Long Beach State’s Jones Silences Oklahoma

BATON ROUGE, La. — No official criteria exist to define a “staff ace,” but Marcus Jones sure looks like the poster boy for the job.

Subjective though the standards may be, Jones would score high on any such test. The guy possesses whatever you could want in your No. 1 starter and he proved it again Thursday.

Masterfully mixing pitches and working quickly, Jones dominated Oklahoma while leading Long Beach State to a 1-0 victory in the opening round of the NCAA South I Regional in front of 1,866 at Alex Box Stadium. Long Beach will play South Alabama (41-17) at 5:30 tonight.

“Marcus came up real big,” said Long Beach Coach Dave Snow, whose fourth-seeded team improved to 38-24. “I’ve seen him with better stuff, but I don’t know if I’ve seen him mix his pitches better in a big game.”

The junior right-hander from Esperanza High gave up two hits, struck out seven and walked none. He pitched his sixth complete game of the season--and the 49ers’ sixth.

Jones (11-5) faced only two batters over the minimum and retired the last 23 Sooners in a row. And he didn’t labor to do it, finishing off the Big 12 Conference tournament champions (39-19) in just under 2 hours.

Designated hitter Brandon Hyde gave Jones the only run he would need in the top of the third inning with his third home run, a towering shot to left off Oklahoma left-hander Jeff Andra (10-5). Andra nearly matched Jones pitch for pitch, giving up four hits and one run in 7 2/3 innings.

“I was looking for something to drive, something to get an inning going,” Hyde said. “He just kind of hung it up there for me.”

From there, it was all Jones.

“He pitched outstanding, he pitched about as well as you can pitch to anybody,” said Oklahoma Coach Larry Cochell, whose team is seeded third. “He made good pitches and he had our hitters off balance all day. That was the first time we have been shut out in a long time.”

Since 1993, to be exact. The streak spanned 242 games, but impressive history didn’t help the Sooners against Jones.

“I threw a pretty good game, but the defense was bigger than anything today,” said Jones, who has given up only five earned runs in his last 34 2/3 innings. “I wouldn’t have done anything without my defense.”

For their part, the 49ers did everything right behind Jones. And things worked out even when they didn’t go as planned.

With one out and none on in the bottom of the eighth, Oklahoma’s Richard Park hit a high fly to deep center. Long Beach center fielder J.J. Newkirk slipped while backing up and slipped again while trying to get up. But Newkirk, stretched out on the field, stayed with the play and backhanded the ball for an out.

“The key was it stayed in front of me,” Newkirk said. “My first instinct was to just reach out my glove and it fell right into it.”

Long Beach sure needed a few breaks. Cal State Fullerton routed Long Beach in two games Sunday en route to the Big West Conference tournament title, and Long Beach had lost six of its last 10 games.

So Long Beach wanted to start off on the right foot in the regionals, stay out of the losers’ bracket and try to avoid making a quick regional exit like last season. And it’s really no surprise that Jones came through again, because that’s what aces do.

“It was just one of those days when you have a lot of things happening good for you,” Jones said. “It was just a good day.”

In other South I first-round games:

South Alabama 12, Houston 6--An eight-run rally in the seventh inning carried the Jaguars (41-17) to their 16th victory in 17 games.

South Alabama went through five Houston pitchers in the inning, during which the Jaguars overcame a 5-4 deficit.

UNC-Greensboro-LSU suspended--Heavy rain caused the day’s final first-round game to be be suspended with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning.