After two solid games from their Friday and Saturday starters, the Long Beach State baseball team’s hitters came up big on Sunday as they beat San Jose State 6-2 to complete their second sweep of the season.
Senior Tanner Brown went three innings on Sunday, giving up six hits and two runs as the Spartans (16-36, 6-21) jumped to an early 2-1 lead in top half of the fourth inning after designated hitter Josh Nashed hit a home run to left field.
That was it for the Spartans as senior Ty Provencher, who replaced Brown, got out of the inning stranding one base runner.
LBSU (31-18, 11-7) wouldn’t trail long as junior first baseman Daniel Jackson tied the game at two in the bottom half of the fourth inning with a solo homerun to left field.
The Dirtbags took the lead for good after freshman centerfielder Brooks Stotler lead off the fifth inning with a triple. He scored after freshman second baseman Jarren Duran hit an RBI single to take a 3-2 lead. Junior Garrett Hampson extended the lead to 4-2 with his own home run to left field.
LBSU scored a run in the seventh and eighth inning to take the 6-2 win and its fifth straight.
Sophomores Chris Mathewson and Darren McCaughan took care of business Friday and Saturday as LBSU won 6-2 and 2-0. McCaughan threw a one-hit complete game shutout as he dominated the Spartans from start to finish.
“Today I was like I’m just going to keep doing what I was doing all game which is really just throwing the ball,” McCaughan said. “It was really big time to finish like that. I don’t see why we can’t do it again next week.”
The Dirtbags will now head to Loyola Marymount Tuesday before traveling to UC Davis for a weekend series. The games will start at 2:30 p.m. on Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.