Long Beach State Dirtbags fall short of Big West title

LONG BEACH >> The situation seemed perfect.

Trailing by a run in the bottom of the ninth iing at Blair Field on Saturday, the Long Beach State Dirtbags had their fastest ruer, Jarren Duran, on second base with their top run producer, Garrett Hampson, at the plate with one out.

Instead of a dramatic play that could’ve helped the Dirtbags come back to grab a share of the Big West Conference championship, Hampson struck out and then a ground out gave the visiting Cal State Fullerton Titans a 2-1 win and their second straight conference title. It’s their sixth in the last seven seasons.

The Blair Field attendance of 3,244 on Saturday was the second-most in LBSU program history.

The Titans (35-21, 17-7), who are ranked No. 23 by Baseball America, also eaed the automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals next weekend. The No. 22 Dirtbags (36-20, 15-9) are very confident they will get an at-large bid because of their top-50 RPI and the fact that LBSU has only lost three weekend series this year.

“They put the leadoff guy on in seven iings so they were stressful iings and I think that kept us tight,” LBSU head coach Troy Buckley said. This is the wiingest season in his six years as head coach.

“Good pitching will beat good hitting most of the time, and I thought (Colton Eastman) was special,” Buckley said of the CSUF starter.

The freshman Eastman (8-2) pitched into the ninth iing and only allowed four hits and the one run while striking out nine and not issuing a walk. He made 123 pitches and didn’t give up an extra base hit.

“He lived down in the zone with three pitches and I think we were in-between them all day,” Hampson said. “It’s disappointing because of how close we came (to wiing Big West) but this is the best team I’ve been on and we’re not done.”

After being honored on senior day, Taer Brown took the mound fpr LBSU. He worked four iings and only gave up three hits.

CSUF took the lead for the third time this weekend thanks to a leadoff double from Josh Vargas in the top of the first iing. The left fielder advanced to third base on a sacrifice bunt, and scored on an RBI groundout from Jerrod Bravo.

The Titans doubled their lead in the fifth iing with singles from Chris Hudgins and Jake Pavletich and a sacrifice fly from Vargas.

LBSU relievers Ty Provencher and Austin McGeorge came out of the bullpen to throw five scoreless iings. Provencher, a senior from Wilson High School, scattered four hits and struck out three.

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The Dirtbags finally broke though in the seventh iing when Hampson reached on a fielder’s choice. With two outs, left fielder Brock Lundquist drove him home with a single through the right side to cut the lead in half, 2-1.

Duran led off the ninth with a single up the middle, and that ended Eastman’s day. Junior Blake Qui came on in relief, and after senior Zack Domingues sacrificed Duran to second, Hampson struck out for the third time. Luke Rasmussen’s ground ball ended it three pitches later.

“This team has a lot to be proud of, and we feel good with where we’re going,” Buckley said.

The NCAA Selection Show will begin at 9 a.m. Monday. LBSU will hold a watch party in the Walter Pyramid.