Junior starting pitcher Darren McCaughan looked as dominant as he has all year in No. 19 Long Beach State’s 8-0 Big West conference win against UC Riverside on Friday.
The Dirtbags’ (18-11, 3-1) ace set a new career high in strikeouts with 13, issued zero walks and only allowed 3 hits in eight innings.
“I was just trying to get outs within the first three pitches [to each batter],” McCaughan said. “If it’s strikeouts, ground balls, whatever it is I’ll take it.”
McCaughan’s pitch count reached 108 after he struck out UCR’s freshman second baseman Skyler de Los Reyes looking with a fastball that registered at 88 mph on the radar gun. “Dee-Mac” was pouring in strikes all night long and finished with 77.
“He was really pounding the zone with his fastball which was the plan of attack tonight,” pitching coach Dan Ricabal said. “He had really good sink and commanded the lower half of the strike zone. When he had count leverage on his side, he was able to stretch the zone a little bit and ended up with a high number of strikeouts.”
McCaughan (3-2, 3.02 ERA) sat down the last four batters he faced via strikeout to put an exclamation point on his impressive outing. The junior has shown two types of pitching styles this season; pitching to contact to generate weak ground balls with his sinker and getting ahead in the count then going for the kill via strike out.
“I’m a big fan of both,” McCaughan said with a grin. “Either way, I like going deep into games however it happens.”
The home crowd of 1,493 on hand at Blair Field was also treated to plenty of Dirtbags offense including a big three-run bottom of the first inning. UCR’s senior starting pitcher Alex Fagalde (5-1, 3.07 ERA) had some bad luck in that opening inning as LBSU dropped in two lazy but well-placed base hits that led to the scoring.
In the bottom of the second, junior shortstop Laine Huffman led off against Fagalde and hit a towering solo home run on a 2-1 fastball that caught too much of the plate. It was Huffman’s first career home run.
“I was on time and put a good swing on it and the ball happened to go out,” Huffman said. “Putting runs up on the board early with [McCaughan] on the mound is huge. You see what he did tonight.”
Junior third baseman Ramsey Romano finished the game 2 for 4 with five RBIs.
junior Luke Rasmussen, the Dirtbags’ designated hitter, was also 2 for 4 with an RBI that incited the Dirtbags’ three-run first inning.
LBSU will be back on the field Saturday at 2 p.m. for game two against UCR (12-13, 1-3). Junior John Sheaks (3-1, 3.79 ERA) will make his eighth start of the year against UCR’s sophomore left hander Hazahel Quijada (2-3, 4.33 ERA).