Long Beach State University
0-6
Nevada
5-1
Dirtbags Can’t Dig Out of Early Hole, Drop 5-3 Decision to Nevada
2/23/2019 10:15:00 PM | Baseball
Long Beach State got some offense going early, but were outdone by the visiting Wolf Pack who put up five runs in the first two innings and made it stick in a 5-3 victory for Nevada on Saturday night on Bohl Diamond at Blair Field.
LONG BEACH, Calif. – Most of the scoring took place in the first two innings on Saturday night, and unfortunately for the Dirtbags (0-6), most of the spoils went to the visitors as Nevada (5-1) took a 5-2 lead in the second inning and held on for a 5-3 series-clinching victory.
It was good to see seniors Laine Huffman and John Sheaks back in the starting lineup together for the first time since the 2017 season, and the results were mixed. The Wolf Pack jumped on Sheaks early, going after his first competitive pitch in nearly 20 months for a leadoff single that led to a three-run top of the first inning. In total, Sheaks allowed four runs on three hits in his one trip through the Nevada batting order.
For Huffman, he delivered Long Beach State's first run of the night with a sharply hit RBI single to score Brooks Stotler in the bottom half of the inning. He would score later in the inning on a bases-loaded RBI groundout from Chase Luttrell to cut the deficit to 3-2 after one. Nevada would tack on two more runs in the second inning and hold on from there. Luttrell would score a run on a wild pitch in the fourth inning to represent the only other run of the night.
Junior Zak Baayoun covered 6.2 innings in relief of Sheaks, allowing one run on two hits with six strikeouts, though he did walk four batters. Freshman Jonathan Carlos worked around a single in a scoreless ninth inning out of the Dirtbags bullpen.
Huffman, Luttrell and Victor Carlino all made their first starts of the season for the Dirtbags, and Riki DeSa got his first at-bat for Long Beach State, but the offense has yet to hit its stride in the early stage of the season.
Long Beach State will look to take the series finale on Sunday at 1 p.m. with freshman LHP Alfredo Ruiz (0-1, 3.86 ERA) set to take the hill. Nevada's starter has not been announced for Sunday. Fans in attendance will receive a 2019 Dirtbags poster and there will be an autograph session following Sunday's game.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: SHARTS, Owen (2-0)
L: Sheaks, John (0-1)
S: BONNENFANT, Bradley (1)
Batting:
2B: SHRUM, Dillan 1
3B: FOSTER, Kaleb 1
RBI: SHRUM, Dillan 2 ; FOSTER, Kaleb 2
SH: TILLEY, Wyatt 1 ; SEAMONS, Nick 1
Base Running:
RUNS: ZAMORA, Joshua 2 ; TILLEY, Wyatt 2 ; SHRUM, Dillan 1
SB: ZAMORA, Joshua 1
HBP: FOSTER, Kaleb 1
Batting:
RBI: Huffman, Laine 1 ; Luttrell, Chase 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Stotler, Brooks 1 ; Huffman, Laine 1 ; Luttrell, Chase 1
CS: Joy, Cole 1
HBP: Hughey, Jacob 1
