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The Long Beach State Dirtbags picked a strange time to suffer their worst defeat of the year as No. 16 UC Irvine thumped the home team 18-3 on Friday night at Bohl Diamond at Blair Field.
It’s the first time the Dirtbags (22-23-1, 8-14) have dipped under .500 this season and the defeat came after a pregame ceremony to retire No. 36 for legendary pitcher Jered Weaver.
UC Irvine (36-10, 16-6) scored five runs in the third and eighth innings while mashing 17 hits.
“As weird as this season has been, that’s the first time that we just got completely licked,” Dirtbags coach Bryan Peters said. “Most of the time they’ve been competitive games. Rather than focusing on what happened today I’m going to choose to just flush that one. I’ve been on the side of a game where one team got their butts kicked one day and then came back the next day and did the opposite and kicked the other team’s butt.”
A bright spot for the Dirtbags was catcher John Newman Jr. and his team-leading 11th home run of the season. It came on the first pitch of the bottom of the second inning after the Anteaters took a 3-0 lead. He launched it over the old fence in left center field.
“I’ve said all year that he’s our emotional leader,” Peters said of Newman Jr. “It’s a great response early in the game. That’s the way he is.”
First baseman Jonny Rodriguez and center fielder Alex Champagne were the only Dirtbags with two hits.
The Big West Conference series continues on Bohl Diamond at Blair Field on Saturday at 6 p.m.
