Baseball, Men's Sports, Sports

Strong offensive output continues for Long Beach State Dirtbags against Fordham

Long Beach State (3-3) continued its strong offensive production this weekend with an 8-4 win against Fordham (1-4) on Saturday at Blair Field.

Junior designated hitter Luke Rasmussen continued to produce as he went 2 for 3 with four RBI’s. Sophomore second baseman Jarren Duran followed up his 3 for 3 performance in Friday night’s win with a career high four runs scored on Saturday.

The Dirtbags scored one run in each of the first two innings putting early pressure on Fordham’s sophomore starting pitcher Reiss Knehr.

Junior John Sheaks started on the mound for LBSU, being bumped up one day in the weekend rotation after a strong showing against Oklahoma on Feb. 19.

Sheaks never got settled in against Fordham, allowing a baserunner in every inning and two runs through the first three innings.

Fordham had its big inning in the top of the fifth with the score tied at 2-2 when senior shortstop Luke Stampfl hit a line drive over the left field wall for a solo home run.

The Rams added one more run against Sheaks when catcher Justin Bardwell reached base on a walk and was driven in on a single by third baseman Matthew Kozuch giving Fordham a 4-2 lead.

Sheaks exited the game after giving up his fourth run. His final line on Saturday was 4.2 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 7 Ks.

“He gave up a lot of hits today,” said head coach Troy Buckley. “He did make a lot of good pitches, though, and limited the damage out there.

The Dirtbags answered the two-run Fordham inning with one run in the bottom of the fifth. Duran led off with a walk and advanced to second after the Fordham catcher couldn’t catch a wild pitch from Knerh. Junior shortstop Markus Montelongo got Duran to third base on a sac-bunt and junior designated hitter Luke Rasmussen brought him home with a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to 4-3.

In the bottom of the sixth, left fielder Lucas Tancas came to the plate against Knehr and launched a solo home run to tie the game 4-4.

“I’ve been starting my [swing] earlier so that I can jump on a fastball a little easier,” Tancas said. “I knew he was having trouble getting his offspeed over and I saw [a fastball] over the plate and put a good swing on it.”

The Dirtbags added two more runs in the sixth after Montelongo dumped in a single just in front of a diving Alvin Melendez in left field for a two-out RBI. Rasmussen followed with a double hit into the gap in left center, that scored Duran and the LBSU took a 6-4 lead.

In the top of the seventh, Stampfl hit a single into left field off of Dirtbags’ senior pitcher Dave Smith. It was no ordinary single, however, as it completed the coveted cycle (single, double, triple, homerun) for the senior shortstop. He finished the game 5 for 5 with two RBI’s.

“I felt really good today,” Stampfl said. “I’m just trying to keep it going and keep producing for my team. I’m very lucky to have good hitters around me in the lineup and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do once everyone gets hot.”

In the bottom of the eighth, Fordham threatened to score with runners on first and second base but Smith got a comeback ground ball and started the 1-4-3 double play to end the inning.

Rasmussen added two more RBI’s in the bottom of the eighth with a scorching line drive down the right field extending LBSU’s lead to 8-4.

Rasmussen extended his RBI total to ten in only the sixth game of 2017 and has now collected at least one in all six games.

“I’d like to credit that to my teammates who are doing a great job getting on base in front of me,” Rasmussen said. “It makes things simple for me when all I have to do is put a ball in play to score a run the way our guys have been playing.”

In the top of the ninth, Smith allowed back-to-back singles and the Dirtbags brought in sophomore closer Chris Rivera to get the final three outs.

Rivera buttoned up the win for LBSU after a strikeout, pop-up, and a called strike three on the outside corner from home plate umpire David Buck.

“I thought today was a good team win, top to bottom,” Buckley said. “We just had good at bats all game and showed a lot of good things out there.”

Smith threw 3.1 scoreless innings and picked up the win to improve his record to 1-0.

The Dirtbags finished with eight runs, seven hits, no errors, and eight runners left on base. Fordham left 11 runners on base, only scoring four runs while collecting 14 hits and made two errors in the game.
LBSU will look to complete the series sweep on Sunday against Fordham as freshman pitcher Matt Fields makes his first start on the mound. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Blair Field.

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