Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State University
2-1
USC
2-2
Espinosa's Blast Leads Beach to Series Win
2/4/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Dirtbags Take Series Behind Espinosa, Staff LOS ANGELES, CA-- Danny Espinosa drove in three runs and Robert Perry produced his third-straight multi-hit game, leading No. 30-ranked Long Beach State (2-1) to a 5-1, series clinching victory over host No. 25-ranked USC (2-2) on Sunday afternoon. The victory made a winner out of Omar Arif (1-0), who pitched the first four shutout innings, and picked up a save for Andrew Liebel, who pitched the final three scoreless innings. Espinosa's homer, a three-run shot off of reliever Shawn Olsen in the seventh, broke open the game and gave LBSU a 5-1 lead. It was Olsen's first pitch of the game. Arif (1-0) started and had his longest outing in three seasons, going four pre-determined shutout innings, giving up just two hits on 73 pitches. The TCU transfer pitched to the minimum over the first two innings in his first LBSU appearance, retiring five in a row, before getting into some trouble in the third.Following a single back up the middle and a misjudged flyball over the head of Jason Corder for a double, Arif got a fielder's choice followed by a strikeout. Then following a bases loaded walk to Matt Cusick, he got a groundball to second to keep LBSU up 2-0. Andre Lamontagne came on in the fifth and gave up one run on three hits in two thirds of an inning, before Jason Markovitz got Lucas Duda to groundout to end the threat and keep it at 2-1. Long Beach State took an early lead thanks to an RBI single by Jason Corder, before a fielder's choice in the second plated Steve Tinoco to make it 2-0. USC starter Anthony Vasquez, after a tough start, settled down to throw six innings, giving up two runs on six hits over six innings. The Dirbags travel to Pepperdine on Tuesday for a contest at 2 p.m., before coming home to host Texas in a three-game series starting on Friday. |
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Arif, Omar (1-0)
L: Anthony Vasquez (0-1)
S: Liebel, Andrew (1)
Batting:
3B: Cline, Matt 1
HR: Espinosa, Danny 1
RBI: Corder, Jason 1 ; Espinosa, Danny 3 ; Krick, Taylor 1
SH: Cline, Matt 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Perry, Robert 2 ; McMurray, Bobby 1 ; Espinosa, Danny 1 ; Tinoco, Steve 1
CS: Perry, Robert 1 ; Krick, Taylor 1
PO: Krick, Taylor 1
Batting:
2B: Roberto Lopez 1
RBI: Cusick 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Derek Perren 1
