By After allowing nine runs to Arizona State on Friday night, LBSU’s starters allowed only three runs combined during Saturday and Sunday’s wins behind the arms of Chris Mathewson and Darren McCaughan en route to a 2-1 series win.
“Those two guys in the last two games have been really good,” Dirtbags head coach Troy Buckley said. “[Arizona State] is a good team when you make mistakes. They didn’t have many opportunities, but the ones that they did have, they scored.”
On Friday night Tanner Brown took the mound for the Dirtbags (5-2) and pitched three scoreless innings, but gave up a 3-run home run to ASU’s Sebastian Zawada in the third inning and another to Colby Woodmansee in fifth inning.
The Sun Devils weren’t done, as they scored another three runs at the top of the ninth. The Dirtbags finally get on the board when pinch hitter Garrett Nelson hit a 2-run home run. The Dirtbags would lose the game 9-2.
Mathewson took the mound Saturday and from start to finish, he kept the 26 Sun Devils he faced guessing in his seven innings and also notched his new career high with 12 strikeouts.
“I came out in the first inning and just settled in,” Mathewson said. “I started not thinking about the command and what I’m going to do. I just threw threw the ball and let it do its thing.”
While Mathewson wasn’t thinking about his command, he didn’t forget about last year when he gave up his career highs in runs and hits to the Sun Devils March 8.
“It was huge from the get-go,” Mathewson said. “This was the series I’ve been looking forward to. They hit me around a little bit and it was big coming out here and shutting them down.”
Mathewson got the pitchers back on track and the Dirtbags found their swing as seven different batters got hits. After going 0-for-4 on Friday night Garrett Hampson scored two runs while going 1-for-3 leading off for LBSU in its 5-2 win.
McCaughan took the mound for the Dirtbags in the rubber match Sunday and he did not disappoint. McCaughan pitched 7.1 innings facing 24 batters and notched seven straight 1-2-3 innings.
“I know I have a solid defense behind me,” McCaughan said. “They make plays every time and I have a lot of faith in them and they have a lot of faith in me in making the batters hit the ball on the ground.”
LBSU’s pitching wasn’t the only thing getting back on track. Brock Lundquist was only batting 2-for-20 going into Sunday’s matchup. On Sunday Lundquist went 1-for-3 with three RBIs in the Dirtbags’ 3-1 win.
“The ball was looking pretty big for me today,” Lundquist said. “I was seeing the ball pretty well, and when I got to two strikes, I found a way to shorten my swing and touch the ball to get to the gaps.”
LBSU will look to extend its two-game win streak Tuesday at Blair Field when it hosts the University of Southern California at 6 p.m.
