Long Beach State head coach Mike Weathers said earlier this week that he just wanted a sunny day for his last game as the Dirtbags’ skipper. The sun was shining for the ninth-year head coach, but his team couldn’t come through in the end to send Weathers out with a win on Sunday.
The Dirtbags (23-32, 7-17 Big West Conference) tried, but couldn’t overcome an early four-run deficit and dropped their final game of the season, 4-2, to UC Irvine at Blair Field.
After the contest, Weathers didn’t want to talk about the game that had just taken place, but rather his experiences as the Dirtbags’ head coach.
“The only good thing about today is that we can close the book on me and start the Troy Buckley era,” Weathers joked after the game. “It was great though. I had a lot of good feedback, a lot of people came by and I got a lot of texts.”
Weathers said that many of those text messages came from his former players, including current Colorado Rockies’ shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.
“I still don’t know what to expect,” Weathers said. “Everybody is telling me how great it (retirement) is, and I’m kind of wondering what that means. … That’s what going to change for me next year. No routine.
“I’m anxious to find a new [routine], and something else is going to take that place.”
LBSU starter Jake Thompson, in what will most likely be his last start as a Dirtbag, surrendered three runs in the second inning. UCI (37-19, 17-7 Big West) used three hits and an error by LBSU to score the three runs in the frame to take the 4-0 lead.
“I’ve learned a lot from [Buckley] and Weathers,” Thompson said. “I think that I’m coming out a lot better player than when I came in.”
Thompson is a junior and is projected to be taken high in next month’s Major League Baseball first-year player draft. The 6-foot-3 right hander took the loss on Sunday to finish the season with a 5-4 record.
“Hopefully I’ll go high (in the draft),” Thompson said. “I’m looking forward to it and I’m a little anxious about it. I’m trying not to think about it too much. … The whole reason why I stayed for my junior year was to become physically and mentally more mature for the draft, and I feel like I’m at that point now.”
Thompson still has one year of eligibility left, but he doesn’t expect to come back to LBSU at this point in time.
“Things would have to go really bad in order for me to come back,” Thompson said. “But I feel like they’ve given me all the tools I need to go.”
The second inning proved to be too much as the Dirtbags clawed but could only put two runs on the scoreboard in a failed comeback attempt.
LBSU took advantage of a hit batsman and an error by UCI pitcher Eric Pettis to score two runs in the fifth inning. Aside from that inning, however, Pettis was nearly flawless in his 15th start of the year for the Anteaters.
Pettis (9-3) earned his second complete game of the season on Sunday after allowing just two runs on on nine hits to the Dirtbags. Each Anteaters’ starter went at least eight innings in the series, and two starters went the distance earning complete games.
The series sweep ensured the Dirtbags of a last place finish in the nine-team Big West.
Buckley will assume control of the team and is set to be introduced as head coach at a 1 p.m. press conference on Tuesday.
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