Long Beach State Earns Impressive Victory, Eliminates FAU

Sunday, June 5

Coral Gables, Fla.

10:00 AM

Long Beach State University

38-21

Florida Atlantic

39-19

FAU

Long Beach State

6/5/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

June 5, 2016

Box Score | Photo Gallery (Game 3 - FAU)

Coral Gables, Fla. - With their backs against the wall on Sunday afternoon, Long Beach State (38-21) delivered an emphatic 5-1 victory over Florida Atlantic (39-19) in an elimination game, knocking the Owls out of the Coral Gables Regional. It's the same score as the first meeting between these teams on Friday, and it featured another great starting pitching performance from the Dirtbags.

Senior Tanner Brown was the star on the hill, working into the ninth inning while allowing just one run on four hits and matching a season high with seven strikeouts. It's just the second time all season Brown has worked into the ninth inning of a start, and it came at a key time to allow his bullpen to rest up for the Regional Final tonight (and potentially tomorrow). Brown battled through 90-degree heat with over 70 percent humidity, throwing 121 pitches on the afternoon.

"Gutty, gutty performance by (Brown)," said LBSU head coach Troy Buckley. "When you're trying to go through the loser's bracket here you're going to have to conserve as many bullets as you can. So that was massively huge, and I'm really, really proud of him and the effort that he gave. Because that's more about make-up and mental toughness than it is about pure stuff."

The Dirtbags got another fantastic start at this weekend's regional, building off the solid work of Chris Mathewson and Darren McCaughan in the first two games, respectively. Through LBSU's first three regional games, Dirtbags starters are 2-0, working 21.1 innings with a 1.69 ERA, allowing 11 hits and six walks with 16 strikeouts.

All six of Sunday afternoon's runs came in the first three innings, with the Dirtbags getting an early lead in the bottom of the first inning. Zack Domingues was hit by a pitch with one out, then Garrett Hampson and Luke Rasmussen followed with singles to load the bases. Daniel Jackson grounded into a fielder's choice for an RBI and a 1-0 lead, then the Dirtbags got creative on the basepaths. Jackson broke for second, drawing a throw over to first base. While in a rundown, Hampson took off for the plate. The thrown from Owls first baseman Esteban Puerta went to third base, and Hampson beat the throw to the plate for a steal of home and a 2-0 lead.

FAU cut the lead in half in the third inning thanks to a leadoff double by Gunnar Lambert, who would later score on a wild pitch from Brown.

Long Beach had an immediate and emphatic answer in the bottom half of the third as the first three batters recorded hits. Hampson delivered his second infield single to shortstop, then Rasmussen hit a sharp single to left field to put two men on for Daniel Jackson. The junior first baseman stepped up and crushed a three-run home run over the scoreboard in left field, giving Long Beach a 5-1 lead. It's the team-leading sixth home run from Jackson, who set a new career high with four RBIs on Sunday afternoon.

Brown had one key jam to deal with in the next half inning, hitting the leadoff batter in the fourth before allowing a double to Austin Langham. With two men in scoring position and no outs, Brown got two ground balls that he was able to field and throw to first for two outs, then a fly ball ended the threat. Brown allowed the first two batters to reach base in the ninth, but Ty Provencher got a strikeout and a double play ball to lock down his third save of the season.

LBSU has a quick turnaround for a rematch with Miami at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT) on Sunday at Alex Rodriguez Park. A Dirtbags win would force a winner-take-all game on Monday at 7 p.m. ET for the right to advance to a Super Regional.

NOTES: Jarren Duran recorded his second triple of the regional in the second inning, extending his hitting streak to 14 games ... Hampson and Rasmussen each recorded a pair of hits to record their team-leading 26th and 18th multi-hit games, respectively ... Rasmussen has two hits in all three games this weekend, going 6-for-12 ... Provencher made his third appearance in three straight days at the regional, giving him 93 all-time appearances for LBSU, the third-most in program history.