Report by LBSU

Long Beach State brought the lumber for a second straight day, defeating UNLV 10-1 on 12 hits, including senior TJ Mittelstaedt’s 17th career triple, breaking the Long Beach State record.

Jake Thompson threw 7.2 innings, striking out five and allowing just a lone run while Long Beach State’s offense did the rest. The Dirtbags had five players with two hits, including Mittelstaedt with his triple, while every player except for Derek Legg nabbed a hit on the day.

For the second day in a row, Long Beach State grabbed an early lead by scoring in the first. Brennan Metzger was hit to start the game, and after two outs, Steve Tinoco doubled to score Metzger and give the Dirtbags a lead. Long Beach State scored three more in the second inning, as another hit batter start the inning, and after a single from Kirk Singer, a wild pitch and an RBI groundout scored two more runs  on the way to a 4-0 lead.

Leading 5-0 in the fifth, Mittelsteadt pulled a 3-1 offering to right center and the hit rolled to the wall, giving the senior his 17th triple of his career, and fourth of the season to start the inning. Jonathan Jones followed with an RBI single to score one more for The Beach.

Continuing to score, Long Beach State led 8-0 in the bottom of the eighth when Thompson finally ran into his first real trouble. After walking the leadoff batter, Thompson surrendered a single to Cash Thompson to put two runners on. Thompson battled through though, getting a grounder up the middle for the first out while surrendering a run, and a popup for the second out in the inning. Jason Markovitz then came on and struck out Brandon Bayardi to end the inning.

Markovitz pitched a scoreless ninth after the Dirtbags scored two more runs in the top of the inning on three straight hits, including a triple from Metzger.

The Dirtbags go for the sweep tomorrow on the road at UNLV, with a 1 p.m. start time at Wilson Stadium.