18-20, 6-4
Long Beach State
21-16, 7-6
Cal Poly Opens Long Beach State Series With 6-1 Victory
4/24/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
BASEBALL AMERICA FEATURE ON KRUKOW'S KLUBHOUSE
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Junior right-hander Casey Bloomquist scattered five hits over eight innings and Cal Poly took advantage of three Long Beach State errors and a passed ball, scoring three unearned runs, for a 6-1 victory in the opener of a Big West Conference baseball series Friday night before 1,304 in Baggett Stadium.
Bloomquist (4-2) survived a shaky start as he gave up a run on a triple, walk and double in the first inning before settling down and allowing just three harmless singles over seven scoreless frames before giving way to closer Danny Zandona in the ninth.
Zandona struck out two in closing out the game as Cal Poly improved to 18-20 for the season and moved into fourth place in the Big West at 6-4. The Mustangs have won eight of their last 10 games after slipping eight games below the .500 mark on April 4.
Long Beach State fell to 21-16 and 7-6.
Garrett Hampson opened the game with a triple to left-center field. One out later, Zack Rivera grounded to first base and Hampson tried to score but was caught in a rundown and tagged out by Peter Van Gansen, named to the Brooks Wallace Shortstop of the Year Award watch list Thursday. Rivera advanced to third during the rundown and scored on a double by Luke Rasmussen to left-center field.
Two Dirtbag errors allowed Cal Poly to score an unearned run in the bottom of the first inning. Van Gansen doubled with one out and Brett Barbier reached safely on a two-out Long Beach State infield error, Van Gansen scoring.
The game remained knotted at 1-1 until the fourth when Cal Poly scored three times on an RBI single by Tommy Pluschkell, a bases-loaded walk issued to Van Gansen and a passed ball which allowed Pluschkell to score.
The Mustangs added single runs in the fifth and sixth innings to pull away. Zack Zehner tripled opening the fifth and came home on Barbier's sacrifice fly. John Schuknecht singled leading off the sixth, took third on a Dirtbag throwing error and scored on an RBI single by Mark Mathias.
Bloomquist (pictured above) retired Long Beach State in order four times after the rocky start and finished with eight strikeouts and a pair of walks.
The Mustangs outhit the Dirtbags 11-6, paced by Mathias, Zehner and Pluschkell, each with a pair of hits. Daniel Jackson singled twice for Long Beach State.
Second game of the series will be played Saturday night at 6 with freshman southpaw Kyle Smith (4-5, 3.32 ERA) of Cal Poly to face Long Beach State freshman right-hander Chris Mathewson (5-3, 1.28 ERA).
Sunday's series finale begins at 1 o'clock.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Bloomquist, Casey (4-2)
L: Friedrichs, Kyle (5-3)
Batting:
2B: Rasmussen, Luke 1
3B: Hampson, Garrett 1
RBI: Rasmussen, Luke 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Rivera, Zack 1
Batting:
2B: Van Gansen, Peter 1
3B: Zehner, Zack 1
RBI: Mathias, Mark 1 ; Van Gansen, Peter 1 ; Barbier, Brett 1 ; Pluschkell, Tommy 1
SF: Barbier, Brett 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Van Gansen, Peter 1 ; Zehner, Zack 1 ; Barbier, Brett 1 ; Drobny, Ryan 1 ; Schuknecht, John 1 ; Pluschkell, Tommy 1
