Dirtbags Falter Late In Narrow Loss At USC

Tuesday, April 1

Los Angeles, Calif.

6:00 PM

Long Beach State University

13-14

USC

14-13

Long Beach State

Southern California

Ryan Millison allowed one unearned run in his first start.

4/1/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

April 1, 2014

Box Score

LOS ANGELES - A 3-2 lead disappeared in the late innings as the Long Beach State Dirtbags fell 4-3 at USC on Tuesday. The narrow loss is the 10th one-run game out of the last 12 games for the Dirtbags (13-14). Cameron Pongs drove in two of the Dirtbags three runs.

Both teams helped along the other over the first few innings. The Dirtbags first run came on the back of a couple of errors. Johnny Bekakis' fly ball into left center went in and out of the left fielder's glove in the third as he wound up on third. Pongs hit a chopper to third to score Bekakis but the chopper was also misplayed, allowing Pongs to reach first.

USC (14-13) scored the next two runs as Jeremy Martinez singled, stole second and took third on an error after the stolen base. A wild pitch brought him home. Martinez started USC's rally in the fifth, as well, with a walk. A base hit and two more walks later brought him home for a 2-1 USC lead.

Nick Rossetta came in to pitch after the run-scoring walk and was able to get the inning ending pop up to limit the damage. He went on to pitch a scoreless sixth as well.

The Dirtbags erased and then took the lead in the sixth as the Trojans committed another error. Bekakis' chopper to third was again misplayed by Kevin Swick. This time the play came with two outs and the bases loaded and Richard Prigatano was able to cross the plate on the play to tie the game. Pongs singled in Michael Hill before the inning came to a close.

The lead didn't last long as Garrett Stubbs knocked in Martinez in the seventh to tie the game. Jake Hernandez came through with the late inning heroics as he doubled in Timmy Robinson in the eighth. Wyatt Strahan tossed a 1-2-3 ninth for his first save of the year.

Ryan Millison pitched four strong innings and allowed just one unearned run to start the game. He also had a career-high five strikeouts. Ino Patron went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles at the plate. Ty Provencher took the loss on the mound while USC's James Guillen earned his third win.

Long Beach State returns home on Friday after playing the last nine games on the road to face UCLA. Friday's game starts at 6 p.m. and will be the first of a three-game split series with Saturday's game at UCLA and Sunday's game back at Blair Field.