Dirtbags Drop Finale To Visiting Vanderbilt

Sunday, February 16

Long Beach, Calif.

1:00 PM

Long Beach State University

0-3

Vanderbilt

3-0

Vanderbilt

Long Beach State

Zack Rivera broke the Dirtbags scoreless streak with an RBI single in the sixth.

2/16/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

Feb. 16, 2014

Box Score

LONG BEACH, Calif. - The Long Beach State Dirtbags fell 6-2 to the eighth-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores on Sunday in front of 1,463 fans at Blair Field. The Commodores completed a sweep of both teams' season-opening series.

Vanderbilt (3-0) continued to shine on the mound as its lineup opened up an early lead and withstood a Dirtbag rally in the sixth. Tyler Ferguson earned the win on the mound as he went 5.1 innings, allowing just one hit in the first inning and two unearned runs. Four pitchers combined for a shutout effort from the bullpen with Adam Ravenelle tossing 2.1 innings of scoreless relief.

Nolan Rogers put the Commodores on the board early when his sacrifice fly in the first brought home Dansby Swanson. Vince Conde and Bryan Reynolds stroked back-to-back doubles in the second to add to the lead.

Michael Hill gave the Dirtbags a threat in the first as he doubled to right with two outs, but he was stranded there. Both sides went scoreless in the third as Ty Provencher looked to have settled in on the mound in his first career start for the Dirtbags. He went on to throw 5.2 before giving way to Logan Lombana. He allowed four runs on nine hits.

Reynolds, who went 3-for-4 with three RBI on the day, drove in another Commodore run in the fourth with a base hit into left center. He drove in another in the top of the sixth with a double that he dropped just inside the foul line in right field.

The Dirtbags biggest threat came in the sixth as an error and a hit by pitch put two on with no outs. After a Garrett Hampson foul out, John Kilichowski came in to pitch and retired Hill for the second out. TJ Pecoraro then entered the game to try and slam the door on the rally. Zach Rivera had different ideas as he stroked a single into right center that scored Colby Brenner for the Dirtbags first run in 14 innings.

Pecoraro proceeded to walk the next two batters as Ino Patron walked to load the bases and Richard Prigatano walked to drive in the second run of the inning. Ravenelle stopped the rally with an inning ending fly ball into center.

Vanderbilt responded with a run in the seventh for a 5-2 lead and it looked as though the Dirtbags might get it back in the bottom half. Alex Bishop led off with a single into center and Garrett Hampson singled to right center to put runners on the corners with two outs. Hill hit a screaming liner that looked to be headed into right field but a diving Swanson snagged the ball out of the air before it could leave the infield to end the threat.

Vanderbilt tacked on an insurance run in the ninth and Brian Miller finished off the game on the mound.

Provencher took the loss on the mound while Ferguson earned the win.

The Dirtbags will look to get their first win of the season on Tuesday when they head up to Pepperdine on Tuesday for a 2 p.m. game.