If it were any other day, Long Beach State starting pitcher Branden Pinder would have walked away with the win, but UC Santa Barbara’s Jesse Meaux had other plans as he led the Gauchos to a 4-1 victory over the Dirtbags on Sunday.
In the three games prior to Sunday’s contest with UCSB, the Dirtbags (18-18, 6-6 Big West Conference) had amassed 36 runs on 48 hits.
The pitchers decided to not let the offense have all the fun at Blair Field in the final game of a three-game weekend series.
It took less than an hour for the game to get through four innings, but Pinder (3-5) hit his first snag in the top of the fifth inning.
With the bases loaded and two out, Pinder hit the Gauchos’ Ryan Palermo to bring in the game’s first run. The play caused a stir, as the Blair Field crowd of 1,587 fans in attendance didn’t agree with the umpire’s call that the pitch hit Palermo.
Until that inning, Pinder had retired 10 of the first 11 batters he had faced with the only hit coming on an infield single. The sophomore finished with the loss, but only allowed one run on three hits in eight innings of work.
Not to be outdone, UCSB’s (17-17, 4-5 Big West) Meaux retired 12 batters in a row after allowing two base hits in the first inning. The junior picked up the win, but couldn’t earn the Gauchos’ sixth complete-game performance by a pitcher this season.
Meaux (6-2) wasn’t particularly overpowering, but he was still able to get the Dirtbags’ hitters out with groundballs and line-drive outs.
“It’s all about the swings, I thought we had solid contact,” Dirtbags head coach Mike Weathers said. “I didn’t see any capped balls or weak pop-ups. I thought we had good swings.”
Meaux couldn’t retire a batter in the ninth and was replaced after allowing no runs on seven hits on just 90 pitches.
UCSB added three runs in the top of the ninth inning on two infield singles and an error to extend its lead. Meanwhile, LBSU scored its lone run in the bottom of the ninth before ending the game on a double play.
Devin Lohman went 3-for-4 to pace the Dirtbags and extend his hitting streak to 11 games, while Brennan Metzger extended his hitting streak to 17 games with a 1-for-4 day at the plate.
Every LBSU starting pitcher went at least seven innings in the three-game set.
Even with the Dirtbags sealing their second Big West series win, Weathers was not completely satisfied with his players as they failed to complete the series sweep.
“You’re not happy when you don’t sweep and you have the chance,” Weathers said. “Two out of three, that’s not good enough for us. Not when we put ourselves in a position to [sweep]. … You have to start making a move, and we had our first chance today and we couldn’t take advantage of it.”
The Dirtbags will head south for a date with San Diego State (21-20) on Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
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