Long Beach State University Athletics
Dirtbags Host Three Pac-10 Games
2/19/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Dirtbags Fall by One at Rice HOUSTON, TX-- Texas native Omar Arif (1-2) returned to his home state and retired nine in a row into the seventh, for his longest career outing, but was the hard luck loser, as No. 20-ranked Long Beach State (5-4) lost the game and the series at No. 6-ranked Rice (5-4) 2-1. The Dirtbags had the game-tying run thrown out at the plate in the ninth to end the series, as pinch runner TJ Mittelstaedt was thrown out by a step at home following a bloop single by Allen Woods with two outs. Mittelstaedt had pinch-hit with two outs and worked a walk and was going with the 3-2 pitch to Woods, and was sent home after centerfielder Tyler Henley bobbled the ball. Henley though recovered to throw out Mittelstaedt. Arif struck out three and gave up just two runs on three hits. The Mesquite, Texas native pitched six and two-third innings, using just 80 pitches to shut down the Owls. Joe Savery (2-0) on a pre-determined four innings got the win, giving up one run on four hits, striking out four and walking none, leaving with a 2-1 lead. Ryne Tacker pitched the next five innings, giving up no runs on two hits for his second save. The Beach put two runners on in the sixth, before reliever Ryne Tacker struck out Danny Espinosa on a 3-2 pitch to keep it at 2-1. LBSU left four of their five runners in scoring position. The Beach tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth with a one-out RBI single from Espinosa, scoring Jason Corder from second. Corder had laced a double down the leftfield line, after Rice had taken a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third. A slow rolling groundball to short gave Rice a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth, scoring a runner from third with one out. The Dirtbags return home for a mini three-game jaunt, hosting UCLA on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., before hosting California for an abreviated two-game series on Friday at 6:30 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. LBSU than heads out on the road for seven games into mid-March. |
