Long Beach State got a tremendous effort from a hometown kid, but was it enough against UCLA? Could Fullerton bounce back after a late-inning loss late last night? Could LMU and Northridge even their series after dropping Friday night’s matchup?
All that plus a roundup of Saturday’s Southern California college baseball action with photo galleries from the Blue-Green rivalry and UC Riverside coming as well:
San Diego State 9, Air Force 3
Brad Haynal rocked a three-run homer, a two-run triple and added a sacrifice fly to lead San Diego State to a 9-3 victory and a series win. Tim Zier added three hits and two runs.
Cody Thompson was tremendous in relief of Mike Robards. Thompson pitched 5.1 scoreless innings, allowing only four hits while striking out four.
San Diego 4, Gonzaga 1
The Toreros (21-9, 8-3) picked up a series win over Gonzaga (10-20, 6-5). Louis Lechich moved up in the rotation after it was announced earlier this week that Troy Conyers will need Tommy John surgery and miss the rest of the season. Lechich was unfazed. He allowed one run in six innings to pick up his sixth win.
C.J. Burdick and Josh Goossen-Brown struck out four and allowed just one hit in the final three innings. Connor Joe was 3-for-3 with three doubles, two runs, an RBI and a walk.
UC Riverside 6, Cal State Northridge 2
Zach Varela went eight strong innings (7 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 5 K) to give UC Riverside (14-12, 3-2) the series win. Joe Chavez finished a triple shy of hitting for the cycle, going 3-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Thomas Walker also reached three times for the Highlanders: 2-for-3, 2 R, 2B, 3B, RBI, BB. Ryan Raslowsky was 2-for-3 with a run for Northridge (12-18, 1-4).
Check out CBD photographer David Cohen’s top photos from the game :
[scrollGallery id=253]
Long Beach State 4, #17 UCLA 0
Long Beach State (14-15) has been beset by starting pitcher injuries with Jake Stassi out for the season and Nick Sabo and Jason Alexander both out for a second week in a row with arm injuries. Head coach Troy Buckley turned the ball over to hometown senior Josh Frye (1-0) and he delivered.
Frye and Ryan Millison combined for a three hit shutout of the defending national champions. Richard Prigatano supplied the offense reaching four times with a double, walk, three RBI and his 11th stolen base. Johnny Bekakis added three hits as well.
Pepperdine 10, St. Mary’s 4
Pepperdine (22-7) moved to 9-2 and holds an early lead in the West Coast Conference after guaranteeing the series at St. Mary’s (13-15, 5-2) with a 10-4 win. Austin Davidson crushed a second-inning grand slam and the Waves never looked back, beating Cameron Neff, who entered with a 1.96 ERA and recently had a streak of 33.2 innings without allowing an earned run.
Hutton Moyer continued his hot streak, going 3-for-3 day with three runs, two hit by pitches and two stolen bases. Brandon Caruso reached three times and scored three times while St. Mary’s slugger Collin Ferguson knocked his first homer of the year.
#6 Cal Poly 8, #23 UC Santa Barbara 7
Cal Poly (15-5, 4-1) scored its first seven runs with two outs, but it was the eighth run with one out in the ninth inning that proved to be the difference.
A day after Chris Hoo was struck out by Dillon Tate to end the game, Tate entered to face Hoo with a runner on second and one out. Hoo got his revenge bouncing a ball up the middle, allowing pinch runner Brett Barbier to score for the walk-off 8-7 win to even the series with UC Santa Barbara (20-6, 2-3).
Here is Hoo after the game talking about how he knew he was going to win the game:
Check out CBD photographer Shotgun Spratling’s top photos from the game :
[scrollGallery id=254]
San Francisco 9, Loyola Marymount 3
After Friday night’s win, San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said his team had “to get two out of three out of this series to stay in the [West Coast Conference] race.” The Dons (15-14, 5-6) accomplished at least that with a 9-3 win on Saturday night.
San Francisco scored five runs in the first inning and added another three in the second frame to run LMU starter Patrick McGrath. Reliever Tim Peabody gave the Lions (17-14, 7-4) a chance with 3.1 scoreless innings, but LMU couldn’t get anything going against Christian Cecilio. Cecilio picked up the win after allowing two earned runs in 6.2 innings.
#16 Cal State Fullerton 7, UC Davis 1
After being in last place for a day, Cal State Fullerton (15-11, 1-1) got out of the Big West cellar with a 7-1 win over UC Davis (14-13, 1-4). Grahamm Wiest struck out nine in eight innings, allowing five hits and one run.
With Matt Chapman back in the three-hole, Tyler Stieb and Tanner Pinkston set the table combining to go 5-for-9 with three runs, two doubles and two stolen bases.
Arizona State 10, USC 9 (11 innings)
USC (14-15, 3-8) fell below .500 after a heart-breaking 11th inning loss at Arizona State (15-11, 6-4) Saturday night. The Trojans tied the game with four runs in the ninth inning, but left the bases loaded.
In the 11th inning, Arizona State loaded the bases with no outs. USC brought in AJ Ramirez from right field as a fifth infielder. Ramirez was tested on a chopper, but he was able to record the 9-2 fielder’s choice. However, RJ Ybarra drove in his fifth run of the game with a sacrifice fly to left field for the walk-off win.
Bob Wheatley (2 IP, 8 H, 4 ER) struggled once again for the Trojans, but the offense slugged 17 hits led by Jeremy Martinez’s three hits and three RBI. Nathaniel Causey reached four times and scored four runs.
UC Irvine 3, Hawai’i 2
Jerry McClanahan broke a 2-2 tie in the seventh inning with an RBI single to score Chris Rabago. Elliot Surrey pitched seven innings, allowing two runs on four hits to pick up the win for UC Irvine (20-10, 4-1). Sam Moore pitched a pair of 1-2-3 innings to pick up his 12th save. Taylor Sparks reached three times.
