FULLERTON — The way Long Beach State lost to rival Cal State Fullerton on Sunday seemed to sum up the way the up-and-down season went for the Dirtbags.
An 11-run third inning by the Titans that included eight unearned runs allowed CSF to complete the sweep.
“It’s frustrating, it’s typical of what we’ve been all year … our pitchers pitching behind in the count. We had eight walks tonight, hit batters and we didn’t play defense again,” head coach Mike Weathers said. “A big inning caught us because we couldn’t catch a ball.”
LBSU (25-29, 11-13 Big West Conference) dropped the season finale, 15-3, to fourth-ranked CSF in front of 2,441 at Goodwin Field.
The loss marked the Dirtbags ninth in its last 10 games, a lull that ended any shot of reaching the postseason.
“It’s a frustrating year no question, but at the same time if they take something out of this, hopefully it makes them stronger next year,” Weathers said.
CSF broke open the game in the bottom of the third scoring 11 runs — eight coming with two outs — on just four hits.
The Titans (42-14, 17-7 Big West) batted around the order and had the bases loaded for what seemed like the entire inning.
This made the outing for Titans starting pitcher Tyler Pill (10-3) that much easier. Pill pitched four innings, giving up one earned run while striking out four to pick up the win.
“When you get behind that much you can’t run, and that’s what we do,” Weathers said. “This [the Titans] is too good of a team.”
The Dirtbags had a pair of chances to stop the Fullerton onslaught, but an error by Derek Legg moments after an error by Kirk Singer kept the inning alive.
In his second at-bat of the inning, Khris Davis put the proverbial exclamation point on the inning for the Titans when he jolted a two-run home run to bring home Jared Clark. The previous batter, Clark, roped a two-run single to right.
Davis went 1-for-5 with three RBIs while Clark went 2-for-2 with two RBIs.
LBSU starting pitcher Andrew Gagnon (3-7) worked his way out of jams early in the game, including a key strikeout with a runner in scoring position to escape the first inning.
But during CSF’s third inning outburst, he made several mistakes including hitting two batters and walking two. All the momentum was then on CSF’s side.
The LBSU righty threw just 2 2/3 innings, giving up three earned runs (six total) and five hits while striking out three and walking three.
Taylor Krick got the Dirtbags on the board in the fourth when he roped a single to right field to score Steve Tinoco, who singled to lead off the inning.
The Dirtbags tacked on a couple more runs later in the ballgame, including an RBI single by Singer after a Jonathan Jones leadoff triple in the fifth and a Legg RBI single in the seventh.
Jones went 3-for-3 with two runs scored.