The fences at Jackie Robinson Stadium looked mighty close on Tuesday, and mostly to the visitors.
Long Beach State hit six home runs en route to a resounding 16-4 win over No. 5 UCLA. Two days after getting a strong pitching effort against Oregon, Bruin pitchers gave up 18 hits Tuesday evening.
One of the lone bright spots for the Bruins was the bat of freshman Beau Amaral, who went 2-for-4 with a two-run home run out of the leadoff spot.
Senior Garett Claypool got the start but lasted just four innings, giving up three of the longballs. The Dirtbags dealt their biggest blow in the fifth, when they touched up the UCLA bullpen for eight runs.
“We just needed some runs,” said Amaral of his homer with the Bruins trailing by two in the third. “My job is to go out there and spark the offense and that’s what I was able to do.”
UCLA employed a slightly different look in the batting order behind Amaral, with second baseman Tyler Rahmatulla moving up from his usual third spot in the order to second, and first baseman Dean Espy taking over in the three-hole.
In playing one of the toughest conference schedules in the nation, the possibility exists that the Bruins overlook their Tuesday opponents, who generally come from lesser conferences. Amaral, however, insisted that that wasn’t the case.
“We’ve had some tough games,” he said. “Our schedule is pretty tough, so we’ve got to view every opponent in the same way. Offensively we’ve had some rough spots but I think we had some good at-bats tonight.”
Long Beach State jumped out to an early lead, scoring two in the second. Amaral’s home run evened things up in the third, and the Bruins even took a brief lead at 4-3 after four. Then the Dirtbags struck with their eight-run fifth, in which they sent 11 men to the plate.
“It’s tough to be out there sometimes for that long when the other guys are scoring runs,” Amaral said. “But you’ve just got to stay focused and maintain your composure.”