Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State University
UC Irvine
Dirtbags Doubled Up by UC Irvine 10-5
4/11/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 11, 2008
LONG BEACH-- No. 7-ranked UC Irvine (22-5, 4-3 Big West) had 17 of their 21 hits go for singles to win the series opener over No. 16-ranked Long Beach State (18-13, 1-3 Big West) 10-5 on Friday evening.
It was the first time since May 18, 2001 that the Dirtbags had given up more than 20 hits in a single game, when they gave up 25 against CS Fullerton.
Andrew Liebel (3-2) battled into the seventh inning, but took the loss, giving up four runs on 13 hits, striking out four and walking none over 6.2 innings.
Danny Espinosa went 3-for-4 with two RBIs in the loss, driving runs in the second and eighth innings.
UCI re-took the lead in the sixth, paced by five-straight hits, before Liebel got out of a bases load jam with a strikeout and groundout to keep it at 4-3. Nick Vincent gave up two runs in the eighth, before David Born gave up four runs in the ninth in relief of Liebel.
Scott Gorgen (6-2) went 6.1 innings for the win, giving up four runs on eight hits. Gorgen also walked five, hit a batter and tossed a wild pitch, while also striking out five and rolling two double play balls
Jason Corder, after being intentionally walked twice and hitting a long foul ball earlier in the at-bat, singled to left to score Jonathan Jones, and tie it at 2-2 in the fifth. Devin Lohman's single gave LBSU a 3-2 lead a batter later.
A solo home run by Francis Larson in the fourth broke a 1-1 tie and gave UCI the lead for the first time after Espinosa's RBI single gave LBSU an early 1-0 lead in the second inning.
The series continues on Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Sunday's game will also be the 10th Anniversary Celebration of the 1998 College World Series team prior to first pitch.
