It Doesn’t End Well for Long Beach State in 14-4 Loss

Long Beach State, in the College World Series because it did the little things that win games, stopped doing them Wednesday night.

The countdown to a meltdown was complete in a 14-4 loss to Arizona State that put the Sun Devils in Saturday’s championship game and sent Long Beach packing after the 49ers:

* allowed seven walks,

* had a World Series-record six wild pitches,

* gave up runs in every inning but the fifth,

* made four errors,

* allowed three home runs,

* had two hit batsmen and

* made one mental error after another.

“It was a cold night in Omaha,” said 49er Coach Dave Snow. “Make that a cold, dreary night for Long Beach. We were never really in it.”

That was true from the first inning, when Mikel Moreno homered to give Arizona State (41-22) a 1-0 lead; to the second, when the Sun Devils added four runs, two of them on a bases-loaded popup by Andy Beinbrink that Long Beach shortstop Justin Hall dropped behind the mound; to the rest of the night, when things went from bad to worse.

“Moreno’s home run in the first let them know that these guys aren’t going to get into a snowball game,” Arizona State Coach Pat Murphy said of an evening in which 50-degree temperatures and a stiff wind that dropped the wind-chill factor to 30 degrees seemed more conducive to winter sports.

The homer also let Sun Devil pitcher Richy Leon know he was hardly alone in his task.

“It helps when your team puts a couple of runs on the board,” said Leon, who pitched six innings and struck out six. “I still don’t take anything for granted. Everybody tells me that you have to pitch as if it’s a 0-0 game.”

That would have taken some serious imagination after a four-run second inning in which Arizona State got three hits, two walks by Long Beach starter Jeff Leuenberger and Hall’s error.

“Oh my, are they tough outs?” Snow said. “They are very opportunistic and they capitalized on a lot of mistakes on our part.”

There were plenty of opportunities. The Sun Devils had 30 baserunners. Arizona State left 15 of them on base.

It became apparent quickly that, a night after Long Beach (43-23-1) had scratched out a 6-3 win over Miami with three ninth-inning runs, all the scratching in the world wasn’t going to beat Arizona State.

“It seems like this is almost the baseball version of Arena Football and we never really put on the shoulder pads,” said Snow, whose club scored 18 runs and hit five home runs in four games of a College World Series in which 45 home runs have been hit. “That’s what it takes here.”

Long Beach had two homers Wednesday, solo shots by catcher Bryan Kennedy, who broke an 0-for-10 series slump with his fourth-inning homer; and by Terrmel Sledge for a ninth-inning run.

Leuenberger, a freshman, struggled through 2 2/3 innings, giving up seven runs and seven hits and walking four. That brought his 13-inning postseason totals to 17 earned runs and 24 hits.

He left after giving up two runs in the third inning and was the first in a parade of 49er pitchers who worked with limited effectiveness.

Dan Thomas followed and gave up two runs in 3 1/3 innings, and Dennis Kordich gave up four--one earned--in two innings. Jason Berni finished up, giving up two ninth-inning runs as Snow emptied the bullpen.

“I think they had a tough row to hoe,” said Murphy of Long Beach’s plight, having to play out of the losers’ bracket after dropping its first game, 3-1, to Miami.

“That kid that pitches No. 1 for them, [Mike] Gallo, could have made it difficult for us.”

But Gallo had pitched on Tuesday and wasn’t available.

“Having to play only two games [because Arizona State won both] is a definite advantage,” Murphy said.

One advantage is that the Sun Devils had two days off going into Wednesday’s game and will have two more days to ponder Saturday’s championship.

“We’ve accomplished a lot, game by game, but after today’s win, we have a task at hand,” Leon said. “We know we have an unfinished job at hand and a couple of days to prepare for that.”

Part of that time will be spent in the past. Arizona State was no cinch to get a bid to the NCAA tournament after finishing the season with a 34-21 record, and the Sun Devils were 16-12 on March 18.

“It’s been our team’s goal not just to make it to Omaha but to win the national championship,” said second baseman Willie Bloomquist, who had one of the Arizona State homers and a 5-for-6 night.

“No matter how far down we are, we’re never going to give up.”

In this case, the Sun Devils are so far up, they’re flying, with one game to win for a national title.

Today’s Game

No. 4 USC (46-17)

vs. No. 5 LOUISIANA STATE (48-17)

* Time: 12:30 p.m. PDT * TV: ESPN

* Story line: In a rematch of the teams’ first game, USC sends out Seth Etherton (12-3, 3.22 earned-run average), the top choice by the Angels in the baseball draft, against LSU’s Jake Esteves (9-2, 4.99). Both pitchers were treated rudely in their opening outings, with Etherton being hammered for six of the eight home runs the Tigers hit in beating USC, 12-10.