36-7, 12-3
Long Beach State
20-21, 7-5
No. 1/2/3 Cal Poly Suffers First Series Loss of Season in 1-0 Setback
4/27/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
LONG BEACH, Calif. – For the second straight year, Cal Poly won its series opener at Long Beach State and lost the series.
The Dirtbags scored an unearned run in the first inning and Nick Sabo and Ty Provencher made it stand up for a 1-0 victory over the Mustangs in the finale of a three-game Big West Conference baseball series Sunday afternoon at Blair Field.
In losing a series to Long Beach State for the fourth straight year, two games to one, top-ranked Cal Poly falls to 36-7 on the year, losing back-to-back games for the first time this season.
The Mustangs also fell out of first place in the Big West as UC Irvine completed a sweep of its three-game series at UC Davis with a 3-1 victory, scoring twice in the ninth inning to snap a 1-1 tie. UC Irvine is 11-1 in Big West games while Cal Poly is 12-3.
Long Beach State improved to 20-21 and 7-5.
Not only did Cal Poly lose the game Sunday, the Mustangs also lost the services of sophomore second baseman Mark Mathias and sophomore pitcher Casey Bloomquist to leg injuries in the fifth inning. The extent of their injuries is not known.
Mathias came to the plate with one out and the bases loaded in the fifth inning and hit into an inning-ending double play. He appeared to injure a leg while landing on first base on the play.
Bloomquist injured his leg during a pitch in the bottom of the fifth. He completed the inning before giving way to southpaw Taylor Chris (pictured at right).
Bloomquist (9-1) suffered his first loss of the year despite lowering his ERA to 1.27. In five innings, he allowed one unearned run and seven hits with no walks and two strikeouts. Chris pitched three scoreless innings in relief of Bloomquist.
Junior southpaw Nick Sabo (3-4), who pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings in relief against Cal Poly a year ago, earned Sunday's win as he allowed just two hits in 6 2/3 scoreless frames. He walked three and struck out two. Provencher tossed 2 1/3 scoreless, hitless innings for his second save, striking out three.
Long Beach State scored the only run of the game in the first inning with two outs. Ino Patron reached base on an error, Richard Prigatano singled to move Patron to second base and Michael Hill singled to score Patron.
In addition to the fifth inning, Cal Poly loaded the bases in the seventh, but pinch-hitter Brett Barbier fouled out to first baseman Patron to end the inning.
Cal Poly's only two hits in the game were singles by shortstop Peter Van Gansen and catcher Chris Hoo, both in the fifth inning. The Mustangs' two hits matched a season low at USC in a 16-0 loss on March 2.
Cal Poly continues its seven-game road trip Tuesday with a single game at Pepperdine (30-9).
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Sabo, Nick (3-4)
L: Bloomquist, Casey (9-1)
S: Provencher, Ty (2)
Batting:
SH: Allen, Jimmy 1 ; Hoo, Chris 1
Base Running:
CS: Torres, Nick 1
HBP: Torres, Nick 1 ; Allen, Jimmy 1
PO: Torres, Nick 1
Batting:
2B: Brenner, Colby 1
RBI: Hill, Michael 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Patron, Ino 1
PO: Prigatano, Richard 1
