Brown Dominates UCSB As Dirtbags Win Finale, 2-0

Sunday, April 3

Long Beach, Calif.

1:00 PM

Long Beach State University

17-10, 1-2

UC Santa Barbara

20-6, 2-1

UC Santa Barbara

Long Beach State

SS Garrett Hampson stole a base and scored the go-ahead run in Sunday's 2-0 win over UCSB.

4/3/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

April 3, 2016

Box Score

Long Beach, Calif. - Coming off his shortest outing of the season at Cal State Fullerton, senior starting pitcher Tanner Brown got back on track Sunday, producing his longest outing of the year with eight shutout innings against No. 18 UC Santa Barbara (20-6, 2-1 Big West). The righthander allowed just two hits, struck out five, and only faced two batters over the minimum to lead No. 17 Long Beach State (17-10, 1-2 Big West) to a 2-0 win on Sunday afternoon at Blair Field.

"This was a big win," said Dirtbags head coach Troy Buckley. "Very much needed not to get swept. You can't get swept in conference, it's just very, very difficult … I thought (Brown) was fantastic for us and we scrapped enough across when we needed to, there just weren't a lot of opportunities on both ends… That was a big deal for us to come across and pull one out."

Brown allowed just three baserunners, surrendering a pair of singles (one on the infield) and a hit by pitch. Andrew Calica wore a pitch on the shoulder to lead off the fourth inning, representing UCSB's best chance to score. Calica stole second and was sacrificed to third with one out. Brown made some of the biggest pitches of the afternoon to the next two batters, striking out No. 3 hitter Michael McAdoo swinging and cleanup hitter Austin Bush looking to get out of the jam.

The Dirtbags offense quickly built off that momentum in the bottom half of the fourth inning as Garrett Hampson led off with a line drive single to center, then stole second base. Two batters later, Brock Lundquist roped a single to right field allowing Hampson to score the go-ahead run, his 24th run of the season.

LBSU tacked on an insurance run in the seventh as Lundquist reached on an error, and Luke Rasmussen followed up with a single to right field. A Daniel Jackson sac bunt put pinch runner Joey Sanchez at third and Rasmussen at second, then an intentional walk to Zack Domingues loaded the bases with two outs. David Banuelos picked up an RBI on a bases loaded walk to give the Dirtbags a 2-0 lead after seven.

Chris Rivera worked around a leadoff single in the ninth to lock down his 11th save of the season. The freshman continues to lead the nation in that category. It's the first time all season that Dirtbags pitchers did not issue a walk, leading to the shortest game of the season at 2 hours, 19 minutes.

LBSU now hits the road for four straight contests, starting with a Tuesday night trip to play San Diego State at 6 p.m. The Dirtbags then visit CSUN for a weekend series in Northridge this coming weekend.

NOTES: Domingues has now reached base safely in 24 consecutive games thanks to his seventh inning intentional walk … The Dirtbags scored two runs on three hits Sunday after scoring just four runs on 17 hits during the first two games of the series … Gauchos hitters were 0-for-7 with runners on base against Brown and Rivera, and never had multiple runners on base … Alex Muzzi played all three outfield positions for the Dirtbags on Sunday, starting the game in center field, moving to right field in the eighth, then to left field in the ninth … On his poster giveaway day, Hampson was 1-for-4 with his 12th stolen base of the season and a run scored.