A gloomy Saturday at Blair Field resulted in a tough loss for the No. 8 Long Beach State Dirtbags who were lost to Cal Poly, 6-3.
The Mustangs evened the three game series behind a strong pitching performance from sophomore starting pitcher Spencer Howard who only made one mistake in seven innings against the Dirtbags.
“Best arm we’ve seen in a long time,” head coach Troy Buckley said. “[Howard] was 91-94 [mph fastball] with a really good feel for his changeup. He threw a lot of strikes and had great fastball command.”
LBSU (29-15-1, 14-3 Big West) jumped out to its second early lead in as many games against Cal Poly (21-24, 9-5 Big West) when junior catcher David Banuelos crushed a 2-run homerun in the bottom of the second inning. Banuelos’ seventh homer came on a 3-2 fastball after he was down 0-2 and laid off some tough pitches from Howard.
“I wanted to be on time with the fastball and maybe catch something off-speed out in front,” Banuelos said. “I’m strong enough to be able to pull that pitch out and was able to lay off of his pitches.”
The two runs were the only allowed by Howard all game. LBSU was held scoreless for the next six innings against Howard who was tough all day during his winning performance for Cal Poly (7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 4 Ks).
“After giving up the home run, he settled down and gave us some quality innings against a very good Long Beach State offense,” Cal Poly head coach Larry Lee said. “It seemed like he was unphased by the early deficit and took the game pitch-by-pitch after that and it worked.”
It didn’t take long for Cal Poly to answer with a blow of their own; a solo shot off the bat of freshman second baseman Scott Ogrin. The home run came on the first pitch that Dirtbags’ junior starter John Sheaks threw in the top of the third.
Sheaks flirted with danger throughout the course of his start getting 13 fly ball outs compared to three outs via ground ball. That statistic came back to bite him again in the top of the sixth when senior first baseman Michael Sanderson hit a solo home run of his own that tied the game at two.
“He was up in the zone, flat, and [Cal Poly] had really good passes on him,” Buckley said. “He has some work to do get back to getting the ball under the bat so [hitters] can hit the ball on the ground against him.”
Both home runs were the only mistakes Sheaks made in the game; 5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 K.
Cal Poly scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning against sophomore relief pitcher Eli Villalobos. A strikeout with two outs and a runner on first got away from Banuelos behind the plate and extended the inning.
The uncharacteristic miscue by the Dirtbags’ catcher was ruled a passed ball and it allowed Sanderson to come to the plate and line a go-ahead, 2-RBI double that gave Cal Poly a 4-2 lead.
“I just booted it,” Banuelos said. “That’s all on me right there.”
The next batter was sophomore third baseman Nick Meyer who drove in Sanderson with a two out single and just like that, the Mustangs went ahead 5-2.
Both teams added a run in the ninth but Cal Poly’s sophomore reliever Michael Clark closed out the game with his ninth save of the season.
Tied at one game a piece, the series now falls into the hands of both team’s Sunday starters when the Mustangs and Dirtbags go at it in game three at 1 p.m. LBSU will send senior Dave Smith (5-1, 1.65 ERA) to the mound and will be countered by sophomore Bobby Ay (1-4, 4.89 ERA).