Blair Field was buzzing Saturday night and Dirtbags baseball was just part of the reason.
With the initials “DH” inscribed in chalk in the dirt behind home plate, Jake Thompson attacked UC Davis hitters with the same fervor Dallas Humphreys fights his leukemia.
The 11-year old East Long Beach PONY baseball player has been hospitalized with the disease and is a family friend of Thompson’s. All LBSU starters donned red “DH 6” armbands and his struggle has really hit home as two Dirtbag relievers have lost family members to cancer already this season.
With Dallas in their hearts, the Dirtbags (22-20, 9-5 Big West Conference) did what they do best — got great starting pitching, played tough defense and found a way to grind out some runs.
Thompson (4-5) went 7 2/3 strong innings in a 5-2 win in front of an electric crowd of 1,776 that started pouring in early to donate bone marrow and to get their hands on an Evan Longoria bobblehead. A proposal in the middle of the fourth inning only added to the excitement.
“I felt I had a little more drive,” Thompson said of pitching for Dallas. “So in the back of my head I had something to go to. I wrote his initials on my hat and on my glove, so I would look at that and it would give me a little extra push.”
He worked out of jams and kept Aggies hitters off balance by mixing up his pitches. Thompson registered a combination of fly ball and ground ball outs, yielding two runs and eight hits in the process. He struck out five Aggies hitters and walked none but the performance was extra special considering the circumstances.
Thompson has walked just three batters in his last six outings and continues to mature on the mound.
“I’m really trying to minimize runs and maximize innings,” he said. “It’s a complete turnaround from last year [when] I would just go out there and try and strike everybody out.”
UC Davis (7-34, 1-13 Big West) falls to 3-20 on the road but the Aggies went down with a much better fight than in the series opener. Left-hander Dayne Quist (2-4) took the loss but pitched well through 6 1/3 innings, allowing four runs (three earned).
Long Beach stole five bases and has 11 in the first two games.
“I thought our pressure again tonight was good,” head coach Mike Weathers said. “The running game was key … we got guys on and I thought we utilized it well.”
LBSU started the scoring in the bottom of the second. Derek Legg reached on an error, went to second on a sacrifice, stole third and scored on a one-out double by TJ Mittelstaedt.
LBSU looked as though it may blow the game open after Taylor Krick walked and Kellen Hoime was plunked in the back to load the bases, but Quist struck out Jordan Casas and Jonathan Jones to end the threat.
The Dirtbags extended their lead to 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth. Krick singled with two outs and went to third after he stole second and the catcher’s throw went into center field. Hoime’s line drive into right-center plated Krick.
Krick was involved in some more two-out magic in the sixth. With Brennan Metzger on second after a walk and stolen base, Krick hit a slicing liner into right-center and a failed diving attempt failed by the center fielder gave him a double and RBI.
Davis finally got on the board in the seventh on a groundout by Joseph Medeiros. Kyle Mihaylo came into score after a double and ground out put him on third.
LBSU responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh. Casas hit a bloop over short to chase Quist. With Jones up, he stole second and scored when Jones roped a double into the left field corner. Jones came around to score on back-to-back wild pitches with Steve Tinoco at the plate to give the Dirtbags a 5-1 lead.
Davis got the final tally in the eighth when Justin Shafer led off the frame with a double and scored on a ground out two batters later. Shafer finished 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles.
Krick was 2-for-3 for The Beach out of the eighth spot in the lineup. Charlie Ruiz got his 10th save by striking out the side in the ninth.
The Dirtbags go for their third sweep of the season at 1 p.m. tomorrow. Andrew Gagnon (3-5, 5.50 ERA) is scheduled to pitch for LBSU while Scott Chew (1-5, 4.38 ERA) will go for the Aggies.