Excuse my French, but TJ Mittelstaedt and the Dirtbags are just absolutely hitting the crap out of the ball right now!
After pounding 14 runs yesterday at Santa Clara, it was off to see the Golden Bears, who swept the 49ers earlier this year. And Mittelstaedt and Devin Lohman each had three-run home runs as Long Beach State routed California 19-7.
The heart of the order lived up to their billing Wednesday, as cleanup hitter Mittelstaedt was four-for-five with six RBI, while Lohman, batting third, was three-for-four with four RBI as the Dirtbags set season highs with 19 runs, 21 hits, and 17 RBI.
For the second day in a row, the top of the order for Long Beach State produced early. Jonathan Jones and Jordan Casas began the game with back-to-back singles, and after a walk, a Mittelstaedt grounder scored the first run. Another hit from Rylan Sandoval put the DIrtbags ahead 2-0.
The Dirtbags added more in the second, extending their lead to 5-0 after loading the bases for Mittelstaedt, who hit a bases-clearing double to put Long Beach State ahead by five. California started to pull back into the game in the bottom half of the frame taking advantage of some wildness from Manny McElroy to get two runs across.
After Long Beach State added a sixth run in the sixth, back-to-back home runs by Blake Smith and Mark Canha cut the Dirtbag lead to 6-4. Lease would settle down however, and put together three scoreless innings after that pair.
Mittelstaedt started the seventh inning with his second hit, and a sacrifice and a single later Long Beach State was back up by three at 7-4. Brennan Metzger would follow with a double to score Derek Legg and the Dirtbags would be up 8-4. Long Beach State kept the pressure on, against reliever Mike Cassady, starting off with a double and finishing with a three-run homer by Devin Lohman adding six more runs to their seventh inning total to take a 14-4 lead.
The offense continued for both teams, as Long Beach State and Cal traded three-run home runs in the seventh, though the Dirtbags had two extra runs in the top half of the inning, taking a 19-7 lead into the ninth.
Long Beach State returns home on Friday to begin Big West play. The Dirtbags start eight weekends of league play by hosting UC Riverside for three starting at 6:30pm on Friday @ Blair Field.
Report By LBSU