5:25 p.m. So the Bears go out not with a bang, but with a whimper. Austin Booker looks at an inside fastball for strike three, and Long Beach State lives to play another day with a 9-2 victory over Cal. It’s a disappointing end to a dream season in which the Bears ascended to No. 6 in the country before coming back down to earth at USC and Arizona State. And then, in their first postseason appearance in six years, the Bears go two and out at the Long Beach regional.

That’s all for today from Long Beach. Check Monday’s Daily Californian for full coverage of this weekend’s action.

5:18 p.m. In another nod towards seniority, Dane Ferguson comes in with two outs to try to record the final out for the Bears, facing Jonathan Jones with a runner on third.

Ferguson hits Jones with an inside fastball and walks Brandon Godfrey on four pitches, but he settles in enough to coax a ground ball to first base out of Shane Peterson. Cal goes into its last at-bat still down by seven runs. It’ll be Satin leading off, followed by Jackson and probably a pinch hitter. Ryan Hanlon was swinging a bat between innings and it looks like Austin Booker might have a helmet on.

The PA system is playing “The Final Countdown.” It’s ominous.

5:08 p.m. In what was most likely his final at-bat in a Cal uniform, David Cooper struck out flailing at a fastball outside to end the eighth inning with the Bears still trailing, 9-2. It’s a fitting end to his time here at the tournament, and very much not a fitting end to his college career. Cooper has been one of college baseball’s most dangerous hitters since his freshman season at Cal State Fullerton and has only improved in his two years in a Bears uniform. He’s projected as a possible first-round draft pick and he’s got a bright future ahead of him.

Senior Brett Thomas is now catching for Cal, adding a little feel-good story to the end of an otherwise disappointing tournament appearance. Thomas hasn’t seen a lot of playing time in his career with the Bears, but is definitely one of Cal’s most respected players and the ideal teammate. It’s fitting that he should be on the diamond for the final inning of his career.

The Bears will have Josh Satin leading off the bottom of the ninth.

4:53 p.m. Long Beach State tacks on another two runs in the top of the eighth as Blake Smith walks the bases loaded with one out and gives up a two-run single to Jason Corder. The pace of this game is starting to slow down dramatically, which really doesn’t seem to favor the Bears. They have no kind of rhythm on the field. It’s like they’re being lulled right out of the tournament. Already down seven, they need to put at least a couple on the board here in the eighth to have any chance at completing the comeback.

B.J. Guinn pinch hits for Michael Brady to lead off the eighth, but can’t provide a spark as he’s thrown out at first on a nice play by Dirtbags shortstop Danny Espinosa. So now it’s back to the top of the order for the Bears, down to their last five outs. As a San Francisco Giants fan, it really pains me to say this, but the Angels were down to their last five outs in Game Six of the 2002 World Series, too.

4:24 p.m. Seventh inning stretch here in Long Beach and Cal is running out of chances to get back into this game. Fortunately for the Bears, they’re the home team in this game so they have nine more outs to work with before the door closes on this season.

Blake Smith is leading off the inning for Cal, followed by Michael Capbarat and Jeff Kobernus.

4:15 p.m. The Dirtbags finally go down in an inning without scoring. Gorgen still walks two guys, but neither of them come around to score and the score stays at 7-2.

David Cooper sees just one pitch leading off the bottom of the sixth and grounds out to Jason Tweedy at second base. I can’t remember the last time David Cooper swung at a first pitch that wasn’t right in his wheelhouse. It’s possible that he just isn’t trusting himself late in the count like he was earlier in the year. One at-bat comes to mind from the Bears’ series against Loyola Marymount where he fell behind 0-2, worked the count back to full, fouled off a couple pitches and then hit a home run to the wall of Edwards Stadium in right-center field of Evans Diamond. Right now he looks off-balance, swinging at a lot of changeups away and looking at fastballs on the inside corner.

Blake Smith has relieved Matt Gorgen to start the top of the seventh.

3:53 p.m. Rich Gorman walks with two outs, but Charlie Cutler strikes out swinging on a high fastball for the second time today. Score is still 7-2 in favor of Long Beach State.

It looks like Tonneson’s a little more shaken up from running into the backstop than he let on at first. Esquer just took him out of the game and moved Cutler behind the plate, with Michael Capbarat coming into the game in left. Capbarat was stinging the ball in batting practice. Maybe he’ll give them a lift. Somebody needs to.

3:43 p.m. Long Beach State puts up a two-spot against Gorgen in the top of the fifth to make it 7-2. Again, they’re just singling the Bears to death. The Dirtbags start the inning with three straight singles and a double before Gorgen stops the parade around the bases by getting Kip Masuda to ground into a fielder’s choice, with Dylan Tonneson tagging out Jason Corder in a rundown between third and home.

Gorgen does settle down a little after that. He loads up the bases on a bunt single, but strikes out Travis Howell on a fastball on the outside corner and gets Jordan Casas to fly out to Charlie Cutler to end the inning.

Still, the Bears can’t be playing this game where they take an inch and then give it right back. Long Beach State has now scored in four straight innings and, unless the Cal lineup suddenly catches on fire, they’re going to need the pitching to come up with some stops. That means Gorgen, although lefty Todd Fitzgerald and right fielder Blake Smith have both been warming up in the pen.

3:18 p.m. Blake Smith just got the Bears on the board with an absolute shot over the wall in center field. I mean, that ball was crushed. He just muscled up on a high fastball from Lorin and hit it over the Long Beach Mini-Cooper sign just to left of the 400 foot marker on the center-field fence. That was probably a good 420 feet and it scores Josh Satin from first base to make the score 5-2 in favor of the Dirtbags.

So much for not relying on the home run. Maybe that gave the offense the jump start that they needed. At least it broke Cal’s 12-inning scoreless streak here in Long Beach.

And Matt Gorgen is coming out to start the fifth inning for the Bears. So Miller goes one inning and gives up three runs, and now it’s up to Gorgen to keep it close. If nothing else, this means that Miller’s fresh to go tomorrow or Monday, should Cal get that far.

3:14 p.m. Long Beach State breaks through for three more runs against Kevin Miller in the top of the fourth inning to go up by a score of 5-0.

Getting out of jams is what has made Miller so good and so reliable all year. Here, he puts runners on first and second with one out and Long Beach State head coach David Weathers has Kip Masuda bunt. On a 3-1 count. That’s the kind of decision where Weathers gets second-guessed all day long if Jason Tweedy doesn’t follow up with a hit. But Tweedy shoots a line drive into right field and instead of having runners on first and third with two down and one run in, both runners score and the Dirtbags are all of a sudden up by four. Gutsy call and it paid off. Travis Howell tacks on the third run with an RBI single.

That’s the thing about Long Beach State. You look down their starting lineup and see one guy with double-digit home runs, four guys with zero home runs and a harmless total of 27. Cal’s starters, on the other hand, have a combined total of 72. But that won’t fly here at Blair Field, where it’s 348 to both foul poles and the fence curves out almost immediately to 387 moving towards center. The Dirtbags are killing Cal right now with singles–sharp line drives and grounders up the middle.

The Bears, meanwhile, have Gorman’s line drive up the middle, Cooper’s bloop that fell in left and a sharp single by Josh Satin into right field. So far that’s it. They need to start stringing those hits together soon.

2:52 p.m. Rich Gorman lines a two-out single up the middle and steals second, but Charlie Cutler goes down swinging on a fastball at his eyes and the Bears are still scoreless through three innings.

Kevin Miller is out to start the fourth. Back at the beginning of the year, when Cal swept LBSU at home, Miller threw 2 2/3 innings in the Saturday game and didn’t give up a hit after Bennigson gave up six runs in four innings. The Bears came back to win that game, 10-6.

Cal catcher Dylan Tonneson just ran into the wall of the backstop chasing a foul ball and we felt the tremors from 15 rows up. And he just let a third strike from Miller scoot by him. The trainer’s out to see how badly he’s shaken up, but he’s staying in the game. Tough kid.

2:45 p.m. Jonathan Jones singles up the middle to score Howell from second and Long Beach State goes up 2-0. Luckily for Bennigson, Brandon Godfrey follows up by hitting a line drive straight to Michael Brady on a hit-and-run and Brady throws over to first to double up Jones. Again, Bennigson gets out of a jam with only a run scored. Ask Esquer and he’ll probably say that Bennigson did his job. Cal’s only down 2-0 after 2 1/2 and now it’s time for the Miller’s, Smith’s and Gorgen’s of the world.

Blair Field sure feels like a long way from Evans Diamond, what with the near-full stands, “Long Beach State” chants and the self-appointed (I’m guessing) 10-man cheer squad in the upper rows of the first-base bleachers. Charlie Cutler just swung and missed at a fastball away and a middle-aged guy told him, “Hey batter, open your eyes!” I’m pretty sure that guy has his kids with him. Different meaning for “family outing” down here.

2:34 p.m. Cal goes quietly in the second inning. Jackson makes some solid contact but flies out to center, Blake Smith strikes out on a breaking ball in the dirt and Dylan Tonneson grounds out harmlessly to third base.

Bennigson’s out to start the third inning. If you’re a glass-half-full kind of person, you can focus on the fact that he hasn’t given up a hit yet.

Never mind. Before the period is typed on that last sentence, Travis Howell–the ninth-place hitter–lines a sharp single into right field and he moves to second base on a sacrifice by Jordan Casas. The Dirtbags are threatening again with a runner on 2nd and Jonathan Jones at the plate with one out. We’ll see how long Bennigson’s leash is.

2:26 p.m. The Dirtbags strike first in this elimination game. With runners on second and third after Espinosa’s sacrifice, designated hitter Kip Masuda hits a weak grounder to Satin at second, slow enough to score Shane Peterson from third base to make the score 1-0.

To his credit, Bennigson minimizes the damage by clutching up and striking out Jason Tweedy on an outside curveball to end the inning. Esquer will probably send him out to start the third but at the first sign of trouble, Kevin Miller looks ready in the pen.

Brett Jackson will lead off the bottom of the second for the Bears. After 1 1/2, it’s Long Beach 1, Cal 0.

2:20 p.m. Bottom of the first sees another Cal opportunity squandered. Rich Gorman works a walk out of an eight-pitch at-bat to lead off the game, Charlie Cutler bunt him over to second and David Cooper (still looking uncomfortable at the plate) dumps a bloop single into left field. But third base coach Jon Zuber sends Gorman and Dirtbags left fielder Jonathan Jones throws a strike to the plate. I mean, that throw couldn’t have been in a better spot and Gorman never even made it to the plate, thanks to a nice blocking job by catcher Travis Howell.

So the scoring drought continues. Hopefully this doesn’t have a big effect on Cal’s psyche. Josh Satin said after the UCLA series that when the scoreless streak got to 13 innings, the team started to panic, but that all they needed was to score a run to get back to normal.

Bennigson has started the second inning off kind of wild. He’s thrown six balls in a row, waling Shane Peterson and going 2-0 to Jason Corder. Now it’s seven in a row. Throwing over to first a couple times isn’t helping either. Dan Hubbs is already out to talk to his lefty and freshman Kevin Miller is warming up quickly in the bullpen. If Bennigson loses Corder he might still get to face Espinosa, since the LBSU shortstop is a switch-hitter.

And there’s the walk to Corder. If Bennigson doesn’t get an out in this at-bat, he’s done.

2:02 p.m. Well, that was quick. Bennigson gets Casas on the popout, Jonathan Jones on a groundout to shortstop Michael Brady and Brandon Godfrey on a weak one-hopper to Josh Satin at second. That’s a seven-pitch inning for Bennigson.

Now we see if putting Rich Gorman back at the top of the lineup can jog the Cal offense at all. Now isn’t a good time for the Bears to fall back into that slump that they had for the first two games of the UCLA series. Go scoreless for 19 innings here and your season’s done.

Here comes Gorman to the plate. It’ll be the diminutive (but dangerous) designated hitter, left fielder Charlie Cutler and first baseman David Cooper.

1:58 p.m. Just about five minutes away from first pitch here in Long Beach. It comes down to this for these two teams. Either Cal rebounds from being shut out yesterday by San Diego or it makes the lonely trip back up north, winless in its first NCAA tournament appearance in six years.

Craig Bennigson gets the start for the Bears. Coach David Esquer is a big proponent of getting his best pitchers “meaningful innings,” which gives him license to bring in guys like Blake Smith or Matt Gorgen as early as the fourth or fifth innings. If it’s close, Esquer brings Gorgen in to keep it that way. If the Bears are falling behind early, then Gorgen comes in as a stopper.

Here comes Bennigson’s first pitch to Long Beach State center fielder Jordan Casas. Casas bunts at a fastball and pops it right back to Bennigson. One pitch, one out. Not a bad start. Updates every half inning to follow, as per the rules of the NCAA.