Anteaters bullied by 49ers

The UC Irvine marketing staff likes to think of Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton as regional rivals. But to the Anteaters’ baseball program, they are more like menacing neighborhood bullies.

Never was this more apparent than the Big West Conference-opening series completed Sunday at Blair Field, in which the Dirtbags, by virtue of a three-game sweep, left the ‘Eaters spitting dust.

Long Beach State, which shook off an atypical seven-game losing streak to join Cal State Fullerton atop the Big West standings after the first weekend, looked more like a team bound for the NCAA Regionals than the struggling squad it resembled during its 12-15 preconference parade.

Long Beach starting pitchers Jared Hughes, Andrew Carpenter and Donnie Hume combined to allow 10 hits and four earned runs in 21 1/3 innings, with 15 strikeouts. The Dirtbags’ staff needed just three games to carve an 11-point divot out of UCI’s team batting average, which was .280 coming in, but .269 as the Anteaters limped off.

UCI managed just three extra-base hits in the series, including a two-run Jaime Martinez home run that left little doubt Saturday afternoon.

Long Beach State third baseman Evan Longoria, an All-American candidate who was MVP of the Cape Cod League last summer, had three extra-base hits himself in the series, including two-run homers in the first and second games.

Longoria drove in as many runs as the Anteaters scored in the series (five) and he completed his impersonation of Brooks Robinson in the 1970 World Series by sparkling defensively, particularly in Friday’s opener.

But the ‘Eaters’ 46 hours of futility was hardly an aberration when it comes to competing against its “Black and Blue Series” rival. Since UCI swept the 49ers at Blair Field in April of 2002, its first season back after a 10-year haitus, the Anteaters have gone 2-10 against The Beach in conference games. In those 12 contests, Long Beach has outscored UCI, 62-28. Only once did UCI scored more than four runs against Dirtbag pitching.