The Dirtbags can’t seem to find a break on the young season, and it was even more evident Saturday at Blair Field.
Long Beach State had a forgettable ninth inning as it fell at the hands of the visiting Washington State Cougars, 8-5, to go down 0-2 in the weekend series.
LBSU had five strikeouts, but gave up five runs in a strange ninth inning. Dirtbag reliever Charlie Ruiz (1-1) had four of those strikeouts, but he took the loss as he had three wild pitches.
The Dirtbags (4-9) had a 5-3 lead entering the inning, and head coach Mike Weathers couldn’t remember such an ending.
“I don’t think I’ve had a guy strikeout four [batters] in one inning and get the loss,” Weathers said. “It was pretty unusual. When you have those innings, it’s just not that inning. There were other things that went on before that … the at-bats in the eighth inning when we didn’t score an extra run, or some of our unaggressive baserunning.”
Cougars designated hitter Michael Weber lifted a line drive over the head of Tre Dennis to bring in the first of the five WSU runs. A strikeout that turned into a wild pitch led to the tying run coming across the plate. Dirtbag catcher John Hill had trouble blocking the split finger pitch from Ruiz that led to the three wild pitches and one passed ball in the inning.
“We have a guy that has a real good split finger [pitch] in Ruiz, and John Hill had a tough time blocking it,” Weathers said. “And that’s something that our guys have been aware of, and they know that he’s got that … but today we couldn’t get it done by keeping it in front.”
Another wild pitch strikeout sent the sixth run across the plate, and then WSU catcher Greg Lagreid lined a single to center field to bring around the next two runs to give the Cougars the 8-5 lead.
The Dirtbags had started off the game well, though, by utilizing base hits, solid pitching and free passes. LBSU had four hit batsmen in the game.
After allowing three runs through the first four innings, WSU (5-8) was held scoreless for the next four by the Dirtbags’ pitching staff, led by Adam Wilk.
The left-hander used 102 pitches to get through seven innings of work, which ties for his longest outing this season. He allowed three runs on eight hits, while striking out three, in his time on the mound.
“I think we know he threw well, but for three consecutive innings we scored and he put zeroes on the board,” Weathers said. “And that’s what our pitchers have to do. When we score they have to shut them [the opponent] down.”
A positive for the Dirtbags was that their bats returned for this contest as they put 11 hits on the board, after only recording five on Friday.
Wilk had a shaky start to the first inning, and WSU took advantage by pushing a run across on a sacrifice fly by Lagreid, after two hits by the Cougars. Wilk was able to get back-to-back fly outs to end the Cougar threat.
The Dirtbags didn’t have quite as much luck in their half of the inning as they could muster only one hit by shortstop Devon Lohman. Lohman’s hit would go for not, though, as the sophomore was thrown out while trying to steal second base to end the inning.
Wilk began to find his stride in second inning as the southpaw would retire the next six batters in a row and eight consecutive hitters at one point.
The LBSU offense did its best to put together a rally in the second inning with consecutive hits by Matt Avery and Steve Tinoco, but the Dirtbags would come away without any runs.
Both offenses came alive in the fourth inning as the Cougars and Dirbags both put two runs on the board in the frame.
WSU scored their first run of the inning on a high-bouncing single that went over the head of Dirtbag third baseman Rylan Sandoval to score one run. The Cougars’ second run came on a base hit to right field that scored Lagreid.
The Dirtbags also put two runs on the scoreboard in the fourth inning. They took a 4-3 lead in the sixth inning when Dennis dropped a base hit into center field that scored Hill from second. They added an insurance run in the in the seventh to take a 5-3 lead into the eighth inning where both teams went scoreless.
The Dirtbags are in action on Sunday at Blair Field when they play the last game of the three-game series with the Cougars. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.