By The Long Beach State Dirtbags picked an inopportune time to turn in one of its’ worst offensive weekends of the season. The team scored four runs over three games against UC Irvine and shut out 8-0 in game three Sunday at Blair Field to lose its first Big West Conference series.
“It’s kind of been that way all year,” head coach Troy Buckley said. “There was a little bit of snow balling and we weren’t able to put a tourniquet on the self-inflicted wounds we had today.”
Entering game three with the series tied at one game each, UC Irvine (17-13, 3-3 Big West) took an early lead after tallying three hits against Long Beach junior starting pitcher Tyler Radcliffe. The Dirtbags couldn’t get a free out on a sacrifice bunt and faced bases loaded with no outs in the top of the second. Radcliffe got a pop up to stay in the infield for the first out and then induced a ground ball to junior second baseman Jarren Duran. The ball wasn’t hit hard enough to allow freshman shortstop Santino Rivera to get the throw to first in time and Irvine was able to score two runs on the play.
LBSU (12-20, 1-2 Big West) could not get anything going through the sixth inning, despite hitting the ball hard all over the field. The offense was 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position for the first six innings wasting a lead off base runner in three of those six frames.
The Anteaters broke the game open after a four-run top of the sixth that began with a Cole Kreuter leadoff double. He came in to score along with three other teammates after Long Beach junior reliever Dylan Spacke inherited runners on first and second with one out. He threw more gas on the fire after hitting Irvine freshman Brenden Brooks with the bases loaded. Three of the four earned runs were charged to Long Beach freshman reliever Adam Seminaris, who took over for Radcliffe in the third and pitched three innings.
Not much changed for the Long Beach offense in the final three innings, as it went out of tune going 1-for-10.
“We had a little better at bats [than in game two] but the times we had runners in scoring position we weren’t very good,” Buckley said.
After the game, Long Beach went straight into the dugout as opposed to having its post game talk in center field. Other than clearing the way so that the kids in attendance could run the bases, Buckley said he’s desperately trying to change things up.
“I wore a jersey top for the first time since Mike [Weathers] retired,” Buckley said. “Wearing a jersey top is a big deal for me.”
Long Beach blew a first inning lead in game one on Friday after going ahead 2-0 but allowed Irvine to tie the game in the sixth and then go ahead by one in the ninth. Sophomore ace Zak Baayoun allowed eight hits over six innings and only struck out two batters.
In game two, the Dirtbags scored one run on three hits which was all the cushion junior Clayton Andrews needed on the mound. He went eight scoreless innings and stuck out 11 batters to lead Long Beach to a 1-0 victory.
Sunday’s loss equals the Dirtbags’ 2017 season total of 20 with 26 games still remaining on the schedule. Long Beach also learned it lost senior shortstop Laine Huffman for the season as he will have surgery to repair his rotator cuff and labrum in his right shoulder, as first reported by JJ Fiddler of The562sports.org.
The Dirtbags host No. 20 UCLA at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Blair Field.
