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Sports have a way of punishing you for squandered opportunities.
The Long Beach State Dirtbags learned that lesson again on Friday night in a 3-1 loss to Cal Poly on Bohl Diamond at Blair Field.
The Dirtbags left three runners in scoring position in the first two innings, and then loaded the bases with no outs in the third inning but failed to score. Cal Poly proceeded to score all three of its runs in the top of the fourth inning and that was enough to take the first game of the Big West Conference series.
“The game checks you when you need to be checked and we need to do a better job of paying attention,” Dirtbags coach TJ Bruce said. “We were 1-for-6 with a runner at third base, and when you combine that with (striking out nine times) that’s three innings so we really only played six innings of offense. That makes it really hard to win games.”
Left fielder and leadoff hitter Kyle Ashworth was the only Dirtbag with two hits while the 3-4-5 hitters went a combined 0-for-11 on the night.
The bright spots for the Dirtbags were on the mound. Starting pitcher Kellan Montgomery scattered five hits over five innings and struck out four while suffering his first loss of the season. The home run and unearned run in the fourth were the only damage. The bullpen was fantastic as Cristien Banda, Joey Iglesias and Albert Roblez combined to pitch four scoreless innings. Roblez struck out five batters in two innings.
“Normally when you give up three runs or less at Blair Field you win a lot of games,” said Bruce, who thinks his team is better than their 6-11 overall and 1-3 Big West record. “There’s a lot of us that feel that way, but I’m not so sure how (the team) feels inside. As I told them, the only thing you can do is keep showing up. There’s no magic pill they can take or magic speech we can give. They have to have belief in themselves and in their preparation.”
Cal Poly (11-6, 4-0) broke through against Montgomery with its first hit in the fourth inning before Jack Collins blasted his 2-run homer over the left field wall. The Mustangs added an unearned run for the 3-0 lead.
The Dirtbags showed some fight down the stretch and had the bases loaded in the seventh inning with no outs. One run came across on a balk, but a ground out, pop out and strikeout killed the rally. Long Beach also brought the game-tying run to the plate in the ninth inning but Alex Champagne’s ground out ended the game.
Cal Poly starter Griffin Naess (6 IP, 4 H, 4 K, 2 BB) got the win and Tanner Sagouspe (1 IP, K, BB) picked up his third save.
Friday’s game was delayed an hour and a half because of the rain, and is series is scheduled to continue on Saturday at 6 p.m.
“Specifically with the older guys, you can see the weight of the world on them,” Bruce said of the Dirtbags offensive struggles. “We’re doing our best to alleviate that but at some point you just have to perform.”
