Baseball, Men's Sports, Sports

Hot bats lead Dirtbags to sweep of UC Davis

Just when it looked like things were falling apart for the Dirtbags, they put it back together.

After losing a series to Pacific for the first time in the century last weekend, Long Beach State got back in the Big West Conference title race with a sweep of UC Davis.

The Dirtbags (16-18, 6-3 Big West) cruised to three wins at Blair Field, as they outscored the Aggies (11-22, 0-9 Big West) by 14 over the series. However, LBSU head coach Troy Buckley said the sweep wasn’t easy.

“Winning games is hard to do,” he said. “When you can win three games in a row against the same team, you’ve got to give the guys a lot of credit for that.”

The sweep put The Beach in a tie for second in the Big West standings, two games behind conference leader Cal State Fullerton.

“It’s huge for us,” third baseman Juan Avila said. “It’s good to get things rolling in the right direction.”

Friday’s opener saw the LBSU offense erupt for nine runs in the first six innings. Starting pitcher Shane Carle pitched effectively, giving up two runs in six innings, and he earned his first win in nearly two months with the 9-2 victory.

The Dirtbags clinched a series win on Saturday with more of the same. Timely hitting allowed The Beach to drive in six runs while leaving just three runners on base, leading to a 6-4 win.

“I think this was one of the better games they played,” Buckley said. “Our at-bats … were about as good as we’ve seen as far as executing and moving guys along.”

Starting pitcher Jake Stassi earned his team-leading fourth win of the season in what was another impressive outing. He opened the game by throwing less than 20 pitches total in three perfect innings.

“[Stassi] is very aggressive and isn’t afraid of contact,” Buckley said. “We got some early contact, and we got some early outs, so that’s a positive.”

LBSU finished off the sweep in Sunday’s finale thanks to some early scoring. The Dirtbags scored a total of five runs over the second, third and fourth innings to give starting pitcher David Hill a comfortable lead to work with.

“I think [the lineup] is flowing,” Buckley said. “I think when things are going well, you don’t try to outsmart yourself and switch things around.”

Hill managed to throw five shutout innings despite having to work out of jams in nearly every frame. The Aggies stranded six runners on base while Hill was pitching.

“To come back was a huge positive for him,” Buckley said of Hill, who earned the win in the 7-2 victory. “I wanted to leave him on a good note … because he was dancing on a tightrope a little bit.”

Leading the Dirtbags throughout the series was third baseman Juan Avila, who has had a hot bat since the start of conference play. Avila had five hits and five runs in the series and has gotten hits in nine of ten games played since returning from a finger injury.

“It feels good to get back,” Avila said. “The big difference is to get in a groove, and I wasn’t able to do that before being injured.”

The Dirtbags don’t have a Tuesday night game this week, so they will have to keep their momentum going in practice for a few days before they get back to playing competitively. Next up is a three-game road series with UC Santa Barbara this weekend. The first game is set for 3 p.m. on Friday.

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