No. 12 Long Beach State has received nothing but quality from their starting pitching in the last three weeks and it was junior John Sheaks that carried that trend into Friday. The Dirtbags won their eighth straight game and shutout Cal State Northridge 4-0 thanks to seven scoreless innings from Sheaks in game two of the Big West Conference series.
“[My] fastball and my slider was working best for me tonight,” Sheaks said. “I was able to get ahead with the fastball and got them to chase the slider. Our pitching has really solidified us lately and has carried us to this point.”
Sheaks was in command all night and generated a lot of weak contact from CSUN (16-20, 3-5). The Dirtbags’ (22-11, 7-1) defense almost played its third straight error free game, if not for an for a bobble by junior third baseman Ramsey Romano in the bottom of the ninth, behind Sheaks who got 11 fly outs and seven ground ball outs.
“The pitchers are pounding the bottom of the zone and we’ve been getting a lot of ground balls out of [Darren] McCaughan, [Dave] Smith and Sheaks,” head coach Troy Buckley said. “When [the defense] gets fed like that, they’re going to be ready to eat. These pitchers are generating a lot of early contact and the defense has been ready.”
Junior catcher David Banuelos delivered the big blow when he crushed a towering 2-run home run over the second fence in left field. Banuelos battled back from being down in the count 0-2 and made CSUN starting pitcher Samuel Myers pay on a 3-2 fastball.
Junior catcher David Banuelos crushes a 2-run home run in the second inning during Long Beach State’s 4-0 win Friday at Blair Field. The homer was the junior’s fifth of the season to tie for team lead.
“The pitcher was trying to mess with my timing, but I think I did a good job of controlling that at bat,” Banuelos said. “I was able to lay off the good pitches that he was trying to get me out with and he ended up making one mistake and I was able to do some damage to it.”
In the bottom of the fourth, sophomore center fielder Garrett Nelson hit a single through the right side of the infield with two outs that allowed junior left fielder Lucas Tancas to score. The RBI single was part of Nelson’s 1 for 3 night at the plate and extended the Dirtbags’ lead to 3-0.
Senior relief pitcher Josh Advocate came into the game in the top of the eighth and recorded the final six outs, four via strikeout, to earn his fourth save of the season.
LBSU will being going for its ninth straight victory tomorrow as senior Dave Smith (3-1, 0.62 ERA) will face Andrew Weston (3-1, 3.91 ERA) in game three of the series. The Dirtbags will also be looking to close out their fourth straight sweep in home series this season. First pitch at Blair Field is scheduled for 2 p.m.