Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State University
23-25, 10-10
Hawai'i
12-32, 7-13
Long Beach State Falls 5-2 To Hawai'i
5/11/2013 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 11, 2013
Long Beach, Calif. - It took just one bad inning, as the Rainbows scored four runs in the second inning and held on to defeat Long Beach State 5-2 to even the series between the two teams. Jeff McNeil led the Dirtbags offensively with three hits.
Neither side scored in the first, but Hawai'i (12-32, 7-13 Big West) put together a big inning with small hits in the top of the second. With one out, Marc Flores got the action started with a roller just out of the reach of Colton Vaughn, and two straight infield singles loaded the bases. Jake Stassi then walked in a run, and after an RBI groundout, Stephen Ventimilia lifted a bloop single into shallow right center, plating two more runs as the Rainbows scored four runs on four hits.
Stassi held the Rainbows scoreless for the rest of his 5.1 innings, but the damage was done, as Long Beach State (23-25, 10-10 Big West) didn't score until the sixth inning. Juan Avila and Ino Patron hit back-to-back singles for the Dirtbags, and after a fielder's choice, Rainbows pitcher Corey MacDonald hit two straight Dirtbags batters to bring home a run and leaving the bases loaded with one out. MacDonald recovered by striking out Josh Guerra and Jonathan Serven to get out of the inning with no futher score.
Another hit batter led to the Dirtbags second run, as McNeil was put on, and after a sacrifice, Avila singled to drive in the junior to make the score 4-2.
Hawaii added an insurance run in the top of the eighth inning, and Lawrence Chew worked around a pair of hits in the ninth inning from McNeil and Eric Hutting to collect his second save of the season, while MacDonald took the win for the Rainbows.
The rubber game in the series will be held on Sunday. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: MacDonald, Corey (6-5)
L: Stassi, Jake (4-3)
S: Chew, Lawrence (2)
Batting:
2B: Flores, Marc 2
RBI: Ventimilia, Stephen 2 ; Flores, Marc 1 ; Brewster, LJ 1 ; Wobrock, Austin 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Aliviado, Kaeo 1 ; Flores, Marc 1 ; Podratz, Trevor 1 ; Hanawahine, Kalei 1 ; Brewster, LJ 1
Batting:
RBI: Avila, Juan 1 ; Miller, Zach 1
SH: DeGoti, Alex 1
Base Running:
RUNS: McNeil, Jeff 1 ; Patron, Ino 1
SB: Vaughn, Colton 1
HBP: McNeil, Jeff 1 ; Yamaguchi, Jeff 1 ; Miller, Zach 1
