Dirtbags Solve Lions

Tuesday, March 4

Long Beach, Calif.

6:30 PM

Long Beach State University

6-2

LMU

3-6

Loy. Marymount

Long Beach State

3/4/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

March 4, 2008

Box Score

LONG BEACH-- Patience paid off for No. 9-ranked Long Beach State (6-2). After seeing LMU's Nate Keadle (0-1) no-hit them through five innings, the Dirtbags walked four times in the sixth to lead them to a 5-2 victory over Loyola Marymount (3-6) on Tuesday evening.

Keadle, who had entered the sixth having retired 14 in a row, proceeded to walk three in the inning and give up his only hit, as LBSU pounced for four runs to take a 4-1 lead.

Keadle, who had 53 career appearances, and a total of 47 strikeouts, struck out nine of the first 12 Dirtbags and finished with a career-best 10, but gave up four runs.

LBSU scored two runs on bunt singles with a runner on third. The other hit was by Danny Espinosa, who broke up the no-hitter in the sixth.

Tyler Topp went toe-to-toe with Keadle, pitching a career-best 5.1 innings of three-hit, one-run baseball. Topp struck out five and walked none in his first Division-I start, but did not figure in the decision.

Jason Markovitz (1-0), who got two outs in the sixth, picked up his first collegiate win, while Bryan Shaw pitched a scoreless ninth for his second save of the year.

LMU's unraveling began when Keadle walked two to start the sixth. Espinosa singled to left, before Shane Peterson followed with a bases loaded walk to tie it at 1-1. Another bases loaded walk, this time by reliever Ernie Cho made it 2-1, before a fielder's choice and a squeeze by Chris Nelson made it 4-1.

Another squeeze by Peterson in the seventh made it 5-2, as he drove in two of LBSU's five runs.

Sean Dovel led off the LMU second with a double and came around to score on a groundout to give LMU a 1-0 lead.

The Dirtbags travel across the very large pond to Hawaii (5-6) for a three-game series beginning on Friday.