Jonathan Jones cracked his first homer of his career to give the Dirtbags the lead, but San Diego State rallied to win 6-3 Tuesday night.

Ryan O’Sullivan picked up the win for San Diego State, going eight innings with four strikeouts for the Aztecs. That performance was enough for the Aztecs, as the team hit three home runs on the night.

After Jeff Lease worked out of a couple jams in the early innings, Long Beach State struck first in the top of the third inning, as Jonathan Jones hit the first home run of his collegiate career, a solo shot to left field to put The Beach up 1-0.

San Diego State quickly recovered in the bottom half of the inning. A leadoff walk and a double by Brandon Meredith put two runners on for San Diego State. A Jason Markovitz balk scored one run, and then another run scored on a fielder’s choice to give the Aztecs the lead.

The Aztecs continued to build their lead courtesy of the long ball through the middle innings, with a solo shot by Josh Chasse in the fourth and a two-run homer by Cory Vaughn in the fifth put San Diego State up 5-1.

The Dirtbags hustled their way into a pair of runs in the seventh inning. Steve Tinoco and Devin Lohman started the inning with a pair of singles, and both moved into scoring position with a wild pitch from O’Sullivan. Jordan Casas hit a grounder deep in the hole to shortstop and beat the play at first. Lohman was closely following Tinoco around and beat the throw home to score from second on the play.

Vaughn homered again in the eighth inning, hitting a line shot just over the wall to increase the Aztecs lead to 6-3. Addison Reed then entered for SDSU, closing out the ninth for his 13th save of the year.

Long Beach State returns to Big West action this weekend, traveling to Pacific for a three-game series. Friday and Saturday’s games are scheduled for 5:30 p.m. starts, while Sunday is set for a 1 p.m. first pitch. Check www.longbeachstate.com or bigwest.tv for live coverage of all three games.

Report By LBSU