Holy Cross Holds Off Long Beach State In Series Finale

Sunday, February 21

Long Beach, Calif.

1:00 PM

Long Beach State University

2-1

Holy Cross

1-2

Holy Cross

Long Beach State

Freshman second baseman Jarren Duran has started his Dirtbags career on a three-game hitting streak.

2/21/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

Feb. 21, 2016

Box Score

Long Beach, Calif. - Chris Mathewson's first start of the 2016 season was delayed a few days, but the righthander felt good enough to take the mound against Holy Cross on Sunday afternoon at Blair Field. Mathewson didn't have his best stuff, coming back from knee and hamstring injuries, and was undone by a difficult third inning. The Crusaders scored more runs (3) in that third inning than they did in the other 26 innings of the series combined (2), and it was enough for a 3-2 win over Long Beach State in the series finale.

The loss drops LBSU to 2-1 while Holy Cross (1-2) earns its first win of the young season.

The teams produced just five hits apiece on Sunday afternoon, but Holy Cross did a better job stringing them together. Four of their five hits came in that crucial third frame, led off by a solo home run from catcher Alex Voitik, the first over the new fences at Blair Field. Of note, the ball would have cleared last year's ballpark dimensions, going up and over the outer concrete wall in left. It did, however, hit off the base of the additional fencing atop the original outfield wall, which was put in place just last week.

Nevertheless, it put the Crusaders on the board, 1-0, giving them their first lead of the series. Two batters later, Holy Cross got a rally going as Bobby Indeglia singled an 0-2 pitch back up the middle. Josh Hassell then executed a perfect hit-and-run play to put runners on first and second with one out. Thousand Oaks, Calif. native Nick Lovullo was next up and he sent a seeing-eye double just inside the third base bag, clearing the bases for a 3-0 Crusaders lead.

Long Beach would chip away at the lead in the fourth thanks to a leadoff single and stolen base from shortstop Garrett Hampson, who hit safely in all three games of the series. He would come around to score on a throwing error by second baseman Cam O'Neill, cutting the deficit to 3-1.

A leadoff double in the bottom of the fifth from Zack Rivera sparked another rally for the home team. Rivera was moved to third on a single from catcher David Banuelos, putting runners at the corners with just one out. Zack Domingues came up and laid down a perfect drag bunt down the first base line, turning an apparent squeeze play into an infield hit. Unfortunately, a soft lineout and fly out by the top of the order ended the last real threat of the day for Long Beach State.

Both bullpens were excellent on Sunday, each pitching three perfect innings of relief. Joshua Advocate and Justin Finan each worked two clean innings in the seventh and eighth, while Ty Provencher and Sean Gustin worked the ninth inning, the latter recording his first save of the year. As the Dirtbags were pressing to tie the game, trailing by one, neither team had a runner reach base in the final three innings.

"I thought there was a lot of pressing today, especially late in the game when things got tight," said Dirtbags head coach Troy Buckley of his team's offensive performance. "The one thing we have to continue to improve on is being on time with pitches at the plate. I just didn't think we were on time (today)."

Brendan King was the winning pitcher for the Crusaders allowing two runs (one earned) over six innings with four strikeouts.

Long Beach State is on the road for their next contest, visiting No. 9 UCLA on Tuesday at 6 p.m. That precedes an eight-game homestand for the Dirtbags, starting next Friday, 6 p.m. against Arizona State.

NOTES: Mathewson's line excluding the third inning was: 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K; Though Mathewson allowed four home runs as a freshman in 2015, the homer by Voitik is the first he's allowed at Blair Field; The Dirtbags have yet to commit an error through three games this season; The top two batters in the Dirtbags lineup (Hampson, Duran) recorded a hit in all three games of the opening series; This is the second straight series win on opening weekend for the Dirtbags and the third in Buckley's six-year tenure.