Reports From LBSU
Long Beach State batted around in a big third inning, but failed to keep the Huskies off the board in an 11-9 loss to Washington at Blair Field on Friday night. Brennan Metzger was 3-for-5 with two RBI and a triple for the Dirtbags.
Starter Jake Thompson survived a couple of scares in the early innings. In the second, the Huskies led off the inning with a double, and with runners on first and third with one out, Thompson struck out Anselment and got a ground ball to end the inning. Then in the third, the Dirtbags threw out a runner at home for the second out, and Thompson struck out Jacob Lamb to end the inning.
The Dirtbags got rolling in the bottom of the third with a one-out rally. Derek Legg was hit by a pitch andKellen Hoime singled to put runners on the corners. Brennan Metzger then beat out a squeeze bunt to get Long Beach State on the board. Hits from Casas and Terdoslavich continued the inning, and the Dirtbags would finish with six runs after a RBI single from Legg in his second at-bat of the inning.
Washington would answer with four runs of its own in the top of the fourth. Thompson hit and walked the first two batters, and four additional singles in the inning off of the junior and reliever Jason Markovitz brought home four runs.
Markovitz was solid in relief for the Dirtbags over the next inning and a third, striking out four and holding off the Huskies while the Long Beach State offense got back to work. Steve Tinoco was hit by a pitch to start off the Dirtbag fifth, and a single by TJ Mittlestaedt put two runners on for Hoime who hit a two-run single to put Long Beach State ahead 8-4. Metzger’s triple in the next at-bat made the score 9-4 for Long Beach State.
Washington’s bullpen would stop the Dirtbags the rest of the way, and a disastrous seventh inning led to the loss. With four pitchers seeing action in the inning, the Huskies would come all the way back, taking full advantage of a Long Beach State error to score seven runs, six unearned on four hits, led by doubles from Troy Scott and Doug Cherry.
David Brown pitched the final 2.1 innings for Long Beach State, allowing one hit and no runs, while Andrew Kittredge picked up the save for Washington with a scoreless ninth.
Due to rain forecast for Saturday, the start time for game two has been moved up to Noon on March 6 from an original starting time of 5:30 p.m. Gates will open at 10 a.m., with Andrew Gagnon getting the start for the Dirtbags.