Long Beach State Can’t Solve Santos and Loses to Miami

For all of the talk of better hitting through creatine, for all of the noise of the ping of the aluminum bat turning the college game into Pong, for all of that, Long Beach State showed one thing is immutable:

Good pitching beats good hitting.

Every time.

No dietary supplement, no technological advancement could have handled Alex Santos, who pitched Miami to a 3-1 victory over the 49ers before a College World Series opening night-record 21,035 Friday.

“It was a near-dominating performance,” said Long Beach Coach Dave Snow, whose team fell into a Sunday elimination game against Florida State (53-19), which lost, 11-10, to Arizona State (39-22) in the day’s opener.

“Santos pitched to all the accolades he’s received this year . . . and we’ve got some pretty good hitters.”

Santos gave up four hits--two of them bunts--and struck out eight in winning his 15th of 16 decisions. No college pitcher has won more this season.

Robbie Morrison came on in the ninth inning and struck out the side for his 12th save. Morrison’s last nine retired batters--he gave up a one-out walk to the 49ers’ Bryan Kennedy--have come by strikeouts.

But the story was Santos, a sophomore who was outwardly calm through it all after pitching miserably in last year’s World Series.

“It was like any game I’ve pitched [this season],” he said. “I established the strike zone early. I was excited, because I know they had the best-hitting team in the tournament.”

Not Friday. The 49ers were held hitless until Curt Lee beat out a one-out bunt in the sixth inning. By then Miami led, 2-0, and Santos was sailing.

Miami’s first two runs came in the second inning off Long Beach starter Mike Gallo (6-2), who had won four of his last five outings.

The first run came on a 400-foot-plus blast over the left field bleachers by Miami’s Pat Burrell.

“It was a changeup and I just left it up,” Gallo said. “It was a mistake, and it seemed like every mistake I threw to those guys, they hit it. They’re a good mistake-hitting team.”

Miami’s second run of the second inning came when, with two out, Rick Saggese and Russ Jacobson singled, and German Alvarez doubled Saggese home.

Gallo gave up nine hits in six-plus innings and struggled all night.

“Every inning there were guys on base,” Gallo said. “Once we got out of it, I think it pumped the team up. When I got into the dugout, it was alive.”

Gallo retired the side in order only in the first inning.

“I thought Mike battled,” Snow said. “I don’t think he was as sharp as he has been, as far as keeping his mistakes down.”

The deficit was cut to 2-1 in the fourth inning when Terrmel Sledge reached second on an error, went to third on a sacrifice and scored on Paul Day’s sacrifice fly.

It was all Long Beach could do offensively, and Miami added the game’s final run in the fifth when Jason Michaels scored on Manny Crespo’s sacrifice fly.

“We needed to come up with some big hits,” said Snow, in his fourth College World Series and facing elimination after his opening game for the fourth time. “We needed somebody to come up with a big hit and we couldn’t quite get it done.

“When you look at it, two of our hits were bunts. It was an outstanding pitching performance.”

It was a radical departure from the first game, which Arizona State won when Willie Bloomquist scored in the seventh inning on Scott Proctor’s wild pitch to break a 10-10 tie.

The 21 runs scored by Arizona State--which meets Miami on Sunday--and Florida State equaled a College World Series record for most runs in an opening game, set in the first game of the first series, in 1947, when California beat Yale, 17-4. The Bulldog first baseman in that game was former President George Bush.

“I’m embarrassed by the way we played,” Seminole Coach Mike Martin said after his club had fallen behind, 8-2, then rallied to take a 10-8 lead on Jeremy Salazar’s grand slam, his second homer of the game.

Florida State made six errors, three by shortstop Brett Groves, but still had a chance to tie the game in the seventh inning. That was cut down when Arizona State right fielder Mikel Moreno threw out Karl Jernigan at the plate when Jernigan was trying to score from second base on Terry Henderson’s single.

“We can’t expect to win the way we played today,” Salazar said.

And Long Beach State can’t expect to win the way it hit.

But then again, Florida State doesn’t have Alex Santos.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Today’s Games

No. 5 LOUISIANA STATE (46-17)

vs. No. 4 USC (44-16)

* Time: 10:30 a.m. PDT.

* TV: Channel 2. * Radio: KPLS (830)

The two-time defending national champion Tigers start right-hander Jake Esteves (9-2, 5.01 ERA), a Californian from Auburn, against USC’s Seth Etherton (12-3, 2.86), who was named The Sporting News’ college player of the year on Friday. Etherton was joined by teammate Jack Krawczyk, a relief pitcher, on that publication’s All-America team. LSU catcher Brad Cresse also made the squad.

***

No. 8 MISSISSIPPI STATE (41-21)

vs. No. 1 FLORIDA (46-16)

* Time: 4:30 p.m. PDT

* TV: ESPN2

The Bulldogs start sophomore Matt Ginter (5-4, 5.06) against top-seeded Florida, which will have left-hander Brad Wilkerson (10-4, 4.45) on the mound. Wilkerson has a 3-0 record this season against Mississippi State, two of them 6-5 victories.