Long Beach State junior starting pitcher Andrew Gagnon set the tone Friday night with 7 2/3 scoreless innings as the Dirtbags earned a 2-1 win over No. 17-ranked Arizona at Blair Field.
Gagnon (1-1) ended his second start of the year with seven strikeouts, including the last batter he faced, and no walks on 110 pitches.
“I think Andrew was as good as I’ve ever seen him,” LBSU head coach Troy Buckley said. “He was aggressive and he was able to get [non-fastball pitches] over for strikes. I thought [Gagnon’s performance] was fabulous.”
Gagnon consistently got himself out of jams and threw good pitches when he needed to.
“All my pitches were working for me and that was the key for me,” Gagnon said. “It doesn’t matter if anyone is on base; I just keep the same mentality.”
LBSU (2-3) scored what proved to be the winning run in the seventh inning off an Arizona mishap. With freshmen Ino Patron and Jeff Yamaguchi on the corners, Arizona starting pitcher Kurt Heyer balked to score Patron and advance Yamaguchi to second.
Otherwise, Heyer (1-1) turned in a quality performance of his own, going seven innings while tallying four strikeouts and no walks. Like Gagnon, Heyer’s pitch count was above 100.
Trailing 2-0, the Wildcats (3-1) scored their only run of the game in the top of the ninth.
Arizona designated hitter Josh Garcia reached base on sophomore infielder Matt Duffy’s throwing error to begin the inning. Garcia then scored when freshman Johnny Field hit his second double of the night down the third-base line.
Shawn Stuart secured the LBSU victory when he struck out Arizona outfielder Bobby Brown, induced shortstop Alex Mejia to ground out and ended the game with a Bryce Ortega fly out to center field.
“[Stuart] is a pretty cool customer,” Buckley said. “It’s great to get a win because this team deserves one …”
It was Stuart’s second save of the season.
The Dirtbags scored their first run in the bottom of the fourth when leadoff hitter Brennan Metzger lined a single up the middle. Later in the inning, Metzger scored when Duffy lined a hit of his own for the RBI.
Metzger led the Dirtbags offense with a 2-for-4 performance and one run scored.
The second game of the three-game series will be played Saturday at Blair Field. The game time has been moved to 6 p.m. to allow for the greatest opportunity to avoid rains in the Southern California area.
Disclaimer: The Daily 49er is not responsible for Postings made on www.daily49er.wpengine.com. Persons commenting are solely responsible for Postings made on this website. Persons commenting agree to the Terms of Use of the website. If Postings do not abide by the Rules of Conduct or Posting Regulations as listed in the Postings Policy, the Daily 49er has all rights to delete Postings as it deems necessary. The Daily 49er strongly advises individuals to not abuse their First Amendment rights, and to avoid language suggestive of hate speech. This site also encourages users to make Postings relevant to the article or other Postings.