The Dirtbags bullpen struggled in their 8-2 loss to Loyola Marymount, pushing the Dirtbags back under .500.
The Dirtbags (15-16) struck first in the third inning. After a groundout, Colby Brenner was hit by a pitch. Buckley called a hit and run with the true freshman Garrett Hampson, and Hampson delivered with a double down the left field line. Ino Patron grounded out to second, but scored Brenner from third to give the Dirtbags a 1-0 lead over the Lions (19-14).
“I don’t think [Hampson’s] a freshman anymore” head coach Troy Buckley said. “He’s arguably our best player on the field.”
Dirtbag starter Ryan Millison went four strong innings, only allowing two base runners and striking out two. Millison came into the game with a 0.92 ERA and actually lowered it with his four scoreless innings. However, the Dirtbags bullpen did not share the same success.
“[Millison] is throwing the ball well,” Buckley said. “Due to the fact that we’ll use him on the weekends, you can’t really extend him.”
Freshman Cody Marshall came on in the fifth and gave up a home run to LMU second baseman David Edwards, his first of the season. His first inning of work could have been much worse, but his defense had his back. Hampson made an incredible backhanded play in the hole at short, and Colton Vaughn made a diving stop at second to end the inning.
Marshall came back out for the sixth inning and his struggles continued. In the inning, Marshall allowed a walk, four singles and a sac fly. By the time the Dirtbags got out of the inning, they found themselves down 5-1.
Cameron Pongs came in and had his struggles as well, giving up three runs in the eighth to put the Dirtbags down 8-1.
“Just didn’t execute,” Buckley said. “You gotta execute. You gotta get down in the zone, you can’t give up free opportunities. Just little things like that. At times, you’re gonna lose a battle to win a war.”
Ino Patron led off the bottom of the eighth with a double, the 199th hit of his Dirtbag career. He scored on a sac fly to trim the Lions lead to 8-2, which ended up being the final score.
This was the second Tuesday matchup between the Dirtbags and Lions. They squared off at Loyola on March 18, and the Lions also took that one, 4-3.
“There’s a few little bright spots,” Buckley said. “Bottom line is we didn’t play well enough to win.”
The Dirtbags travel to Davis this weekend for a 3-game set against UC Davis. They return home Thursday and open a 3-game conference series against UC Santa Barbara.