Liebel Beats Pacific for Series

Saturday, April 28

Stockton, Calif.

1:00 PM

Long Beach State University

26-14, 0

Pacific

10-33-1, 0

Long Beach State

Pacific

4/28/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

Liebel Shuts Down Tigers in First Collegiate Start
Former Setup Man Pitches Into the Eighth as Beach Take the Series

April 28, 2007

BOX SCORE

STOCKTON, CA-- Andrew Liebel (6-2), who had made 54 career relief appearances prior to Saturday, made his first collegiate start and pitched a career-best seven and two-third innings in leading No. 26-ranked Long Beach State (26-14, 6-2 Big West) to an 8-4 victory over host Pacific (10-33-1, 0-11 Big West) on an 94-degree day.

Liebel, who had a four-hit shutout through six innings, tired late in the game, surrending two runs in the seventh and another in the eighth, striking out five and walking one in the process. He surrendered nine hits as The Beach took their 10th series of the year.

Danny Espinosa had three hits for LBSU, while Shane Peterson had a double, a walk and a home run to extend his hit streak to 16 games, while Jason Corder and Travis Howell added two hit afternoons as part of a 14-hit attack.

Howell's second double of the day, a two-run shot off the 405 marker in center, extended the LBSU lead to 7-2, after the Tigers closed to within three runs in the seventh. The Beach then added a run off of Matt Cline's first hit of the series to make it 8-2.

Liebel worked out of a bases loaded jam in the second inning of a 1-0 game, and then settled down and retired 11 straight from the third until the seventh. After loading the bases with one out, Taylor Krick threw a runner out at the plate from third base, before a popup of Joe Oliveria preserved the shutout. Then Liebel gave up a one-out single in the third before retiring the next 11 batters into the seventh as the Dirtbags built a 5-0 lead. Liebel was working on a four-hit shutout, before hitting a batter to leadoff the seventh, and the Tigers plated two to make it 5-2.

The Dirtbags though built a 5-0 lead early for their former setup man.

It didn't take long for Peterson to extend his hit streak, as in his first at-bat in the second inning, he hit a solo home run in the second to make it 1-0. Peterson has now hit in 16-straight games. Jason Corder made it 2-0 in the fourth with a leadoff solo home run, before LBSU added a run off a double play ball to lead 3-0. The Dirtbags added two runs in the fifth off an RBI single from Robert Perry and another double play ball to lead 5-0.

The series finale is Sunday at 1 p.m.