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First-year coach TJ Bruce called his shot and his Long Beach State Dirtbags made sure every button he pushed worked during the season opener against Northwestern Friday night on Bohl Diamond at Blair Field.
Bruce is a Long Beach native who grew up learning about the way coach Dave Snow’s first Dirtbags teams played their gritty style, and then played for and coached with Mike Weathers at Long Beach State. He’s spent the last few months spreading the word that he would bring back the Dirtbags tradition. That’s why Snow and Weathers threw out the ceremonial first pitch, and that’s why Bruce looked back at the stands to find his mentors giving a standing ovation as Bruce’s team took a first inning lead with classic Dirtbags small-ball style.
“That’s in our DNA, that’s Long Beach and that’s how we do things,” Bruce said. “We just have to get to first base.”
The three-run first inning sparked a historic 19-6 win that delighted the boisterous home crowd. The 19 runs is the most ever in a season opener during the modern Dirtbags era.
“(Bruce) is bringing back that Dirtbag mentality so it’s an expectation to play hard so that’s what we’re going to do,” said Armando Briseno, who hit a grand slam homer as part of a nine-run fifth inning.
“All of the guys pulled together today and it was fun to watch,” catcher Connor Stewart added. “That’s 19 runs and that’s a team effort for (Bruce).”
Stewart, center fielder Alex Champagne, right fielder Kyle Ashworth, third baseman Dylan Lina and pinch hitter Luke Taylor each had two hits. Briseno led the way with a game-high three hits, five RBI and four runs. Stewart and Taylor both had four RBI.
“Our offense was super relentless,” Bruce said. “I was more impressed with the one inning when we had three base hits to the right side off a left handed pitcher. That shows discipline. That’s part of our core values.”
The Dirtbags finished with 13 hits and 13 walks while only striking out eight times.
“We came ready to play,” Lina said. “We had the energy and the crowd behind us. We just did what we had to do.”
Junior starter Kellan Montgomery (4.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 5 K, 2 BB) was one of six Dirtbags pitchers to take the mound. Erick Diez and Austin Puett each had a pair of strikeouts in an inning of work out of the bullpen.
The Dirtbags put up a crooked number in each of the first three innings, and that all started when Champagne was hit by the first pitch he saw. Connor Charpiot then worked a walk and Ashworth dropped a perfect bunt single to load the bases. First baseman Nathan Cadena brought Champagne home with a deep sacrifice fly, and Briseno brought two more runs home with a clean single to center field.
Lina launched a solo home run to left center field in the second inning, and left fielder Connor Charpiot’s RBI sacrifice fly later in the inning gave LBSU a 5-0 lead.
Northwestern got on the scoreboard with two runs in the third inning, but Ashworth ended the rally by cutting down a runner at home with a strong throw. Ashworth then led off the bottom of the inning with a walk, and eventually Stewart drilled a bases loaded triple to left that pushed the lead to 8-2.
Lina also had a great defensive play with a bare hand throw to first in the fifth inning.
“We go hard in practice, we work on these things, so I feel like once game time comes it’s easy for us,” Lina said.
The Dirtbags broke the game open in the bottom of the fifth with nine runs that included Briseno’s grand slam over the left field wall.
“I try to do my job and not be too big in the moment,” Briseno said. “Everyone has their part to do, so I just show up every day and do what I have to do, and that’s all I can do.”
The season opening series continues Saturday at 4 p.m.
“We can’t get complacent,” Stewart said. “We have to come out tomorrow and have the same attitude we did today and good things will happen.”
