It was another tough weekend for the UC Davis baseball team.
The Aggies headed to Southern California to square off with the Dirtbags of Long Beach State in a three-game series at Blair Field.
UC Davis dropped Friday’s series opener by 13. It responded by keeping the final two games close, but couldn’t walk away from either of them with a win.
The Aggies face California in Berkeley today at 2:30 p.m. before returning to Davis for a three-game set against UC Riverside starting Friday.
Friday – Long Beach State 16, UC Davis 3
Late Dirtbag hitting turned a close contest into a blowout.
UC Davis brought things within two in the top half of the sixth. Kyle Mihaylo scored Daniel Cepin on a fly out to center. Tim Busbin followed with a single up the middle to score Ty Kelly and Justin Schafer to bring the deficit to 5-3.
The Dirtbags, though, responded with four in their half of the frame. They added seven more in the seventh to put things out of reach.
Saturday – Long Beach State 5, UC Davis 2
The Long Beach State faithful showed up Saturday to collect Evan Longoria bobble heads. They left with a win. Timely Dirtbag hitting proved to be the recipe for success as they held off the Aggies to earn a 5-2 win.
Dayne Quist started for UC Davis, throwing six innings of four-run ball. Andy Suiter pitched two scoreless innings in relief, striking out two in the process.
The Aggies were paced offensively by Justin Schafer, who doubled twice and scored a run. Ryan Scoma and Joseph Medeiros drove home the UC Davis runs.
Sunday – Long Beach State 3, UC Davis 2
The Aggies followed up Saturday’s solid pitching performance with another one on Sunday. Unfortunately for UC Davis, the result remained the same.
Scott Lyman pitched 6.2 innings of three-run ball, but Long Beach State was able to hold off the Aggies to earn the sweep.
“I thought both those young guys pitched well,“ said coach Rex Peters about Lyman and Quist. “They’re developing. Hopefully they’ll turn the corner and be legitimate weekend guys for us in the near future.”
The UC Davis runs came in the sixth off the bats of Scoma and Scott Heylman. Each singled in a run to put the Aggies in front through five and half, 2-1.
The Dirtbags found two runs on a triple off the bat of T.J. Mittlestaedt in the seventh to give Long Beach State the 3-2 final margin of victory.
“We didn’t do quite enough offensively to get a win,” Peters said, “but we pitched pretty well on Saturday and Sunday.“
UC Davis has now been swept by Big West Conference competition for three series in a row. The Aggies drop to 1-14 in league play and 7-35 overall.
JOHN S. HELLER can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
