UCI misses opportunity

LONG BEACH ? Battling the latest Long Beach State ace in the Big West Conference baseball opener at Blair Field, UC Irvine quickly found itself pitted against even “Longoria” odds Friday night.

Long Beach State junior third baseman Evan Longoria launched a two-run, first-inning home run to give starting pitcher Jared Hughes all he would need. Longoria then proceeded to dazzle defensively to upstage Hughes as the most dominant player in a 7-1 victory.

The win ended a seven-game losing streak for the “Desperate Dirtbags.”

Hughes, a 6-foot-7 right-hander, improved to 5-1. He went eight innings, surrendering just four hits. He struck out five and walked five. It was the sixth straight start in which he pitched into at least the seventh inning.

But Longoria was clearly the star.

“Everything that is written about Evan Longoria is true,” UCI Coach Dave Serrano said. “He’s a great player and he kind of took control in the first four innings of that baseball game, offensively and defensively.”

Hughes and 49ers Coach Mike Weathers also had plenty of praise for Longoria.

“Evan hits the home run to give us the lead, then made about five or six web gems,” Hughes said.

Added Weathers: “That was our best player, offensively, getting us off to a good start and we’ve been needing that from him.”

Longoria made a diving stop of a sharply hit grounder and a line drive in the first three innings. After snaring the liner in the third, he scrambled to the bag to beat a runner trying to get back for an inning-ending double play. He also charged in to field two nubbers and threw across his body to get outs. In addition, he made two barehanded pickups to throw out UCI runners.

The win negated a strong start by Anteater junior right-hander Justin Cassel, who surrendered five hits in seven-plus innings, but was charged with four earned runs. The 49ers put their hits together in the first, fifth and eighth innings. He fell to 3-5.

In the first inning, Danny Espinoza singled ahead of Longoria, who drove a 3-2 pitch well over the left-field fence. Longoria has now homered in two straight games and three of his last four. He leads Long Beach State with six homers, more than half the team’s 11.

Robert Perry cashed in a double by Brandon Godfrey to add to the lead in the fifth.

UCI (18-11), which had its leadoff man walk in the first, third and fourth innings, broke through in the sixth. Taylor Holiday opened the inning with a line single to left, then scored when Josh Tavelli doubled inside third for the Anteaters’ only run.

UCI stranded men at third in the first, third and fourth and left the bases loaded in the seventh.

“Obviously the whole key to the game was early,” Weathers said. “They had guys in scoring position and [Hughes] got out of it.”

Hughes said he had only a little to do with it.

“I didn’t have my best stuff, but my infielders were getting me out of it,” Hughes said. “The rest of the team was picking me up. We started out on the right foot and we kept that pace throughout the game.”

Weathers credited Hughes for winning without his best stuff.

“That was 112 really hard pitches,” Weathers said. “He wasn’t as good as he has been, that was obvious.”

Long Beach added four runs in the eighth to put the game out of reach.

“Things could have been different, but they weren’t,” Weathers said. “For a change, we got some breaks.”

Some of those breaks were a handful of close calls that went against the Anteaters. The last close call ? former Orange Coast College standout Matt Cline being called safe at second on a hustle double to straight-away center ? led to a heated Serrano protest that ended in his ejection.

Serrano said his postgame address to his team was about the Anteaters’ failure to capitalize on opportunities.

“On Friday nights, you’re going to have to scratch and claw for runs,” Serrano said. “They did it early and we didn’t. Runs are always going to be at a premium in this conference and when we get our opportunities, we need to score our baserunners.

“Winning championships and being successful is not easy and tonight was a perfect example of that.”

The three-game series continues with a 2 p.m. game today at Blair Field.