Bautista Dominates Freebirds in Series Opener

LONG BEACH, CA – The Long Beach Coast (41-11) toppled the Yuba-Sutter Freebirds (15-37) in a lopsided Thursday night 11-1 final at Blair Field.

The Coast, who rebranded as the alternate identity “Regulators” for the weekend series, started their seventh series against the Marysville-based franchise. Nick Bautista was rolling early in his fourth game against Yuba-Sutter. In the first 10 batters he faced, Bautista allowed four on base, but left all four stranded.

Freebirds infielder Isaac Nunez hit an infield single to start the third inning, reaching third but did not score with the following three Freebirds retired in order. This began a streak of 13 consecutive batters that Bautista retired from the top of the third to the top of the seventh, ending on a second-pitch single by Freebirds outfielder Christian Castaneda. 

Bautista finished seven innings on the mound, having faced 26 batters and allowing only five of them aboard. Bautista concluded his eighth start for Long Beach with 104 pitches where he tied his season high of nine strikeouts, also the most by a Long Beach pitcher in a single appearance.

While Bautista was keeping the Freebirds offense stagnant, his offense provided a bounty of run support – 11 runs in the third through fifth innings. First baseman Cuba Bess took the first and only lead of the game for Long Beach in the bottom of the third on an error by Isaac Nunez that scored leadoff hitter Eddy Pelc.

The Regulators broke ahead further in the bottom of the fourth, sending 10 batters to the plate against the first Freebirds bullpen arm, Ryan Velazquez. The Freebirds righty had two outs with the bases loaded, but dished three two-run hits in the next four batters he faced, allowing six runs to score for an 8-0 lead.

Velazquez returned to the mound in the subsequent inning, serving three more runs to Long Beach, capped off by a Cooper Vest solo shot to right field for his 10th home run of the season and his first at Blair Field.

Long Beach reliever Jaxon Byrd allowed the only run of the game to the Freebirds after a two-out walk scored on a dropped fly ball to Eddy Pelc in center field, marking the run unearned, but losing the shutout.

Byrd finished the game in the ninth, facing four batters and securing the sixth double-digit victory for Long Beach on the season. Eight of the nine Long Beach starters all reached on a hit at least once for a total of 14. 

Tyler Young and Jaylen Edmonds both got back into the hit column to break out of droughts – Young, with a single in the sixth, earned his first hit in 10 at-bats, tracing back to June 17. Edmonds broke a 15 at-bat hitless streak with a single when he entered the game in the top of the eighth, dating back to May 30.

Matthew Bardowell went 4-for-5 for his third four-hit game on the season, also the team’s twelfth. Long Beach won the series opener, extending their win streak to eight, as well as five straight wins at Blair Field. 

Long Beach is now 30 games above .500 and 4-0 in the second half. The Coast, as the “Regulators”, will look to take their sixth series win over Yuba-Sutter this weekend, starting with a game at 4:35 PM PDT on Saturday night. The Beach Ball Pregame Show will kick off at 4:15 PM on HomeTeam Network and Long Beach Coast on YouTube.

Joey Miller