A midweek rematch of last week’s 23-run affair proved to be the antithesis of the former.

The Dirtbags scored the sole two runs of the game as the Bruins were shut out for the first time since March 2023.

Long Beach State (9-1-1) defeated UCLA baseball (5-6) by a score of 2-0 Wednesday night at Blair Field. The Bruins squandered multiple run-scoring opportunities and were ultimately unable to capitalize on outings by freshmen right-handers Landon Stump and Luke Rodriguez that kept them in the game till the very end.

“We just got to play better,” said coach John Savage. “We got to be better offensively, left nine guys on base, and we just, unfortunately, cannot come up with the big hit.”

From the onset, the midweek contest had the makings of a pitchers’ duel, with nine of the first 12 batters going down on strikes.

Stump struck out five consecutive batters from the first to the second inning. He said he was getting strike calls around an area of the strike zone and attacked there.

“I noticed he (the umpire) was giving a lot low in the zone,” Stump said. “It was just taking advantage of what the umpire has given me, just trying to get better counts.”

However, the Bruins fell behind in the third inning, as the Dirtbags maximized on a one-out double and followed it up with a single and sacrifice fly that led to the game’s first run.

Stump completed the first four innings only allowing one run and striking out eight before being relieved by Rodriguez, who would complete three scoreless innings of his own while striking out two.

“I was commanding the fastball well,” Rodriguez said. “I was just trying to make pitches out there, not trying to get into the crowd or anything that was going on.”

Savage said he was proud of his freshman pitchers for the way they performed in a difficult road environment.

“To go into that environment on the road and pitch that effectively, it says a lot about their progression as growing pitchers,” Savage said. “It’s really exciting for those guys. Two really good outings by two freshmen in a hostile environment.”

The Bruins had their best chance of scoring in the eighth inning.

Following an error, UCLA executed a hit-and-run, with freshman infielder Roch Cholowsky punching a ground ball through the gap where the second baseman would have otherwise stood. Junior infielder Cody Schrier’s coinciding stolen base attempt shifted the defender away from the position, allowing both runners to advance safely.

But with runners on first and third and no outs, the following three Bruin batters would all strike out, letting a promising opportunity slip by and keeping the game at 1-0.

“We got to be able to put the ball in play there,” Savage said. “Get that run in from third base with less than two outs.”

After a second Long Beach run came home in the bottom of the eighth, UCLA was unable to put together anything in the ninth, striking out twice to seal the shutout loss.

The Bruins struck out 14 times, surpassing their season-high of 11, while only amounting six hits and one extra-base hit – their third straight game with eight or fewer hits and only one extra-base hit.

Savage put it bluntly on what his lineup has to improve on as Pac-12 play begins Friday.

“We got to have better, tougher at-bats,” Savage said.