The Long Beach State baseball team capped its doubleheader against UC Santa Barbara at Blair Field Saturday night with a 5-4 win in a 14-inning nail-biter.
The game lasted over five hours, which was only the fifth time since 1989 that a Dirtbags game lasted that long.
LBSU sealed its third straight Big West Conference series victory while winning its fifth straight game.
In what was mostly a pitcher’s duel, both teams scratched and clawed with LBSU eventually coming out with the win.
The Dirtbags recorded 12 hits over 49 at bats, but the dramatic win would come in the most bizarre of ways.
“It was kind of a roller coaster night,” Dirtbags head coach Troy Buckley said. “We had our opportunities and so did they, it was just a long day.”
With LBSU trailing 4-2 in the bottom of the 12th inning after UCSB added two runs in the top of the frame, the Dirtbags dug deep to score two runs to send the game to the 13th inning.
An RBI triple from sophomore Ino Patron scored junior Matt Duffy who walked just before Patron got to the plate. Sophomore left fielder Johnny Bekakis then singled to second base, scoring Patron from third to keep the game alive.
With the bases loaded and the game tied at four apiece in the bottom of the 14th, Gauchos closer Greg Mahle beaned Dirtbags left fielder Johnny Bekakis scoring shortstop Matt Duffy giving the Dirtbags the 5-4 win.
The game started out as a pitching duel between Dirtbags starter Ryan Strufing and Gauchos starting pitcher Austin Pettibone.
After two flawless innings to open the game, Strufing worked out of trouble in the third inning after surrendering two walks to Gauchos right fielder Joey Wallace and catcher Campbell Wear. Wear had entered the game 0-22 with seven strikeouts on the season.
Strufing settled down with two runners on and one out as he retired the top of the lineup getting both center fielder Brett Vertigan and left fielder Lance Roenicke to fly out to left field.
The first hit of the game came in the fourth inning from Dirtbags third basemen Juan Avila.
Avila’s hit came off the end of the bat and landed just out of reach of Gauchos center fielder Brett Vertigan. Avila was thrown out trying to steal second on the subsequent pitch that brought the inning to an end.
Strufing struggled to locate his pitches in the fifth after hitting Wallace to lead off the inning.
Following a walk to Gauchos shortstop Steven Moon, Strufing’s fifth walk of the game, Buckley removed him from the game in the middle of a 2-1 count to the hitless Wear.
At that point Strufing head yet to give up a hit or a run in the game.
“He [Strufing] didn’t deserve to be out there,” Buckley said. “He wasn’t throwing enough strikes. When your starter has five walks in four innings you have to make a change.”
Junior right-handed pitcher Eddie Magallon replaced Strufing. Magallon then walked Wear to load the bases.
Wallace scored from third base for the first run of the game on a fielder’s choice from Vertigan to Patron.
The LBSU bullpen settled down, however, and pitched 10 innings of five hit baseball allowing just three runs, all of which were unearned.
After twenty-three innings played in the day, the first nine resulting in a 6-3 victory, and fourteen in the second game the exhausted Dirtbag squad jumped on top of Bekakis as they sealed a tie for first place with Cal State Fullerton.
Patron led LBSU on offense going 2-for-5 with two RBI. Avila contributed three hits in five at-bats, while Bekakis went 1-for-6 with two RBI, including the walk off hit by pitch.
“That’s nice for the short term, but we got to get to tomorrow. It’s a long season,” Buckley said of the Dirtbags Big West record. “We’ve got to do things better than we did tonight, but at the same time we have to give credit for them fighting.”