By Bohl Diamond at Blair Field has seen brighter days.
Tuesday night, things got very dark for the Long Beach State Dirtbags in the ninth inning as they blew a two-run lead to the Pepperdine Waves in a 6-5 loss and dropped to 6-10 on the year.
Entering the ninth up 5-3 after successfully navigating a scheduled bullpen game, the Dirtbags sent four different pitchers to the mound in a marathon inning.
The three Pepperdine runs came at the expense of self-inflicted base runners, with two walks and two hit batters.
“Unfortunately, you can’t walk five guys in the last two innings, and we did and three of them scored,” head coach TJ Bruce said. “When you do those things, and you don’t execute by moving runners over, it all adds up.”
A struggling Pepperdine team, losers of six-straight entering Tuesday’s game with a record of just 3-14, got on the board first with a solo home run by freshman catcher Esteban Sepulveda.
The Waves added one more later in the inning with a failed double steal after a thrown down to senior second baseman Easton Elliot that was mishandled, allowing the runner from third to take home. Elliot recovered by tagging out the runner at second base to end the inning down 2-0.
LBSU entered the hit column in the third with a two-out double by Elliot, and graduate right fielder Kyle Ashworth followed with a ball scorched into right-center field off the wall for a triple to plate Elliot.
The Dirtbags tied things at 2-2 in the fourth with an infield RBI single by senior third baseman Nathan Cadena, his first of three runs batted in on the night.
An unexpected call to the bullpen in the third brought in sophomore pitcher Josh Donegan, who’s been the Dirtbags’ number two starter on Saturdays.
The LBSU bullpen struggled against Pepperdine as it walked five batters in the last two innings, resulting in a blown lead at home. Dirtbags junior pitcher Van Larson gave up 2 earned runs that ultimately sparked the comeback for the Waves. Photo credit Mark Siquig.
Donegan found his groove back on the mound after a couple of rough outings, throwing three scoreless no-hit innings.
“I felt great, it’s honestly kind of fun coming out of the pen now and then,” Donegan said. “It was good to get back out there, the past few outings have been rough, so it feels good to find my footing and get in some rhythm.”
A three-run sixth inning for the Dirtbags offense allowed them to jump out in front 5-2, beginning with a throwing error by the Waves’ senior shortstop Justin Rubin, which allowed senior first baseman Connor Charpiot to score after he singled to lead off the inning.
Cadena came up big for the LBSU once again with a two-run single and finished the game going 3-4 with three RBIs and a walk.
The Waves inched closer in the eighth with an RBI single from Sepulveda to make it a two-run game.
After four pitchers were used through the first eight innings for LBSU, four more saw action on the mound in the ninth. Pepperdine got its first run without hitting the ball at all on four straight walks/hit by pitches, bringing home the first run and making it 5-4.
With the bases still loaded, Rubin delivered the dagger with an opposite field base hit to right scoring two Waves’ runners and reclaiming the lead, much to the chagrin of the cold LBSU fans.
The Dirtbags went down in order in the ninth to end things in gut-wrenching fashion, moving to just 2-6 at home this season.
“Unfortunately, this program is not ready to win, and that falls on me, and we’ll do some things moving forward,” Bruce said.
The loss will have to sit with LBSU for at least three days before returning to action Friday night for the conference home-opener against Cal Poly at 6 p.m.
