Relentless Dirtbags Attack Keys 9-1 Win at Minnesota

Sunday, May 14

Minneapolis, Minn.

11:00 AM

Long Beach State University

32-16-1

Minnesota

30-17

Long Beach State

Minnesota

5/14/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

May 14, 2017

Box Score

MINNEAPOLIS - No. 8 Long Beach State (32-16-1) bounced back from Saturday's loss with an impressive team win on Sunday at Minnesota (30-17), picking up a 9-1 victory to win the series on the road. LBSU got hits from nine different players and all 10 batters in the lineup reached base safely in the win. Lucas Tancas led the way offensively with three hits, two runs scored, an RBI and a stolen base.

Long Beach State scored a run in seven of the nine innings, including each of the first six. Going back to 1998, LBSU has never scored in every inning of a game.

RHP Dave Smith picked up the victory, going 7.0 innings to improve his record to 7-1 while dropping his ERA to 1.77 on the season. The Big West's leader in ERA is now in a three-way tie for second place on the Big West wins leaderboard, along with teammates Darren McCaughan and John Sheaks. Smith allowed one run on eight hits and two walks, but Minnesota stranded 10 runners on base.

The Dirtbags gave Smith an early lead, scoring often in support of the senior. Jarren Duran returned to the leadoff spot and started the game perfectly. The sophomore drew a walk, then stole his 15th base of the season. Two batters later, Lucas Tancas collected an RBI groundout to put the Beach on top. The lead grew to 3-o in the second as Brock Lundquist scored on a wild pitch and David Banuelos came home on an RBI grounder from Laine Huffman.

LBSU scored twice more in the third as Daniel Jackson and Tancas hit back-to-back singles to start the inning. Two batters later it was Lundquist who delivered his second hit of the afternoon, a two-run single to right center. After Minnesota scored a run in the bottom half of the inning, the Dirtbags went right back to work. Luke Rasmussen singled and stole second and was eventually brought home on a sacrifice fly from Duran to make it 6-1.

Banuelos came through with a two-out RBI single in the fifth to score Tancas, who led off the inning with a double. In the sixth, it was Duran delivering another sacrifice fly to score Rasmussen and make it 8-1 Long Beach. The final run came in the eighth inning on a single up the middle from Romano, giving him a team-high 34 RBIs on the season.

Long Beach State also showed off some great defense in support of Smith, especially in the fourth inning. With one out, the Golden Gophers put two men on thanks to a single and a hit batter, and appeared poised for a rally. Luke Petterson singled off Jackson's glove at first with the ball deflecting over to Duran at second. There was no play at first base, but Duran looked up and fired a throw to Romano at third, catching the baserunner too far around third base for the second out of the inning. Romano then ended the threat with a diving catch down the third-base line to save extra bases and at least one run.

Next up for the Dirtbags is the final home series of the year against Big West foe Hawai'I next weekend. LBSU enters the series with a three-game lead over Cal State Fullerton in the Big West standings with six games remaining, including three at Fullerton to close the year. The series opener with the Warriors is at 6 p.m. on Friday, followed by a postgame fireworks show at Blair Field.