Beach Have Now Lost 5 of Last 7 April 28, 2002 LONG BEACH, CA- After Long Beach State rallied to go ahead 9-8 in the eighth, UC Irvine (28-18, 9-3 BWC) scored three times in the top of the ninth, including two unearned runs to defeat the No. 15-ranked Dirtbags (26-15, 8-4 BWC) and sweep the series from their interstate rivals. The game lasted just four hours and 48 minutes. Neil Jamison (1-1) came in to try to close it in the ninth only to give up a lead off double to Steve Guthrie before Brett Dalton's one-out, RBI single tied it at 9-9. Then on a sacrifice bunt, throwing errors by two 49er infielders led to the go-ahead run. Jon Horwitz, who finished the day 5-for-6 with four RBIs, contributed an RBI single to give UCI a 11-9 lead. Irvine took a 6-1 lead after batting in their half of the fourth inning, chasing starter Jered Weaver from the game. Weaver lasted just 3.1 innings, striking out six, giving up the first six earned runs. Over the last seven games, the 49ers starters have struggled, posting a 7.11 ERA (25 ER in 31.2 IP). With four more errors today, The Beach have made 11 errors over those last seven contests. An RBI single by Brett Dalton followed by Jon Horwitz's two-run single gave UCI a 3-1 lead in the second. The Anteaters added three more in the fourth off a two-run single from Matt Anderson and an RBI single from Chris Miller. The Beach chipped away, scoring twice in the fourth and three more times in the sixth to close to within 7-6. An RBI triple from Jeremy Reed followed by a sacrifice fly from Paul Macaluso cut the lead to 6-3 in the fourth. Reed's triple extended his hitting streak to 11 games. A three-run homer from Kevin Randel brought LBSU to within 7-6 in the sixth. Glenn Swanson started for UCI and went 5.1 innings, giving up six runs (five earned) on eight hits, striking out six and walking just one. Irvine scored single runs off of reliever Chris Demaria in the sixth and seventh innings to lead 8-6. The 49ers rallied in the bottom of the eighth, scoring three unearned runs to lead 9-8. Shortstop B.J. Eucce's dropped throw on a potential double play ball, proved later to be costly for UCI. After Kevin Randel led off with a walk, Tim Hutting followed with a single before Chris Wright hit a ball to second baseman Brett Dalton. Dalton flipped to Eucce, only to watch the shortstop drop it to load the bases. After Nick Covarrubias struck out, Jeremy Reed followed with a two-run single to tie it at 8-8. Mike Hofius then followed with an RBI double to left center to give The Beach a 9-8 lead off of eventual winner Paul French (4-4). The Beach begin an eight-game road trip starting on Tuesday when they travel to Loyola Marymount. LBSU then travels to Cal Poly next weekend. BOX SCORE | 
