Josh Frye took his 25-scoreless inning streak into Saturday night’s contest against the top ranked Cal Poly Mustangs.
The senior out of Millikan High School got more run support than he needed as the Dirtbags (19-21, 6-5 BW) took down the Mustangs, 7-2.
For the second consecutive game, the Dirtbags jumped on the Mustang (36-6, 12-2 Big West) starter in the first inning. After a walk and a hit-and-run, Ino Patron singled in Colby Brenner. It was Patron’s 209th hit as a Dirtbag, breaking a tie with Jason Giambi for seventh all time. A sac fly by Richard Prigatano gave the Dirtbags a 2-0 lead.
The Dirtbags got a third run in the third thanks to a two-out double by freshman Garrett Hampson. Patron came up and promptly singled him in. Hampson reached base four times and scored twice, while Patron had four singles, putting him at 212 in his career.
“Our approach this weekend coming in was to be on time with the fastball and hit the fastball,”Patron said. “This team is really well known for throwing a lot of fastballs and getting guys out with it. So just come in and hit the fastball pretty much, keep it simple.”
Long Beach tacked on three more runs in the fourth thanks to two dropped fly balls by Mustang outfielders. Cameron Pongs, who has six hits in the two games against Cal Poly, drove in Michael Hill from third. Pongs scored later in the inning on a ground ball to second from Colton Vaughn. A wild pitch made it 6-0, which was more than enough for Josh Frye.
Frye found himself in trouble in the second inning after giving up back-to-back singles. With runners on the corners and no out, Frye struck out two Mustangs and got a fly out to escape the jam. Following the second single, Frye retired the next 13 Mustangs.
Frye’s scoreless innings streak came to an end in the sixth. A one-out double by Jordan Ellis and a single by Nick Torres ended Frye’s streak at 30 innings. The all-time record for the Dirtbags is 33 scoreless innings by Rocky Biddle.
The Mustangs added another run in the sixth, but Frye and Kyle Friedrichs kept them in check for the rest of the game. Frye went eight innings, allowing two runs on six hits while striking out six.
“I’m not going to lie, I was a little upset when I gave up that run,”said Frye after the game. “Otherwise I felt pretty good.”
Four Dirtbags had multiple hits in the game, and every starter reached base at least once.
“Today was the biggest game of the year,”Head coach Troy Buckley said. And tomorrow becomes the biggest game of the year. The intent, the urgency, the competitiveness and the commitment to what the game plan was was really good across the board.”
The rubber match of the series is Sunday at 1 p.m.
