LONG BEACH, Calif. — Long Beach St. ace pitcher Abe Alvarez struck out 10 LSU batters over 7 2/3 innings, while four Fighting Tiger errors led to six unearned runs as the Dirtbags cruised to a 12-1 victory in the opener of a three-game weekend series on Friday night at Blair Field.
The series continues Saturday at 3 p.m. CST in a contest that will be televised throughout Louisiana by the Jumbo Sports Network and on other cable outlets throughout the south on Comcast Sports Southeast. LSU is scheduled to start junior right-hander Brian Wilson (2-1, 4.08) against Long Beach sophomore right-hander Jered Weaver (2-2, 1.80).
Alvarez, the 2002 Big West Conference Pitcher of the Year and a member of the U.S. national team last summer, threw 109 pitches and retired nine batters in order in the third through sixth innings to improve to 5-0 and lower his ERA for the year to 1.21. Alvarez, a junior left-hander, had not pitched past the sixth inning in any of his prior starts this year.
LSU (6-5) had runners on second and third with one out in the top of the first but could not score, and Long Beach (9-4) took advantage by taking a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Travis Udvarhelyi led off with a triple to center field and then scored on a base hit by Josh Buhagiar.
The Tigers (No.13 Baseball America, No. 14 Collegiate Baseball, No. 21 ESPN/USA Today) tied the game in the third on a home run by Ryan Patterson to the 387-foot power alley in left center field, the first home run allowed by the Dirtbags at home this season.
Patterson’s hit was the only extra base hit for LSU, which collected seven hits from seven different players.
Long Beach took the lead for good in the fourth with a two-run home run by Adam Heether, his first of the season and the third for the Dirtbags this season.
The Dirtbags’ Tim Hutting extended his hitting streak to 13 games with an RBI single in the fifth inning for a 4-1 lead before Long Beach (No. 9 Collegiate Baseball, No. 11 Baseball America and ESPN/USA Today) used three hits and a pair of LSU errors to score three runs to put the game out of reach.
The key play in the sixth came with the bases loaded and one out, when Udvarhelyi pushed a base hit past Tiger first baseman Will Harris. Second baseman Blake Gill attempted to cut down Steve Velazco at second, but the ball hit Velazco in the back, sending the ball bounding away and allowing Chuck Sindlinger to score after Heether came home on the hit.
The Tigers’ third error of the game cost LSU five runs in the eighth, as Aaron Hill’s two-out error on Udvarhelyi’s ground ball kept a Dirtbag inning alive, leading to a bases-clearing double by pinch hitter Paul Macaluso.
Heether was 3-for-4 and Brad Davis went 3-for-4 and scored a pair of runs to pace the Dirtbags’ 13-hit attack, while Hutting and Udvarhelyi each had two hits.
LSU starting pitcher Jake Tompkins fell to 0-2 on the year, giving up four runs on six hits despite striking out six.
LSU (6-5) 001 000 000– 1 7 4
Long Beach St. (9-4) 100 213 05x– 12 13 0
Jake Tompkins, Greg Smith (6) and Dustin Weaver; Abe Alvarez, Bo Ashabraner (8), Ross Stout (9) and Todd Jennings.
WP–Alvarez, 5-0.
LP–Tompkins, 0-2.
2B–LBSU: Brad Davis (4), Paul Macaluso (1).
3B–LBSU: Travis Udvarhelyi (1).
HR–LSU: Ryan Patterson (2); LBSU: Adam Heether (1).
T–2:55.
A–1,726.