Behind a 15-hit attack, California swept Long Beach State with a 6-3 win Sunday in front of 1,419 at Blair Field.
The Golden Bears (6-2) took control of a 2-2 game in the in the top of the seventh when Blake Smith drove in Jeff Kobernus with a single to left. That chased Dirtbag starter Jake Thompson, who made way for Charlie Ruiz.
Ruiz walked Dylan Tonneson on four pitches and gave up a two-run double to Mark Canha.
Adam Wilk came in to try and stop the bleeding but he was greeted with a first-pitch single to right by Michael Brady, scoring Canha and giving Cal a 6-2 lead.
“We still got a long way to go,” head coach Mike Weathers said. “Some guys are still feeling their way through. This is all new. I have never been in this situation before. I’ve never lost two series to start a season. But we got to go through it together.”
LBSU (2-5) got one back in the eighth when Devin Lohman scored on Jonathan Jones’ double play ball. Lohman and pinch hitter Rylan Sandoval got back-to-back singles to start the inning but the Dirtbags couldn’t muster more than the one run.
Lohman was the only Long Beach player with more than one hit.
Long Beach took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a John Hill single that plated Jones, who started the inning with a walk then stole second — one of five stolen bases by the Dirtbags.
Jordan Casas walked and went to second on Hill’s base hit. On a double steal, they went to second and third and Brennan Metzger’s walk loaded the bases with just one out. But TJ Mittelstaedt’s grounder was fielded at first and fired home for the force out on Casas, while Derek Legg hit a groundball to short to end the threat.
Cal didn’t waste any time tying the game. Tonneson’s two-out double brought around Smith, who also doubled with two outs.
Cal took a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth with two more doubles. Chadd Krist hit one to deep left over Metzger’s head and, with two outs, leadoff hitter Brett Jackson hit a high, slicing ball that dropped just inside the foul line to score Krist.
LBSU tied it again in their half of the frame. Hill reached on an error and scored on a two-out single by Legg through the hole at shortstop.
Thompson (0-1), a sophomore right-hander, got the start Sunday after being scratched Friday night due to flu-like symptoms. He went 6 1/3 innings, giving up three runs on 12 hits and took the loss.
“I thought he threw OK,” Weathers said, “but the other part of this that’s a really good hitting team over there. Our pitching was not that bad. A lot of people are going to look at this and see a lot of runs but [David] Esquer [Cal’s coach] has had a lot of good hitting teams and he thinks this might be his best.”
He gave up six doubles and two hits in every inning but the fifth. He did a nice job of keeping The Beach in the game and avoided the big inning until things unraveled in the seventh.
With runners on second and third and two outs in the top of the sixth, Taylor Krick made a tremendous play on a high foul ball as he caught it hanging over the Cal dugout to end the threat.
Michael Bugary (1-0) got the win in relief for Cal and Matt Flemer got the save. Cal starter Brian Diemer went 5 1/3 innings, giving up two runs on five hits.
Smith had three hits for Cal while the No. 6 through 9 guys in the batting order — Canha, Brady, Krist and Brian Guinn — all had a pair.
The Dirtbags hit the road next weekend for a three-game set at the University of South Carolina starting Friday.
Probables on the mound for the Dirtbags will be Thompson (Friday), Wilk (Saturday) and Andrew Gagnon (Sunday).
