Freshman Comes Through in Eighth for Series Win

Saturday, February 23

Long Beach, Calif.

2:00 PM

Long Beach State University

2-0

Rice

0-2

Rice

Long Beach State

2/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

Feb. 23, 2008

Box Score

LONG BEACH - Freshman Devin Lohman came through with the go-ahead single in the eighth and Danny Espinosa went 3-for-4 with a double and a home run to lead No. 13-ranked Long Beach State (2-0) to a 3-2 victory over No. 6-ranked Rice (0-2) on Saturday afternoon.

Espinosa scored the go-ahead run from second after leading off the eighth with a single off of reliever and loser Chris Kelley (0-1). He was sacrificed to second and got in ahead of the tag of catcher Adam Zornes.

Nick Vincent (1-0) pitched a scoreless eighth for the win, before yielding to Bryan Shaw in the ninth. Shaw, one of 40 initial members for college's Stopper of the Year, used just 13 pitches to pitch a perfect ninth. Shaw struck out Jordan Dodson and JP Padron to close out the game.

Vance Worley struck out five and walked one in first start since April 5, going the first seven innings for LBSU. He scattered eight hits, rolled three double play balls and got a strike out in five of his first six innings, giving up the tying run in the seventh to make it 2-2.

Espinosa, last night's hero, doubled the score in the third, hitting a solo shot on the first pitch from Cole St. Clair to give LBSU a 2-0 lead.

LBSU scored an unearned run in the first as Espinosa scored from second after a two-out double. First baseman Abe Gonzalez could not field a grounder off Shane Peterson's bat, giving the Dirtbags a 1-0 lead.

St. Clair went a pre-determined 4.0 innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on four hits, making his first start after serving as Rice's closer last year.

The series concludes on Sunday at 1 p.m. Please check the longbeachstate.com website for weather updates.