The Dirtbags made it a rough night for the Bruins on Tuesday.
In front of 1,562 spectators, the largest Tuesday crowd recorded at Blair Field, UCLA watched as pitcher after pitcher gave up hits, walks and runs to almost every other Dirtbag batter. Attempting to save their best arms for a series against CS Fullerton this weekend, the Bruins pitched five men until Long Beach had racked up 11 runs by the bottom of the eighth.
After Brendan Lafferty came on the mound, immediately giving up five runs, the Bruins moved their center fielder Tim Murphy onto the mound to try and stop the bleeding. But Murphy was unable to and quickly surrendered three more.
John Savage, UCLA’s head coach and the former collegiate coach of all-star pitchers Mark Prior and Barry Zito, eventually gave up as the No. 15 Bruins fell to the No. 20 Dirtbags 14-1. UCLA’s seven pitchers gave up a combined 12 hits, 14 runs, walked nine, hit four batters and threw five wild pitches.
“They really helped us out a lot,” said Long Beach State’s head coach Mike Weathers.
The Dirtbag pitchers, on the other hand, had solid outings. Adam Wilk threw two innings, giving up only one hit, and Andre Lamontagne got the win with a career-high 3.1 innings and a career high six strikeouts.
“Lamontagne, who’s been a little bit shaky, did really good,” Weathers said. “That was really good for him, he needed that.”
AJ Pinocchio, Jason Tweedy and Danny Espinosa all put in multiple hits for the Dirtbags. Pinocchio went 2-for-4 as the DH for the night and had a near-perfect bunt to drive in a run in the bottom of the eighth to start off the eight-run inning. Tweedy went 2-for-2 with a base-clearing single to right-center field in the same inning, driving in two runs.
Espinosa, 1-for-13 against Rice last weekend, said he found his rhythm this week and managed to capitalize on UCLA’s poor pitching.
“I didn’t have any rhythm last weekend,” Espinosa said. “Yesterday I went into the coaches office and had a meeting and I pretty much just stayed with the same plan. I just had to get my rhythm back.” Espinosa went 3-for-4 with a triple and an RBI.
The Dirtbags face their second Pac-10 team this week when California travels to Blair Field.
RHP Vance Worley will be on the mound facing LHP Craig Bennigson, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, and at 2 p.m. Saturday, LBSU’s LHP Omar Arif will face Cal’s RHP Tyson Ross.
