LOS ANGELES – Long Beach State head coach Mike Weathers summoned reliever Cris Trout to face Loyola Marymount designated hitter Colton Plaia, who had homered earlier to tie the game, with the game knotted at four in the eighth inning and the go-ahead run on first with two outs.
Plaia dropped a single into center field and set the table for Lions left fielder Nick Devian’s two-run double off the big blue wall in left field. The Lions (5-10) took a 6-4 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish on a sunny 83-degree day at George C. Page Stadium.
“The difference was the eighth inning,” Weathers said. “Two outs and nobody on, and they pieced it together. They didn’t hit the ball extremely hard. I mean obviously, the ball off the wall looks worse than it really was. It is really a flyball out [in] most places.”
With the game tied, 4-4, the Dirtbags (7-8) failed to score in the seventh and eighth innings with runners on, and the Lions made them pay.
LMU took the lead for good in the bottom of the eighth on Plaia’s blast and reliever Chris Eusebio (2-0) closed the door in the ninth to earn the win.
“I brought the 2-through-5 guys in and said ‘you guys are the experienced guys, you need to put us ahead and win this ball game in this inning,’ and they didn’t,” Weathers said. “Then the other club came back in the eighth inning when they had to, and made those swings.”
Dirtbags starting pitcher Nate Underwood pitched well in his first career college start, going 5.0 innings, walking two and giving up three runs on five hits.
“I felt pretty good,” Underwood said. “I was disappointed I couldn’t go a little bit longer, but I gave our team a chance to win.”
The Dirtbags struck first, scoring two in the opening inning on an RBI-single by first baseman Steve Tinoco, who broke out of a 0-for-15 slide. Third baseman Joey Terdoslavich then doubled him in to continue a hot streak that has seen him go 7-for-11 in the last three games.
“Terdoslavich has been swinging it really, really well,” Weathers said. “He is a force.”
After the Lions scored one in the fourth to cut the LBSU lead to 2-1, the Dirtbags answered with two in the fifth on back-to-back RBI-doubles by left fielder Tre Dennis and center fielder Brennan Metzger to increase the advantage to 4-1.
The Lions countered with two in the fifth before Plaia tied it in the sixth with a solo home run over the 365-foot mark in left center field.
The Dirtbags travel to Las Vegas for a three-game set against UNLV beginning Friday at 7 p.m.
“Just imagine if Tinoco had hit a ball off the wall like their guy, Devian, and we win that game,” Weathers said. “Now that’s three wins in a row, and now the feeling and excitement is real positive. Because we don’t get that hit, but their guy does, now all of a sudden, it changes.
“The bottom line is, we had a chance to win. When you get those chances, you have to make the most of them.”