By Behind senior Tanner Brown’s dominant performance on the mound and sophomore Luke Rasmussen’s bat, the Long Beach State baseball team beat Cal Poly 4-1 in Sunday’s series finale to sweep the Mustangs at Blair Field.
The win came after LBSU broke ground for construction of the team’s new batting facility and bullpen in right field.
“It’s great [to sweep after the groundbreaking],” Dirtbags head coach Troy Buckley said. “The goal is to win every game, but it is nice way to cap the day and a really nice weekend off. I’m happy for the team, I’m happy for the school and I’m happy for the community.”
Brown (6-3) shut the Mustangs down after the first inning before being taken out in the ninth after giving up a 2-out single to Cal Poly’s junior third baseman Michael Sanderson. The right-hander finished the day allowing five hits, one run, one walk while striking out two.
“I just came in trying to keep the ball down and stay ahead of the counts,” Brown said. “I let my defense do what they could.”
Rasmussen spearheaded the scoring output in the series going 7 for 13 with 5 RBIs. LBSU’s designated hitter went 2 for 4 on Sunday with two RBIs.
The Dirtbags’ (26-16, 9-6) sweep was the first of the season after failing in six attempts to complete a sweep with a win in a series finale.
“[It’s] huge,” Buckley said. “It’s been a nice luxury to be in a position to sweep, it means you’re having good weekends, but we hadn’t done it yet.”
The Mustangs (25-17, 7-5) got off to a quick start taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning after freshman catcher Nick Meyer singled to right field. Meyer stole second and found himself on third after junior left fielder Brett Binning hit a single to right field.
Meyer scored after senior right fielder hit John Shucknecht hit an RBI single.
LBSU answered with two outs in the third inning after Rasmussen hit a two-RBI single that allowed senior third baseman Zack Domingues and junior shortstop Garrett Hampson to score giving the Dirtbags a 2-1 lead.
Freshman Domenic Colacchio added to the lead in the fourth with an RBI single that allowed junior Daniel Jackson to score and extend LBSU’s lead to 3-1.
The win is the Dirtbags’ fifth in a row. LBSU outscored the Mustangs 20-4, scoring in double figures in Friday’s 14-3 win and then shutting out the Mustangs in Saturday’s 2-0 win.
“There was really good focus all week,” Buckley said. “Even though we had limited practice time, I thought the intent was good, I thought our fundamentals were stressed and they know the importance without making it important.”
The Dirtbags now will turn their focus to UCLA when they host them Tuesday night at Blair Field at 6 p.m. before traveling to Hawaii for a weekend series.
