Long Beach State University
10-6, 0
UC San Diego
10-6, 0
UCSD Walks Off Long Beach State in Big West Opener
3/17/2023 9:58:00 PM | Baseball
Graham Osman was solid in his start on the mound throwing 5.2 innings of two-run ball. The southpaw had some command issues though, walking four Tritons to go along with four hits allowed to five strikeouts.
The Dirtbag offense was held in check by Triton starter Michael Mitchell. In four innings, he scattered three hits without allowing a run.
Trailing 2-0 heading into the fifth, Long Beach State broke through with a four-run inning. With one out and the bases loaded, Joey Walls Jr. sent a grounder booted by a third baseman and into left field plating the first two runs of the inning. Two batters later, Jonathon Long delivered a single into left-center for two more runs as the Dirtbags jumped in front.
Long finished the night 3-for-4 at the plate with a walk and two RBI to kickstart conference play.
The eighth inning started with an Eddie Saldivar double, who came in to score three batters later on a Kyle Ashworth sacrifice fly. The insurance run made it 5-2 heading into the final frame.
Nothing in the bottom of the ninth was really hit hard by the Tritons, but with the outfielders playing deep to avoid any doubles, a blooper fell in center field allowed the winning run to score all the way from first and give the Dirtbags a 6-5 conference opening loss.
Rocco Peppi was hit by a pitch in his fourth plate appearance to extend his reached base streak to 12 straight games. He has reached safely in 15 of the team's 16 games.
The Dirtbags will look to bounce back tomorrow afternoon in game two of the series. First pitch will be at 2 p.m. at Triton Ballpark.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Holt, Ethan (2-0)
L: Montgomery, Kellan (1-1)
Batting:
2B: Long, Jonathon 1 ; Saldivar, Eddie 1 ; Burns, Connor 1
RBI: Walls Jr., Joey 2 ; Long, Jonathon 2 ; Ashworth, Kyle 1
SH: Marinconz, Nick 1
SF: Ashworth, Kyle 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Marinconz, Nick 1 ; Walls Jr., Joey 1 ; Saldivar, Eddie 1 ; Champagne, Alex 1 ; Ashworth, Kyle 1
HBP: Peppi, Rocco 1
Batting:
2B: Kane, Doyle 1 ; Kleszcz, Brock 1
RBI: Halbach, Matt 1 ; Kane, Doyle 3 ; Robinson, Crew 1
SF: Robinson, Crew 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Hackworth, Patrick 1 ; Smith, Jalen 1 ; Halbach, Matt 1 ; Larson, Brandon 1 ; Gonzalez, Emiliano 1 ; Kleszcz, Brock 1
SB: Kleszcz, Brock 1
HBP: Hackworth, Patrick 1 ; Kleszcz, Brock 1
PO: Fuhrman, Michael 1
