LONG BEACH, Calif. — Long Beach St. pitcher Jered Weaver retired 13 consecutive LSU batters over a four-plus inning stretch and finished with 10 strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings as the Dirtbags clinched their weekend series with the Fighting Tigers by taking a 5-1 victory on Saturday at Blair Field.
The Tigers’ first visit to California wraps up with the series finale on Sunday at 1 p.m. PST (3 p.m. CST) in a game that will be televised in Louisiana on the Jumbo Sports Network and throughout the south on Comcast Sports Southeast. LSU returns home on Wednesday to host Southeastern Louisiana.
Weaver, a third team pre-season All-American, limited the Tigers to four singles and set a season high for strikeouts to improve to 3-2 on the season. Weaver became the second Dirtbag pitcher in as many nights to record 10 strikeouts, as Abe Alvarez struck out 10 in 7 2/3 innings in the series opener on Friday.
LSU (6-6) put two runners on in the first inning with two outs, first on an Ivan Naccarata single then on an error by Long Beach shortstop Troy Tulowitzki on Aaron Hill’s ground ball.
Weaver ended the first inning by getting Blake Gill to fly to right field, then set down LSU in order in the second through fifth innings, striking out five and allowing no balls to be hit out of the infield.
The Tigers (No. 13 Baseball America, No. 14 Collegiate Baseball, No. 21 ESPN/USA Today) finally broke the drought in the sixth when Dustin Weaver drew a leadoff walk. J.C. Holt followed with a base hit to put runners on first and second, and then after Ryan Patterson struck out, Ivan Naccarata grounded a single into right field to score Weaver and put runners on second and third.
Naccarata, the Tigers’ junior third baseman from Quebec, enters Sunday’s game on a nine-game hitting streak, batting .353 (12-for-34) during the streak after going 2-for-4.
Holt also went 2-for-4 to record his first multi-hit game since collecting three hits in back-to-back games against Centenary and Kansas in February.
But Dustin Weaver’s run was LSU’s only tall, as Aaron Hill popped up to first base and Bruce Sprowl flied to shallow left-center field.
The Dirtbags (10-4) took a 1-0 lead in the second on Tulowitzki’s RBI single that plated Sean Boatright, who drew a one-out walk and went to second on Adam Heether’s base hit. Tulowitzki gave Long Beach (No. 9 Collegiate Baseball, No. 11 Baseball America and ESPN/USA Today) a 2-0 lead in the fourth when he singled home Paul Davis with a two-out hit.
Tulowitzki, who did not play in Friday’s 12-1 Long Beach victory, went 3-for-4 after coming in 3-for-17 on the season. Tim Hutting and Travis Udvarhelyi each had two hits to contribute to the Dirtbags’ 11-hit attack, 10 of those singles.
LSU starter Brian Wilson, coming off of a strong effort last Sunday against Houston in which he took a shutout into the eighth inning, yielded four runs on 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings to fall to 2-2. Tiger reliever Nate Bumstead allowed one run on one hit in 2 2/3 innings.
The Dirtbags responded to the Tigers’ run in the sixth with a pair of runs, scoring on an RBI double by Udvarhelyi that scored Tulowitzki, then on a sacrifice fly by Tim Hutting.
LSU (6-6) 000 001 000– 1 5 1
Long Beach St. (10-4) 010 112 00x– 5 11 1
Brian Wilson, Nate Bumstead (6) and Dustin Weaver; Jered Weaver, Neil Jamison (8) and Todd Jennings.
WP–J. Weaver, 3-2.
LP–Wilson, 2-2.
2B–LBSU: Travis Udvarhelyi (3).
T–2:45.
A–1,768.