Blair Field has become known as anything but a hitter’s park with its 387-foot power alleys. Yet, after this weekend No. 18 Cal Poly might be thinking about moving in.
Long Beach State dropped the final game of the weekend series with the Mustangs, 9-3, in the Dirtbags’ home finale on Sunday.
Cal Poly (35-17, 13-8 Big West Conference) scored 27 runs over the three-game span, and also had 11 extra-base hits in the series.
The Dirtbags (25-26, 11-10 Big West) found themselves on the wrong side of a six-run fourth inning.
The Mustangs smashed three consecutive doubles — Cal Poly had five in the game — as they blew the game wide open in the inning. Cal Poly designated hitter Luke Yoder got it started with the first double of the inning. Center fielder Ryan Lee and second baseman Adam Buschini then added their doubles for Cal Poly.
The big inning has been an Achilles’ heel for LBSU this season. Sunday’s contest was just one of many instances this year where the Dirtbags have found themselves in too deep of a hole to come back.
“Good hitting will really beat bad pitching,” head coach Mike Weathers said. “In those big six-run innings you usually don’t come back.”
Freshman starter Drew Gagnon (3-6) was never able to settle in and lasted only 3 2/3 innings for LBSU. The right-hander surrendered seven runs on seven hits to the Mustangs as he received the loss.
“[Cal Poly] beat our young guys up pretty good, Thompson and Gagnon,” Weathers said. “They’re not throwing the ball where it’s called, and the ball is up in the zone.”
Derek Legg, TJ Mittelstaedt (2-for-3 with a run scored), and Kirk Singer each had two hits for the Dirtbags in the game. Singer (2-for-4) and Legg (2-for-5) also had two of the three LBSU RBIs.
Jordan Casas went 1-for-5 in the game, but was playing with an injured index finger that he hurt on Friday.
Mason Radeke (6-1) had an impressive performance on the mound for Cal Poly as he allowed three runs on nine hits in eight innings pitched.
Yoder led Cal Poly on offense as he went 3-for-4 with three runs scored. Lee went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and an RBI.
Cal Poly scored the first run of the afternoon when Bobby Crocker smashed a double to center field that scored Yoder in the top of the second inning.
Singer, the man of the weekend for the Dirtbags, then lined a single up the middle to score Kellen Hoime — who doubled to reach base — to tie the game 1-1 in the bottom of the second.
The Mustangs took the lead, which they would never relinquish, in the top of the third inning on a sacrifice fly by Adam Melker that scored Lee from third base.
LBSU scored its other two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning and bottom of the eighth inning, respectively.
Even though the Dirtbags are most likely going to miss the postseason, the team still believes it has a lot to play for. Most importantly, it might be that they don’t want to become the first Dirtbag team to have a losing record in 20 years.
“We don’t want to be the first team under .500 in Dirtbag history,” Weathers said.
“As a team we still have something to accomplish,” Casas said. “We don’t want to go under .500 as a team, so we have that. And it’s Fullerton … we look forward to this every year. In our minds we’re not going in there lightly.”
LBSU will finish the 2009 campaign with a three-game series at Cal State Fullerton starting on Friday. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Goodwin Field.