Friday
Game 2
Long Beach starter Dave Smith was absolutely dominate. First career complete complete game and shutout for the Dirtbags RHP. He gave up only five hits all night and walked one and only struck out one.
The Dirtbags gave Smith a huge cushion to begin the game in the bottom of 1st with RBI’s from Ramsey Romano, Brock Lundquist and Luke Rasmussen.
Long Beach St added another run in the 2nd and two in the 6th and that was obviously enough for Smith to cruise to the complete game shutout.
Pitching dominated in the two late-night West Coast Games. #NCAABaseball pic.twitter.com/dQoe5O8TCw
— Armchair Baseball (@ArmchairCBB) June 3, 2017
Long Beach State will now face Texas at 7 PM PT on ESPN2 and San Diego State will face UCLA at 1 PM PT in an elimination game.
Game 1
Texas and UCLA kicked off play in the Long Beach Regional with a pitcher’s duel between Nolan Kingham (Texas) and Griffin Canning (UCLA).
Through the 1st four innings, both pitchers only gave up one hit apiece. However, the one hit Canning gave up was a solo HR from Kacy Clemens, his 12th of the season, to give Texas a 1-0 lead after four innings.
1-0 would stand until the bottom of the 7th, when Bret Boswell would hit a two-out RBI single to left center scoring Travis Jones from 3rd.
UCLA would respond in top of the 8th with a solo HR from Ryan Kriedler to cut the lead to 2-1.
Texas would get a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning on RBI double from Jones scoring Patrick Mathis from 2nd to give the Horns some insurance for 9th… and they needed it.
With closer Beau Ridgeway on for Texas, UCLA would rally with two hits and a walk but that would only produce one run and they left two others on base to end the game.
Texas hold off a late rally from UCLA to win 3-2. #NCAABaseball pic.twitter.com/WuY3tXFckC
— Armchair Baseball (@ArmchairCBB) June 3, 2017
Texas will face the winner of Long Beach St/San Diego St on Saturday at 7 PM PT.
Preview
#1 Seed Long Beach State (37-17-1)
The Dirtbags come into the NCAA Tournament as the Big West Champions for the first time since 2008 and first outright title since 2003. Offensively, they are led by Ramsey Romano (.338 AVG, 10 2B, 2 HR and 36 RBI) and Lucas Tancas (.312 AVG, 10 2B, 9 HR and 34 RBI). Their pitching staff is led by RHP Dave Smith (8-1 in 11 starts (14 AP), 1.55 ERA, 75.1 IP) and RHP Darren McCaughan (8-2 in 15 starts, 2.66 ERA, 106.1 IP).
#2 Seed Texas (37-22)
The Longhorns come in off a strong showing in Oklahoma City at the Big 12 Tournament. Texas is led offensively by Kacy Clemens (.319 AVG, 14 2B, 11 HR, 48 RBI) and on the bump by Morgan Cooper (6-3 in 14 starts (15 APP), 2.32 ERA, 81.1 IP), Nolan Kingham (9-4 in 12 starts (15 APP), 2.99 ERA, 84.1 IP). Texas faced UCLA earlier this season in Austin and swept the Bruins in 4 games.
#3 Seed UCLA (30-25)
The Bruins finished the season winning 9 of their last 14 games and getting themselves into the NCAA Tournament. They are led offensively by Sean Bouchard (.305 AVG, 16 2B, 9 HR, 43 RBI) and Daniel Amaral (.286 AVG, 6 2B, HR, 21 RBI, 16/24 SB). On the mound, they are led by Golden Spikes Award Semifinalist Griffin Canning (7-3 in 16 starts, 2.34 ERA, 111.1 IP).
#4 Seed San Diego State (41-19)
To get into the tournament, the Aztecs won the Mountain West Conference Tournament by beating Fresno State (twice) and New Mexico. San Diego State is led offensively by David Hensley (.376 AVG, 16 2B, 31 RBI) and on the mound by CJ Saylor (2-0, 31 APP, 2.78 ERA, 13 SV).
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Go Longhorns!