Baseball, Sports

Aztecs edge LBSU in the 9th

Box score

Neither team wanted to give in during a back-and-forth match-up between Long Beach State and No. 18 San Diego State on Tuesday night.

A forgettable ninth inning, though, cost the Dirtbags a victory as they fell, 4-3, at the hands of the visiting Aztecs at Blair Field.

A walk, error and wild pitch led to SDSU taking a 4-3 lead in the top of the ninth after a single by Brandon Meredith drove in Pat Colwell from third base. Charlie Ruiz has pitched well for the Dirtbags this season, but he gave up the lead in this contest.

LBSU (14-14) had a chance to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth with runners in scoring position and no outs. But, SDSU reliever Addison Reed was able to retire the next three Dirtbags in order to record his 11th save of the season.

The Dirtbags stranded 13 men on base in the game.

Dustin Rasco (0-2) received the loss, and Andrew Leary (2-1) picked up the win for the Aztecs.

Catcher John Hill, who was making only his eighth start this season, had a productive game for the Dirtbags. Hill went 3-for-4 on the night before being taken out for a pinch runner in the bottom of the eighth.

It didn’t take very long for the Aztec bats to get started as they put two quick runs on the board in the top of the first inning.

Colwell led off the game with an infield single. The Aztecs’ No. 3 hitter, Meredith, then laced a low flying two-run home run that barely cleared the center field fence as well as the leaping Jonathan Jones, who left the game at the start of the second inning.

Dirtbags starting pitcher Jason Markovitz only lasted four batters into the SDSU lineup and was taken out after 2/3 of an inning. Markovitz is normally a relief pitcher, and he was making only his second start of the season.

Aztec starting pitcher Goldy Simmons had troubles of his own to start the game. LBSU was able to capitalize on back-to-back walks by Simmons when Steve Tinoco popped a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Jordan Casas from third base to cut the deficit in half.

The Dirtbag pitching staff was able to tame the Aztec bats for the second and third innings as it held SDSU hitless during that span.

LBSU put runners in scoring position in the second and third innings, but were not able to score any runs.

Simmons walked Taylor Krick to lead off the fourth inning, and the Dirtbags put the free pass to good use. After Krick went to second base on a groundout, Derek Legg lined a base hit to deep left-center field to score Krick from second and tie the game, 2-2.

Reliever Jeff Lease received some help from his defense in the top of the fifth when left fielder Brennan Metzger leaped backwards for the last out of the inning. The play left two Aztec runners on base.

SDSU designated hitter Cory Vaughn then led off the sixth inning with a towering solo home run deep over the left field wall to give the Aztecs a slight 3-2 advantage.

The Dirtbags went three consecutive innings without scoring a run, but they had many chances to score. In the bottom of the seventh, Casas led off with a double to center and went to third on a sacrifice. But, the one-out threat would go for naught, as LBSU would leave Casas stranded at third after two Aztec relievers came in to get the next two hitters out.

The Aztecs went down without a fight in their half of the eighth inning as they left a man stranded.

The Dirtbags used back-to-back singles to put runners in the corners with no outs in the bottom of the eighth inning. Krick took advantage of the situation as he smashed a high fly ball to left field that was dropped by ex-Dirtbag Brandon Decker. The error allowed Metzger to score from third to tie the game, 3-3.

LBSU travels to face No. 5 UC Irvine for a three-game series starting Thursday. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.

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