Happy St. Patrick’s Day Dirtbag fans. After a rough weekend at Blair against the visiting Washington State Cougars, Long Beach State welcomes the Loyola Marymount Lions for a mid-week showdown. After taking the final game of the Wazzu series, this young team could really use back-to-back wins before they hit the road next week….
PREGAME
Our guys from the Century Club, Bob Hoyt, Sam Breuklander, and Bill Baca, threw out the ceremonial first pitch tonight. Today, Baca called me to ask if I would be at Blair to see him throw the heat. I said yes, but that if he bounced it, I would boo him. He did, and I booed. But Dustin “Dirty Rascal” Rasco picked it nicely and saved him. I didn’t know I could swim in Baca’s head like that. Maybe it was all that green beer.
Top 1st
The crafty lefty Jeff Lease gets the start tonight. He gives up contact (9.1 ip, 16 hits on the season) and after left fielder Ryan Hawthorne led off the game with a seeing-eye single up the middle, right fielder Angelo Songco got all of an off-speed pitch on the inside. The big fly hugged the line all the way over the wall in right field for his seventh homer of the season. 2-0 Lions
Bot 1st
LMU is starting Freshman John Lally (9.2 IP, 8.38 ERA) The Dirtbags continued their patience at the plate and earned two walks, three three-ball counts, plus a stolen base from Tre Dennis. But a pop out, a pick off, and a lazy ground ball to second ends the “threat”. Question: Why does green beer taste so good?
Top 2nd
Lease gives up some more contact (seriously, his WHIP has to be ridiculous) but after John Johnson (no kidding, his real name) gets caught stealing and the ‘Bags get out of the inning. 2-0 LMU
Bot 2nd
Rylan Sandoval continues his hot hitting and jumps on the first pitch he sees from Lally and ropes a double off the wall. First baseman Taylor Krick follows it up with a high chopper up the middle. Johnson tries to make a jumping “Jeter-esque” throw to first but misses his mark badly. Sandoval scores on the error, and Jonathan Jones singles to drive in Krick. Lally is obviously trying to do too much, and when trouble starts he pitches to contact. Bad idea. Brennan Metzger singles to the left side and J.J. scores. 3-2 Dirtbags
Top 3rd
After giving up a lead-off double and getting the first two outs, Lease loses his control. His pitches almost immediately get up and he hits one and walks one. He battles Ollie Enos to a full count, but gives up a two-run single through the hole that sends him to the showers. Anthony Carrillo comes out of the pen, and the Riverside transfer promptly gives up a run scoring single to Brad Bauer. After a walk to Johnson, T.J. makes a great running catch to end the inning. 5-3 LMU
Bot 3rd
Dirtbags go quietly in the third thanks to a 5-4-3 double play after a single by Derek Legg. Not how you want to come out after the Lions put together a long 2-out rally. But that’s becoming a pattern…
Top 4th
In the process of giving up a double down the right field line and a sac fly to left, Carrillo appears to have injured his right elbow. The trainer walks off the field with him, and Josh Corrales takes over with a man on first. The Valencia native battles with the Lions biggest bat in Songco and gets him with a huge strikeout and a nice fly out from Enos. Great pitching from #11. 6-3 Lions
Bot 4th
The Dirtbags jump on Lally a little as Krick, Jones, and Kip Masuda each single for a run. But they waste the opportunity for a big inning with J.J. and Kip on second and third as Dennis strikes out and T.J. grounds out to second. 6-4 LMU
Top 5th
Corrales continues to pitch well even though he walks Johnson, and tiny #8 gets to third on a wild pitch. But #11 gets Evan Simonitsch to ground out.
Bot 5th
Devin Lohman sends a shot off the wall in left, and when Hawthorne overthrows the cutoff man, Lohman tries to take third but gets thrown out by quite a bit. Just to rub salt into what looked like a missed sign, Legg walks, takes second on a balk and goes to third on a Sandoval single. The single chases Lally (4.1IP, 10H) and Jordan McClintick takes over to face Krick. Taylor battles with a two-strike count and hits a hot shot back up the box. The ball hits McClintick in the side and bounces over Johnson’s head at second, scoring Legg and moving Sandoval to third. But again, while good pitching keeps the Dirtbags close, they miss a chance at a big inning as two strikeouts end the inning. 6-5 LMU
Top 6th
Senior Manny McElroy comes out of the pen and gets a quick out, but back-to-back singles puts runners on first and second for Songco to chop one to Krick at first. Taylor went to Lohman at second to start the double play. Devin touched the bag and went wide of the bag to throw to McElroy at first. But Ryan Wheeler slid wide of second and took out Lohman. Coach Mike Weathers, this writer, and the rest of the Dirtbag faithful thought Wheeler was too wide for any league, and Weathers let umpire Joe Maiden know about it. Inexplicably, Maiden tossed Weathers while coach asked him about the call from about 10 yards away. Weathers didn’t like that none too much, and as Maiden backpedaled into left field, Weathers gave him a shower of spit and not-so-nice words. Good on ya’ Mike, that was a horrible call, and a horrible way to deal with a coach asking a question. McElroy gets a fly out to end the inning. Still 6-5 (Side note: Leaky Pipes thinks Weathers should pull a Bobby Valentine and sit in the dugout as Prospector Pete.)
Bot 6th
Guess what? The Dirtbags put a runner in scoring (Metzger walk, Dennis sac bunt) position again and failed to cash him in.
Top 7th
McElroy continues to pitch well, and a great diving stop by Lohman on a hot shot up the middle to end the inning. Let’s stretch…
Bot 7th
With Burrell tiring on the bump, Legg draws a lead off walk and Sandoval follows it up with a seeing-eye single into left. They both move up on a wild pitch, and Krick ropes his fourth hit of the night into right for an RBI single to tie it 6-6. Big lefty Jason Wheeler comes in and doesn’t fair any better. He hits Kellen Hoime in the side to load the bases, and Metzger’s hot shot to second bounces out of second baseman Johnson’s glove to score two unearned. The error obviously gets to Wheeler as he gives up another two run single to T.J. and plunks Lohman. 10-6 Dirtbags!!!!
Top 8th
Lefty senior David Born comes in for McElroy and pounds the strike zone for two weak ground outs and and K. Sure, it’s easy to pitch with a four run lead, but for a team that gave up five in the ninth three days earlier, a 1-2-3 inning after the seventh is certainly something.
Bot 8th
The Dirtbags knock around Wheeler some more and take advantage of more Lion errors for two more runs. 12-6 LBSU
Top 9th
Another lefty Jason Markovitz comes out of the pen, and even though he gave up two hits, Legg to Lohman to Krick (who made the best pick of the night second to Rasco’s pick of Baca) gave the Dirtbags the double play they needed and the win they desperately needed. The offense really woke up after Weathers got tossed, and even though they stranded plenty of runners, they were always threatening. Of course, scoring runs hasn’t been this teams problem this season. It’s been the pitching and specifically the bullpen. But after Lease couldn’t get out of the third, the relief was exactly that as four pitchers combined to not let a Lion past second from the sixth inning on. Back-to-back wins couldn’t have come at a better time for a young team ready to string some victories together.