Baseball, Men's Sports, Sports

Dirtbags win games one and two against Hawai’i

The No. 8 Long Beach State Dirtbags jumped out to a 2-0 lead in their Big West Conference series against Hawai’i after another dominant home start from junior pitcher Darren McCaughan and a high-powered performance from the offense.

Friday’s game one headline was “masterful McCaughan,” as the LBSU ace pitcher threw eight scoreless innings and struck out eight batters in the Dirtbags’ 2-1 win.

“I did a good job pitching with guys on base,” McCaughan said. “Not too many [Hawai’i baserunners] made it to third base and that’s what it’s about. Sometimes you have to grind your way through it.”

McCaughan did allow seven hits to Hawai’i (26-21, 8-12 Big West) but as he said, not a single base runner made it to third base against him in the game on his way to a team-leading eighth win.

“He pitched well in traffic all night,” Dirtbags head coach Troy Buckley said. “They got the lead off guy on base five out of the eight innings he pitched, but he found a way to make pitches and get out of jams.”

Buckley and the coaching staff opted to send McCaughan back to the mound for the top of the eighth inning, even though he had already thrown 105 pitches. The Dirtbags’ starter induced a ground ball to junior second baseman Jarren Duran who fielded, tagged the base runner and made throw to cap off McCaughan’s stellar night.

Though LBSU has a good chance to be a NCAA Regional tournament host in June, there is still a chance that the 2,382 Dirtbags fans in attendance watched their golden-haired ace throw his sinker at Blair field for the last time.

“Hopefully it wasn’t,” McCaughan said. “I had the whole family out here tonight. I did think about it a little bit, but I think it pumped me up more than anything.”

LBSU’s game two starter, junior John Sheaks, had his shortest outing of the season on Saturday after he lasted just one inning on the mound. Sheaks was removed from the game after giving up three hits including a 2-run home run to Hawai’i catcher Kekai Rios.

“He wasn’t very good at all,” Buckley said. “He was up [in the strike zone] and he didn’t have very good body language so we had to make a change for the sake of the team.”

It was military appreciation day at Blair Field and part of the pre-game festivities included the unfolding of a giant American flag on the field by players from both LBSU and Hawai’i. One of those players was sophomore relief pitcher Tyler Radcliffe.

There was a malfunction with the flag that prevented the players from bringing it onto the field. Radcliffe was helping put the flag back into the loading truck when he heard that Sheaks had the rough first inning.

“All of a sudden we hear ‘Sheaks is struggling’ and apparently my name was called to get warmed up,” Radcliffe said. “I had to sprint to the bullpen to get warmed up as fast as I could so it was a little more fast-paced than I was used to.”

Radcliffe threw four scoreless innings until he allowed two runs in the top of the sixth inning and was pulled from the game. Saturday was the third straight outing that he was called on for long relief and has done a great job since being put into that role.

The Dirtbags’ offense responded to the early Hawai’i lead with a 3-run bottom of the second inning. Sophomore center fielder Brooks Stotler hit a 2-run single that tied the game with two outs.

The offense went on to lead the Dirtbags to an 8-4 victory.

Stotler finished the day 2-for-3 with two RBIs and one run scored. Junior third baseman Ramsey Romano had a multi-hit game as well (2-3, 1 RBI, 1 run).

Junior shortstop Laine Huffman was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and drove a run in as well.

LBSU clinched its ninth straight weekend series in 2017 with the victory on Saturday. The Dirtbags will be looking for their sixth series sweep of the season when senior pitcher Dave Smith (7-1, 1.77 ERA) battles against Jackson Reese (5-1, 3.77 ERA) of Hawai’i.

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