applications.
STATE
NATIONAL
INTERNATIONAL
SACRAMENTO —
WASHINGTON, D.C. —
CONGO —
In a gloomy preview of his May budget release, Gov. Jerry Brown said Saturday that California’s deficit has mushroomed to $16 billion, nearly $7 billion higher than he previously estimated. “This means that we will have to go much further, and make cuts far greater, than I asked for at the beginning of the year,” Brown said in a video released on YouTube. “But we can’t fill a hole of this magnitude with cuts alone without doing severe damage to our schools.”
Farmers and their insurers have enjoyed the arrangement for more than a decade: Buy an insurance policy to cover losses or falling prices, and the government will foot most of the bill. The farm bill now before Congress includes a provision — estimated to cost $3 billion a year — that would help cover the losses farmers suffer before their crop insurance policies kick in. Those losses, termed deductibles, can run in the tens of thousands of dollars for a typical mid-size farm.
There are only approximately 800 mountain gorillas left in the world and most of them live in Virunga National Park, in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. But their home territory is occupied by heavily armed rebels fighting the Congolese government. According to conservation officials, four different armed groups are in the park. While the rebels most likely do not intend to harm the critically endangered primates, park officials said the situation means that conservation efforts are on hold.
MDarts 4
Monday, May 14, 2012
The truth behind the freshman lies
Leila Durmaz is a journalism freshman and Mustang Daily freshman columnist. Within the past two weeks or so, I’ve found myself wondering where the time has gone and how a day can go by so quickly. As spring quarter quickly comes to a close, everything just seems to go by so much more quickly: Midterms came up sooner than expected, the weeks are constantly flying by at an incredibly fast pace, the weekends feel ridiculously
short and who knew we would have to actually bring down our suitcases and duffel bags from our closets so soon. So with seemingly little time to accomplish anything anymore, I’ve gotten to the point where I’m officially ready for summer and next year to begin, respectively of course. And now that I’m almost done with freshman year, I’ve realized everything I was told about this great year has kind of been a lie. The No. 1 thing I’ve always
I’ve realized everything I was told about this great year has kind of been a lie, truth be told.
heard was that freshman year wasn’t going to be like freshman year of high school. It would be completely different — no one cares you are a freshman and no one probably notices. This is completely false. Though it may not be like high school, and definitely isn’t as big of a deal as it was before, freshmen on campus are pretty easy to spot. Even I can tell who’s a freshman as I walk to class. Remember when you were told you’d become best friends with basically your whole floor and your roommate? Yeah, well, let’s just say that obviously depends on respective circumstances. Just because they live on your floor does not mean you are going to all of a sudden be best friends. And just because you’re living with one, two or three girls for a year doesn’t mean they’re
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best friend material. In the beginning of the year, I wrote an article about Week Of Welcome (WOW) and how our group turned into our family. Now that I’ve finally experienced freshman year, I apologize for stating the aforementioned. I’m sure some WOW groups really have merged into a family, but it’s not something that happens for everyone. WOW was a great experience, and the people you experience it with make the week even better, but that doesn’t mean everyone instantly becomes someone you run to when something happens. One thing that’s important to note during freshman year is that not everyone you meet could be your best friend. When we came to college, we thought we knew what exactly a Resident Advisor (RA) was: The so-called “bad guys.” The ones who would write people up just for doing nothing and the one who would ruin all the fun. Everyone wanted to stay away just because they seemed like the party-killer, but this couldn’t be more of a lie. Though they may be a kind of baby-sitter for us, they are students like we are. Personally, I love both my RAs, and I know a lot of other people that do too. All they want to do is keep their residents safe and prevent bad things from happening. This doesn’t mean they’re out to get you. This year has resulted in so
much knowledge, whether it be through classes or discovering and breaking all the myths I heard prior to college. And now, with only a few weeks left to go, I can’t wait to end this school year and begin the next one. Especially because friends from home are posting multiple statuses
on Facebook, rubbing in the fact that they’re done with school, are officially sophomores and enjoying their beautiful summers. I have to keep reminding myself we are still enjoying summer when they’re back at school in the fall — thank you, quarter system.
“Dedicated reader” • PHOTO CREDIT Krisha Agatep •
MDarts 5
Monday, May 14, 2012
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Monday, May 14, 2012
Obama comes out in support Leonard Pitts Jr., winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, is a columnist for the Miami Herald. So apparently, Barack Obama is finally done evolving. That, you will recall, was the president’s word for the process of reconsidering his opposition to same-sex marriage. Last week, after being publicly and inadvertently prodded by his vice president, Obama announced the results of all that cogitation. He told ABC News he has “just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.” It was a historic statement from a historic president, a moment of political courage from an administration that has provided fewer such mo-
ments than you would like. And the timing was serendipity itself. Obama’s statement came a day after North Carolina enacted an amendment to the state constitution banning same-sex marriage. This, on top of a law already on the books that does the same thing. No one will ever accuse the state of excessive subtlety. In the context of that dispiriting defeat, Obama’s embrace of marriage equality offers not just a rebuke to one state’s atavistic backwardness, but also a bracing reminder that progress will not be denied, that change comes, come what may. It is an irrefutable truth from which, pardon the tautology, conservative Republicans have long been in full flight. The amendment,
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“Surprise on page 3.”
TIM BRINTON/NEWSART
First World Problems
placed on the ballot by Republican state legislators, is only the latest in a series of recent efforts to turn back progress. In this case, the Grand Old Party went after progress that is still in the making. Alarmingly, however, they have also sought to turn back progress that was made decades ago. Who would have thought that in 2012, we would be debating a woman’s access to contraception? Or re-litigating the merits of the Civil Rights Act? Or fighting to prevent a key provision of the Voting Rights Act from being repealed? In “B-Movie,” his scalpelsharp skewering of the Reagan revolution, the late, great Gil Scott-Heron derided what he saw as a tendency “not to face now or tomorrow, but to face backwards.”
That song was released in 1981, and the tendency has only grown more pronounced since then. Hence, the re-election slogan that Team Obama has been test-driving in recent days: “Forward,” they say. The implied suggestion, of course, is that the other party will take us in the other direction. But that is not simply the choice that frames the balloting in November. It is also the choice that frames this era. Some of us strain toward a mythic past of perceived tranquility and stark moral choices when, to quote ScottHeron again, “movies were in black and white and so was everything else” — in other words, the proverbial “good old days.” They don’t seem to know — more likely, they just don’t care — that some of us never had good old days. For the nation’s gay and lesbian citizens, this is as close to good old days as they have ever come. And the idea that they can be turned back from the threshold of freedom by a state constitutional amendment or by 50 state constitutional amendments misreads human nature. You will as easily return women to the kitchen as you will return gay people to the closet, to the days when their sexual orientation was regarded as both a mental disorder and an indictable crime. Let those who need to do so finally get it through their heads that gay people are not going to go back there — would you? The president has embraced this. By contrast, North Carolina embraces only the stubborn intransigence of those who desperately need to wake up and smell the 21st century. We have seen it before, the mulishness of those who think that by sheer obstinacy, they can turn back the tide of change. Those people ended up on the wrong side of history. They are about to have company.
JOSEPH CORRAL/MUSTANG DAILY
These racial categories for votes are useless. People vote as individuals, not as giant mobs of different racial subgroups. — Jacob Holmes In response to “Romney might gain Hispanic support through VP” If a Mexican-American such as myself or another Hispanic would have written this article, the perspective from the left would have been a lot kinder and gentler, or as I like to call it, more patronizing and condescending. To quote Mr. Pringle, “the future of Republican Party does rely heavily on the Hispanic demographic”. This is a fact and anyone that does not see this reality needs to take their head out of their ass. We Latinos have the distinction of being the most passionate of peoples, we value family and friends and let’s not forget that we are the world’s greatest lovers with no one coming in a close second. On the flip side, however, we rely heavily on collectivism and have allowed the left to give us goodies in exchange for individualism, freedom and self respect. We have allowed Televisa, Telemundo and TV Azteca, (all the equivalent to MSNBC), to tell us how to think and who to vote for. We need to wake up and smell the Nescafe, o nos va a llevar la chingada. — Spicy Mexican Salsa In response to “Romney might gain Hispanic support through VP” Obama’s view on same sex marriage has been headline news on every network. The Huffington Post is going gangbusters over this. It would be appropriate for opinion piece writers for the Mustang Daily to discuss this. Do you bitch and moan about MSNBC just as much as you do about Fox? — Mike In response to “Romney might gain Hispanic support through VP” Ten people in 2011, but 153 people this year – that’s AMAZING! I was extremely touched by seeing the wonderful support of all the Cal Poly students who were sleeping out on the hard concrete in the cold — it actually brought me to tears. Sure, it was just one night & for those of us who either are or have been homeless, it usually lasts for a lot longer than that, but let’s face it, these students could have chosen to do a lot of other things w/ their time. BRAVO ya’ll for your willingness to help raise awareness of the issues! Many thanks! — Rev. Cynthia In response to “Students choose to ‘Sleep Out for Homelessness’”
NOTE: The Mustang Daily features select comments that are written in response to articles posted online. Though not all the responses are printed, the Mustang Daily prints comments that are coherent and foster intelligent discussion on a given subject. No overcapitalization, please.
MDsports 7
Monday, May 14, 2012
Softball falls to Riverside in final game CONOR MULVANEY
conormulvaney.md@gmail.com
Despite a late push on an RBI single by sophomore
Kim Westlund, which scored Nora Sobczak in the fifth inning, Cal Poly softball (1336, 5-16) fell 2-1 to UC Riverside (25-28, 8-13).
MAX ZERONIAN/MUSTANG DAILY
Nora Sobczak (above) scored Cal Poly’s only run on Saturday in her final game as a Mustang.
The windy Saturday marked senior night for Sobczak and Nicole Lund as they made their final appearances at Bob Janssen field. With numbers “28” and “8” chalked behind second base, the two took the field along with there teammates to finish the 2011-12 softball season. “It’s been absolutely incredible,” Sobczak said. “Being able to come together and put our whole effort out there even tough things weren’t going our way was the biggest thing for us this season.” Lund went 1 for 3, while Sobczak was walked twice, scoring a run. “It’s always different losing two people,” Westlund said. “They were great leaders. (Sobczak) was kind of like our mom on the team, anytime we needed something we could go to her, and (Lund) was that person who, whenever you were having a bad day, you could go to her for a smile.” The two ended their careers at Cal Poly with their families and friends in the stands supporting them. “They’ve been great representatives of our program,” head coach Jenny Condon said. “They’ve left their mark and taught the underclassmen what it is to be a Mustang softball player. It’ll be sad, but I’m happy they went out on a positive note.” Cal Poly ended the season in last place of the Big West Conference, but an extra-inning 6-5 win over Riverside in the first game of the series left the team with some positivity to end the year. On Saturday, the Highlanders scored in the first on an RBI single by Jessica Vasser
and added on their lead with Jojo Mendoza’s solo-home run to start off the fourth. The loss marks the end of a down year for Cal Poly softball, which faced much adversity in a myriad of injuries and losses. Despite this, the team looks to rebound with a strong 2012-13 season. Westlund, who led the team in batting average (.322), hits (48), RBIs (25) and slugging percentage (.436), looks to stop the bleeding and help the struggling offense. “The best thing we have coming back is our youth,” Condon said. “We had freshman and sophomores playing every single game. They have one to two seasons under their belt, and the experience they’ve gotten will only make them better.” Strong defensive performances by shortstop Celina Lafrades and second basemen Ashley Romano, who turned three double plays in the loss, prime Cal Poly as a candidate for the strongest defense in the Big West next season. “Defensively, we were good
all year long,” Condon said. “Our defense was the most solid part of our game.” Alongside Lafrades and Romano, center fielder Whitley Gerhart looks to captain the outfield with a strong arm and a .965 fielding percentage. Gerhart’s .258 overall batting average was overshadowed by a .322 average during Big West play. Pitching next year remains a question mark for Cal Poly after the injury of Rebecca Patton. Patton was second among Big West Conference pitchers in starts (30), fourth in strikeouts (107) and seventh in innings pitched (175.2) during the 2011 season and earned Big West
Pitcher of the Week honors. Despite these strong statistics, Patton was forced to the sidelines with an injury this season throwing only 66 innings. In place of Patton, freshmen Jordan Yates and Chloe Wurst have traded starting duties. Wurst threw 132 innings with a 4.76 ERA, while Yates displayed earned a similar 5.09 ERA on 121 innings pitched. “We’ll have five seniors,” Westlund said. “Our juniors will be a big part too. All of us had starting positions the past two years. We all have experience and the poise to perform too. We need to learn to love the game again.”
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MDsports 8
Monday, May 14, 2012
Errors cost Cal Poly a victory BRIAN DE LOS SANTOS
bdelossantos.md@gmail.com
The Mustangs found themselves behind before they even had a chance to get ahead. Despite a resilient three-run second inning, the Cal Poly baseball team couldn’t bounce back from an error-filled, tworun first inning, as the Mustangs dropped the last game in their three-game series 6-4 to CSU Bakersfield on Sunday at Baggett Stadium. “The left-handed pitcher (Jeff McKenzie) just kind of left us off balance today,” head coach Larry Lee said. “We hit into too many easy outs and didn’t put any pressure on him.” Despite the loss, the Mustangs — after posting two straight dominant wins over Bakersfield on Friday and Saturday — still walk away with a series win over the Roadrunners. But the Mustangs hardly looked like that same team on Sunday, as Cal Poly opened with some faulty defense behind Kyle Brueggemann. Mitch Haniger dove for a ball in right center, only to have it
bounce out of his glove, allowing the game’s leadoff batter Andrew Letourneau to reach second base. Then, after Matt Russell misplayed a ball in left field from Kevin Younger, the Roadrunners brought the first run of the game across the plate. Tommy Pluschkell then committed an error at first to put runners at first and second with no outs, and Tyler Shryock followed with an RBI single up the middle to make it 2-0 through the first half inning. Cal Poly opened the second inning with back-to-back singles to left field from Nick Torres and Chris Hoo, and the two advanced to second and third off a wild pitch. In the next at-bat, Russell brought them home off a two-RBI double lined over first base. “I was feeling a bit bad about the first inning,” Russell said. “I made a mistake in the outfield, and I knew I needed to come up big for our team. I was just looking for a pitch I could hit hard, happened to get one on the inner half of the plate and I just turned on it. Luckily, I kept it fair and two runs scored.”
That allowed even more runs to score. After an error from the Bakersfield third baseman put runners at first and third, Denver Chavez put the Mustangs ahead by one with a sacrifice fly to center field. Bakersfield came back with three runs in the third inning and another run in the seventh inning as the Mustangs combined for five hits — one being a Chavez home run in the seventh inning to cut the deficit to two — in the next six innings. It wasn’t enough, though, as Cal Poly failed to cap the series sweep over Bakersfield. “Sometimes, especially when we’re doing well, you can get complacent out there,” Chavez said. “Just make little mistakes, things like that tend to snowball sometimes, and I think we just let that focus get away from us a little bit.” The first two games were a different story. Friday, Joey Wagman struck out a careerhigh 10 batters in eight innings, giving up one run on four hits, as the Mustangs cruised to a 6-1 win over Bakersfield in the series opener.
The Mustangs gave Wagman support at the plate, with Torres belting a home run over the left field wall in the second inning and Tim Wise sending the first pitch of the third inning over the left field wall to put the Mustangs up 3-1. The team wouldn’t look back, scoring two runs in the fourth and one in the fifth to shut the door on the Roadrunners. Saturday, the Mustangs, again, got it done offensively. Behind starting pitcher Kyle Anderson, Cal Poly raced out to a 10-0 lead through four innings. That was all Anderson needed, as he got the win after pitching five innings to give up four runs on eight hits. That set the stage for Sunday, where Bruggemann gave up five runs on seven hits in 2 1/3 innings to get the loss. Matt Imhof came on in relief and pitched 3 1/3 innings, giving up on runs on three hits. Offensively, Hoo went 2 for 3, Chavez went 1 for 3 with two RBI and Russell went 1 for 4 with two RBI.
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The Mustangs committed three errors in Sunday’s 6-4 loss to CSU Bakersfield.