25-16, 7-4
Long Beach State
25-16, 8-6
Long Beach State Clinches Big West Series Against Cal Poly With 2-0 Win
4/30/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Cal Poly, which scored three times in the first inning Friday night at Long Beach State, has been held scoreless ever since.
Darren McCaughan and Chris Rivera combined on a four-hit shutout as the Dirtbags defeated the Mustangs 2-0 Saturday afternoon at Blair Field, clinching the three-game Big West Conference series.
Long Beach State, which earned a 14-3 triumph Friday, improves to 25-16 for the season and 8-6 in Big West games with Saturday's win. Cal Poly, now with a three-game losing streak for the second time this season, falls to 25-16 and 7-4.
Cal Poly won its first three Big West series this season against Cal State Fullerton, Hawai'i and UC Santa Barbara before running into the Dirtbags this weekend.
Long Beach State scored single runs in the fourth and sixth innings and McCaughan, who pitched eight innings, and Rivera, who tossed a perfect ninth, made the two runs stand up for the win.
Luke Rasmussen singled to push across the run in the fourth while Brock Lundquist's RBI single in the sixth gave the Dirtbags a 2-0 lead.
After McCaughan retired the first 14 Mustang batters of the game, Kevin Morgan singled with two outs in the fifth inning to break the string. Cooper Moore followed with a single of his own, but Jake Mavropoulus grounded out to third base to end the inning.
Brett Binning singled opening the sixth inning and went to second on a groundout, but two more grounders ended that threat.
Binning doubled with two outs in the eighth inning, but Kyle Marinconz grounded out to second base.
Binning, hitting in the ninth spot in the Mustang batting order, had two of Cal Poly's four hits as the Mustangs were shut out for the third time this season. Brett Barbier's two streaks -- a 16-game hitting streak and his 40-game streak of games reaching base safely -- both ended as he went 0-for-4 with two groundouts, a flyout and a strikeout.
Long Beach State's nine hits included two each by Garrett Hampson, Rasmussen and Lundquist.
McCaughan improved to 7-1 for the season. He did not walk a batter and struck out four. Rivera picked up his 12th save, striking out two.
The loss went to Mustang sophomore right-hander Erich Uelmen (5-1) (pictured above) as he allowed two runs and eight hits over seven innings with two walks and one strikeout. Justin Calomeni tossed one scoreless frame with one strikeout.
Final game of the series will be played Sunday at 1 o'clock with sophomore right-hander Jarred Zill (4-1, 2.50 ERA) on the mound for Cal Poly.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: McCaughan, Darren (7-1)
L: Uelmen, Erich (5-1)
S: Rivera, Chris (12)
Batting:
2B: Binning, Brett 1
Batting:
2B: Hampson, Garrett 1 ; Lundquist, Brock 1
RBI: Rasmussen, Luke 1 ; Lundquist, Brock 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Hampson, Garrett 2
SB: Hampson, Garrett 1 ; Rasmussen, Luke 1
CS: Jackson, Daniel 1
HBP: Banuelos, David 1
