A triple by David Armendariz saved the Cal Poly baseball team from being no-hit on Sunday as Long Beach State topped the Mustangs 4-0 to win the series two games to one.
Long Beach State’s starting pitcher Shawn Stuart allowed Armendariz’s triple off the left center field wall in the fifth inning and walked Tim Wise in the first, but didn’t have much trouble dispensing the Mustangs in a complete game shutout.
“(Stuart) started mixing (pitches) really well in the middle half of the game,” Armendariz said. “In the beginning, it was mostly first-pitch fastballs then going to the off-speed pitch. He kept us off balance.”
Stuart struck out nine batters and moved Long Beach State to 10-16 overall and 2-1 in conference while Cal Poly fell 17-10 and 1-2.
Kyle Brueggemann allowed two hits in eight innings in his start against San Diego State last Saturday, and he matched that total in the first inning on Sunday. Johnny Bekakis hit the first Brueggemann pitch up the middle and eventually came around to score the first of two runs in the inning.
“I was making pitches, they were just doing a really good job putting balls in play,” Brueggemann said. “Can’t do much when the guy is pitching really well against us. Got to tip your hat to that kid, he threw a really good game.”
Brueggemann was pulled in favor of Reed Reilly in the fifth inning after he conceded two more Dirtbag runs. Reilly allowed three hits in three-and-a-third innings without giving up a run. Chase Johnson pitched a scoreless ninth inning and struck out one, but the Mustangs couldn’t use it to their advantage going quietly in the other half of the final frame.
“We weren’t competitive today,” head coach Larry Lee said. “We hit two balls hard all day. Our outs weren’t competitive, we got beat on the same pitch over and over. There just wasn’t a lot of fight from our hitters.”
Senior shortstop Mike Miller had his 14-game hitting streak and 25-game on base streak snapped as he went 0 for 4 (leave as numerals). He still leads the team in batting average, hitting .371.
The Mustangs lone series win came on Saturday night as Kyle Anderson pitched six and a third innings and gave up four runs. A Jimmy Allen single in the eighth inning broke a 4-4 tie to propel Cal Poly to victory. Nick Grim, pitching in relief, picked up the win while Johnson earned his fifth save of the year.
Cal Poly faces UC Irvine in a three-game series starting on Thursday night at Baggett Stadium.