Dirtbags Drop Hard Fought Conference Opener vs. UCSB

Friday, April 1

Long Beach, Calif.

6:00 PM

Long Beach State University

16-9, 0-1

UC Santa Barbara

19-5, 1-0

UC Santa Barbara

Long Beach State

Daniel Jackson had three hits on Friday, but was stranded 90 feet away from tying the game in the ninth inning.

4/1/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

April 1, 2016

Box Score

Long Beach, Calif. - There wasn't much to separate No. 17 Long Beach State (16-9, 0-1 Big West) and No. 18 UC Santa Barbara (19-5, 1-0 Big West) in Friday night's Top 20 matchup, with the visiting Gauchos coming out with a narrow 4-3 victory to open Big West play. Long Beach State had the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth with a chance to tie or win the game, but a ground ball to third base ended the evenly played contest.

Daniel Jackson continued his hot hitting for the Dirtbags, going 3-for-4 with an RBI. Alex Muzzi (2-for-2) and Garrett Hampson (2-for-4, R, RBI) also had multi-hit games as Long Beach State totaled 10 hits on the night.

It was an up and down start for Chris Mathewson on the mound as the righthander suffered the loss to drop to 3-3 on the year. On the bright side, the sophomore struck out nine and looked filthy in spurts, throwing 111 pitches in 7.1 innings. Unfortunately, he also allowed a pair of home runs (by Austin Bush and Andrew Calica), three walks, and four earned runs.

LBSU took the lead in the bottom of the first with a pair of runs. Hampson led off with a beautiful bunt single to first base, then stole second and moved to third on a throwing error. He scored on a sacrifice fly by Brock Lundquist, but the rally wasn't over. Three straight single from Luke Rasmussen, Muzzi and Jackson resulted in a second run and a 2-0 lead.

The Gauchos tied the game in the second with a leadoff homer from Bush, then Josh Adams doubled and later scored on a wild pitch. Calica's shot off the scoreboard in right put UCSB in front in the fifth, but the Dirtbags would tie the game in the seventh on a clutch base hit from Hampson. After Zack Domingues led off the inning with a bunt single to the left side of the infield, he was moved over to third with two outs. Hampson delivered with a line drive single to right to make it a 3-3 game.

The Gauchos responded in the next half inning to take the lead for good, however, as Dempsey Grover drew a one out walk. Pinch runner Devon Gradford took over at first, and Lucas Jacobsen took over on the mound. Gradford would move from first to third on a pair of wild pitches, then after a walk to Austin Bush, another wild pitch would score Gradford for the go-ahead run.

Shane Bieber picked up the win for UCSB, going 7.2 innings allowing three runs on nine hits. Kyle Nelson recorded the final four outs for the save, but saw trouble in the ninth. A leadoff Jackson single deep in the hole in short led off the inning, then after a sacrifice bunt and a groundout, Nelson would lose the next two batters on a walk and a hit by pitch. Duran hit a ball right toward the third base bag, but third baseman Ryan Clark made the routine dive to snag the ball and get the force out at third to end the game.

These teams resume this marquee Big West series on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. as Darren McCaughan (4-0, 1.62 ERA) will oppose Noah Davis (2-0, 2.78). Saturday is also the 3rd Annual Bark in the Park game, meaning fans are permitted to bring their dogs with them to the ballpark. Certain restrictions do apply.

NOTES: With his pinch hit groundout in the ninth inning, David Banuelos saw his six-game hitting streak come to an end … Domingues, however, extended his hitting streak to seven straight games … Hampson recorded his 12th multi-hit game of the season and also stole his 11th base ... The Dirtbags are now 10-3 in games when they do not commit an error and 12-4 in games when they score first.