Long Beach State’s starting pitcher junior Darren McCaughan was electric in front of his home crowd at Blair Field on Friday night, beating the Fordham, 6-0.
McCaughan threw six scoreless innings while striking out ten batters and walking only one. The Dirtbags (2-3) Friday night starter matched his career high in strikeouts on a night where he had every pitch in the arsenal working for him.
“Honestly, I didn’t even know how many [strikeouts] I had,” McCaughan said. “I always try to get a ground ball with the first pitch and when I do get two strikes on a batter, I definitely go for the punch-out and don’t want him to hang around.”
The Dirtbags’ offense got started in the bottom of the first inning, scoring four runs on two hits against Fordham’s (1-3) starting pitcher Mike Cowell.
Junior Brock Lundquist singled to bring home sophomore Jarren Duran for the first run of the game.
Later in the inning, LBSU had runners on second and third with no outs when senior first baseman Daniel Jackson flew out to deep center field scoring not one, but both runs on the play.
Lundquist was the runner on second and never broke his stride on his way to the plate after being sent home by third base coach Greg Bergeron and sliding in safely just ahead of the throw home.
“I tagged up and just ran hard to third base,” said Lundquist. “Bergeron was waving me home and I was a little surprised but that’s why you run hard.”
The Dirtbags’ offense went stagnant the next five innings but McCaughan was able to cruise through the Fordham offense without allowing a single run.
“Darren is at his best when you see a lot of ground balls,” said head coach Troy Buckley. “His slider was better tonight but his ‘bread and butter’ is the sinker which he threw very well tonight.”
McCaughan was relieved by freshman pitcher Connor Riley, making his team leading third appearance on the mound. Riley came in and struck out two Rams in a clean seventh inning.
The Dirtbags added two more runs in the seventh inning after Duran reached on a bunt single and advanced to second base on an error with one out.
Buckley sent junior pinch hitter Lucas Tancas to the plate who singled through the infield. Duran scored on the play after another throwing error by the Rams and Tancas advanced all the way to third base.
The next batter was Rasmussen who hit a booming sacrifice fly into right field, allowing Tancas to score easily and extend the lead to six runs. Rasmussen has now recorded an RBI in all of the first five games for the Dirtbags.
Junior relief pitcher Sebastian Sanchez got the last six outs of the game after two scoreless innings and struck out one Fordham batter.
McCaughan received credit for the win after a great performance and improved his record to 1-1.
“He was better tonight than he was against Oklahoma,” Buckley said. “He made pitches tonight and that’s what he’s going to have to do.”
In his first time leading off this season, Duran reached base safely five times going 3 for 3 with a triple, double, and two walks scoring two runs. The Dirtbags previously featured Jackson in the top spot of the order but made the change Friday night.
“We had to move some things around,” Buckley said. “I’m really happy for him. He got a chance to get the barrel to the ball now and his speed causes a lot of havoc out there.”
“I was happy to be back in the leadoff spot since that is where I was last year,” said Duran. “I felt like I got right back into the groove.”
Looking to keep momentum on their side, LBSU will start junior right handed pitcher John Sheaks (0-1 5.06) against Fordham on Saturday. Sheaks’ last outing on Feb. 19 resulted in a loss against the Sooners in Oklahoma.
Game two against the Fordham Rams starts at 2p.m. at Blair Field on Saturday.