Cal Poly baseball did something Sunday night it had never done before: it won an NCAA regional title and kept its season alive for the Super Regionals. The Mustangs beat Saint Mary's 5-2 in the Los Angeles Regional, turning an early two-run deficit into a breakthrough that sent them into the next round for the first time in program history.

The win came in the kind of game that has defined Cal Poly's season. The Mustangs finished with their 23rd come-from-behind victory, and they got the swing that changed the regional from Gavin Spiridonoff, whose three-run home run broke a 2-2 tie in the sixth inning. Ryan Tayman also tied the school record for home runs in a single season, connecting for his 18th of the year in the same frame as Cal Poly scored four times to pull away.

Josh Volmerding set the tone on the mound after missing six weeks of the 2026 season with a lower body injury. He earned his first win of the season by working six innings, allowing two runs on five hits and one walk while striking out seven, a season high. The performance came after a steady build back to full strength that started with one inning of relief at UC Irvine on May 2, then moved to 2 1/3 innings at Cal State Fullerton, three innings against Long Beach State at home and four more in the Big West tournament in Irvine.

Volmerding said the process had been slow, but that the ramp-up finally clicked at the right time. He also noted that his new slider and the knee injury earlier in the year made it harder to throw, which made the six-inning regional start even more meaningful. He threw 81 pitches, 45 of them sliders, and produced 11 swing-and-misses while landing 75 percent of his pitches for strikes.

Cal Poly's path made the finish even more striking. The Mustangs entered the regional as the third seed, had tried five times to win an NCAA regional title before this run, and still had to erase a 2-0 deficit before taking control. Nate Castellon trimmed Saint Mary's lead to 2-1 with an RBI single in the fifth, then Spiridonoff followed with his fourth home run of his freshman season, a three-run shot with two runners on base that flipped the game and completed the rally.

From there, Cal Poly shut the door. Corden Pettey worked a shutout inning and Nick Bonn finished with two scoreless, hitless innings for his nation-leading 17th save. The 5-2 result sent the Mustangs into the NCAA Super Regionals, which are best-of-three series played Friday through Sunday or Saturday through Monday.

Who Cal Poly will play next is still not settled. The Mustangs will face the winner of the Morgantown Regional, where West Virginia and Kentucky were scheduled to play an extra game Monday at 3 p.m., leaving the next step of this run hanging until that bracket is decided.