Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State University
14-3
UCLA
10-6
Dirtbags Rout UCLA in Opener 13-3
3/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 21, 2008
WESTWOOD-- Travis Howell went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and No. 6-ranked Long Beach State (14-3) routed host No. 11-ranked UCLA (10-6) 13-3 on Friday evening. Howell ignited a five-run rally in the third and had RBIs in consecutive at-bats in the sixth and seventh innings.
Shane Peterson drove in two runs with separate RBI singles, as five players had multi-hit games in the 13-hit attack. The Dirtbags added four runs in the eighth to make it a rout at 12-3.
Andrew Liebel (2-0) pitched a steady seven innings for the win, scattering four hits, while giving up three runs (one earned). He retired seven in a row through the middle innings, with four of his six strikeouts coming over that time. He lowered his ERA to 1.14. He gave up just two hits after the first.
Tim Murphy (2-1) retired the first six batters of the game for UCLA, the first four by strikeout, before he surrendered five runs in the third inning. Howell started the inning with a single, before a two-run single by Corder gave the Dirtbags the lead at 3-1. An RBI single by Peterson made it 4-1, before a wild pitch with the bases loaded made it 5-1.
An RBI double by Howell, followed by an RBI single by Robert Burk made it 7-3 in the sixth and chased Murphy from the game. The Bruin lefthander had entered the game with a 2.35 ERA.
Howell added to the lead in the seventh with a two-out RBI single, making it 8-3.
Liebel got out of trouble in the first inning, as he gave up two hits, before two strikeouts and a running Jermaine Curtis was tagged out at the plate by Liebel on an errant pitch to keep it scoreless. Two unearned runs surrendered by Liebel were courtesy of Burk at second base, one in the first and another in the third.
Senior second baseman Jason Tweedy, who was hit on the hand in Tuesday's game, will miss the next four weeks after a pin was inserted in his non-throwing index finger on the left hand. Tweedy had played in 13 games this season.
The two-day, three-game series continues on Saturday with a doubleheader at Blair Field starting at 1 p.m. Tonight begins a streak of 14 games in 17 days for the Dirtbags.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Liebel, Andrew (2-0)
L: Murphy, Tim (2-1)
Batting:
2B: Howell, Travis 1 ; Jones, Jonathan 1
RBI: Espinosa, Danny 1 ; Corder, Jason 2 ; Peterson, Shane 2 ; Krick, Taylor 1 ; Tinoco, Steve 2 ; Howell, Travis 2 ; Burk, Robert 1
SH: Burk, Robert 1 ; Jones, Jonathan 1
SF: Krick, Taylor 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Espinosa, Danny 1 ; Sandoval, Rylan 2 ; Corder, Jason 2 ; Peterson, Shane 1 ; Krick, Taylor 1 ; Tinoco, Steve 1 ; Howell, Travis 2 ; Jones, Jonathan 3
CS: Corder, Jason 1
HBP: Sandoval, Rylan 1 ; Krick, Taylor 2
Batting:
2B: Carrithers, Alden 1 ; Dolan, Brady 1
HR: Cohen, Gabe 1
RBI: Carrithers, Alden 1 ; Cohen, Gabe 1 ; Babineau, Ryan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Cohen, Gabe 1 ; Crawford, Brandon 1 ; Babineau, Ryan 1
SB: Babineau, Ryan 1
CS: Uribe, Justin 1
