LONG BEACH, Calif.­-Even before Austin Booker struck out looking to end the Cal baseball team's run at the NCAA tournament, much had already gone wrong for the Bears.

David Cooper had struck out swinging in what was probably his final at-bat in a Cal uniform. Josh Satin had done the same. Typically lights-out relievers Matt Gorgen and Kevin Miller had been tagged by the Long Beach State offense for a combined five runs in three innings.

By the time Booker looked at strike three for the final out in the bottom of the ninth on Saturday at Blair Field, sealing the Bears' 9-2 loss to the Dirtbags, it had been clear for several innings that Cal was headed for a premature exit from its first postseason appearance in six years.

"The unfortunate thing is we didn't really get to show how well we can play while we're here," Bears coach David Esquer said. "We didn't play good baseball. We competed well, and our effort was great. We just didn't play the quality baseball that got us here."

Cal was shut out by San Diego and left-handed starter Brian Matusz on Friday afternoon, falling 5-0 to drop into the loser's bracket at the Long Beach regional. Facing elimination against the host Dirtbags, the Bears were simply unable to find the offensive rhythm that had carried them the entire year.

After falling behind 5-0 to LBSU in the top of the fourth inning, Cal right fielder Blake Smith broke the Bears' 12-inning scoreless streak by following a single from Satin with a two-run home run that cleared the wall in center field. But Smith's homer was all the offense that Cal could manage against Dirtbags starter Brett Lorin, who gave up just four hits in five innings.

"The left-handed hitters destroyed us up at Cal earlier in the year," LBSU coach Mike Weathers said. "I don't know if it was Blair Field or just the guys on the mound, but I thought Brett did a really good job controlling the left-handed hitters."

After Lorin exited the game in the sixth, three LBSU relievers held the Bears hitless for the final four innings. In its two games at the regional, the Cal lineup collected a total of just seven hits.

"All year, we lived with our bats," Satin said. "That's how we won games. We just got cold at the wrong time. If this had been a month ago, we'd still be playing right now."

The Bears had an opportunity to take a lead in the bottom of the first when Cooper blooped a one-out single into left field with Rich Gorman on second base. But Dirtbags left fielder Jonathan Jones threw a strike to catcher Travis Howell to cut down Gorman at the plate and erase the threat.

"If they'd scored, they would've had momentum," Jones said. "That just took their momentum, and we used it to our advantage."

Esquer agreed that it was an early turning point.

"The momentum changed for us," he said. "That's what we needed was to get our feet on the ground, and we never really did that."

It was eerily similar to the fourth inning of Cal's loss on Friday, when Smith was cut down at home trying to score from third on a ground ball in a scoreless game. Smith had doubled to lead off the inning and reached third on a sacrifice bunt by Michael Brady. But with the Toreros playing their infield in, second baseman Kevin Hansen was able to throw Smith out at the plate on a slow chopper from Mark Canha, even with Smith going on contact.

It was as close as the Bears would get to scoring off of Brian Matusz.

San Diego's left-handed ace pitched his third complete game of the year, holding Cal to three hits and striking out 10.

"Matusz pitched a great ballgame, one of the best pitching performances that we've had against us," Esquer said.

Bears ace Tyson Ross did match zeros with Matusz for the first five innings, facing just two batters over the minimum.

But the Toreros pushed across a run in the bottom of the sixth on a two-out RBI double by shortstop Sean Nicol. The ball appeared to bounce out of center fielder Brett Jackson's glove as he leapt up against the center-field wall, allowing Josh Romanski to score from first and breaking the scoreless tie.

"Brett got a great jump on it, but that ball was crushed," Smith said. "He made a great play. Anytime you're jumping into a concrete wall like that, it went into his glove, came out. There's not much he could've done."

Then the floodgates opened in the seventh, as San Diego capitalized on an error by Bears left fielder Charlie Cutler to score four more runs off of Ross. That was more than Matusz needed, as he allowed just one runner in the final two innings to cement his 12th win of the year.

It was an unusual end to Cal's season, considering the prolific numbers that the Bears' bats put up for most of the year. Cal, which had played the first 51 games of the season without being shut out, was blanked in three of its last five games.

"It's one of those times where it happened at a bad time and we're going to have to live with that," Satin said. "But we had a great year. It's the best year we've had since I've been here, the most fun and the most rewarding. Can't be that disappointed."

Tags: NCAA BASEBALL REGIONAL