Baseball
This past week baseball played a total of four games as they went 1-3. One on the road at San Diego State. The Dirtbags would end up losing to SDSU with a final score of 5-1. Two-way player Kaden Moeller would receive the loss for the night. His record is now 1-3 with an ERA 3.60.
LBSU’s first baseman Rocco Peppi would try to get the Dirtbags to rally in the sixth as he hit a double to left field. He would be batted in shortly after making the score 2-1. However, in the bottom of the six, the Aztecs would respond right away with a home run putting the score 4-1. SDSU would hit one more home run in the eighth inning which would be the nail in the coffin for The Beach.
Over the weekend, the Dirtbags would travel to central California where they were hosted for a three game series against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
The Dirtbags would open the series against the Mustangs in a loss of 4-1. In the bottom of the first, the Mustangs would get themselves rallying early as six straight batters reached on base safely, including a pair of home runs.
Reliever Marques Johnson would enter the game after the first two outs in the first inning. He would go on and finish the game with 6.1 innings pitched and recorded seven strikeouts and retired 19 batters out of the 20 he faced.
Following the early deficit for the Dirtbags, they would not be able to overcome this as their only run scored was in the 7th inning after Tyler White reached an RBI after a Chris Jimenez run.
On Saturday, the Dirtbags would find themselves having a historical night as the team beat CAL Poly, 28-2. The team finished the night with 32 hits total. This is the most in program history. The 26 differential score was also the largest in program history.
Long Beach State was led by hitter Chase Luttrell who went 4-5 with 6 RBIs. Pitcher Juaron Watts-Brown would go on to record his first win of the season as the redshirt freshman recorded a total of six strikeouts during Saturday’s victory.
On Sunday, the Dirtbags would end up losing the series in a game that ended 7-10. The Mustangs would find themselves scoring early in Sunday’s game as they recorded three runs in the first and second innings. In the fifth inning, the Mustangs would also end up scoring two more runs in the fifth and seventh innings.
Long Beach would rally late in the 8th and 9th inning scoring a total of six runs. But it was not enough to overmatch Cal Poly’s early game scoring.
The Dirtbags will be back at home this week as they are going to face California Baptist university then they will face Oregon State this weekend in a three-game series in Corvallis Oregon.
Softball
This past weekend softball traveled down south of California for a three game series against UC San Diego as they went 2-1.
The Beach faced the Tritons on Friday night in a game that finished 5-2. LBSU was led by hitters Kyra Snyder, Sara Olson, and Jacquelyn Bickar as they all helped score RBIs for the Beach.
Pitcher Samantha Fowler would find herself having a day as she went for seven innings and struck out six UC San Diego batters on Friday night.
On Saturday The Beach would play a doubleheader against the Tritons as LBSU won the first game 5-0. LBSU pitcher Sophia Fernandez would also find herself going a full seven innings Saturday as she gave up zero runs and struck out two batters. Saturday’s game would give become her 9th win of the season. The Beach was able to really get the team going after Corissa Sweet and Kyra Snyder both hit back-to-back singles followed by a 14 pitch walk by Cam Cecil as she was able to help the team load the bases for Rebakah Durazo. After a wild pitch and an RBI single by Lilyanna Martinez who helped improve the score to a total of 5-0.
In-game two, the Beach would lose with a final score of 2-1 against the Tritons. Ashleigh Inae hit a double to left-center field as she would bring home Jacquelyn Bickar in the third to take the lead of 3-0.
However, UC San Diego would respond with a single up the middle to tie the game 1-1. In the bottom of the 7th, the Tritons would hit a walk-off home run to finish the game with a final score of 2-1.
LBSU is now 9-3 in conference play and they are looking to face off against UC Santa Barbara this weekend at home.
Men’s Volleyball
Men’s Volleyball saw action this past week as The Beach faced UC San Diego in a two-game series that featured one home game and one away game as they went 1-1.
The first game was at home on Friday night a game LBSU won 3-0. The Beach was led by freshman sensation Alex Nikolov who had 12 kills and four blocks. Spencer Oliver almost matched Nikolov identically in stats as he had himself a total of 11 kills and four blocks on Friday night.
In the game’s first set, The Beach was in a close battle as they were tested by the Tritons in a set that ended 31-29. The Beach would find their groove later on as they finished set two with a final score of 25-18 and 25-12 to end the third.
In LA Jolla CA. Long Beach would end up losing to UC San Diego with a final score of 3-2.
The Beach would win the first set with a final score of 25-16 but they would drop sets two, three, and five. Long beach was outscored by UC San Diego by a total of three points that night as the two teams competed against each other very closely.
Long Beach State is now looking to find their momentum again as they are going to play California State University, Northridge in a home and away matchup to end regular season play before the Big West Tournament in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Women’s Tennis
Women’s Tennis played at home this past week against Cal State Fullerton. LBSU would go on and lose to CSUF 4-3.
LBSU and CSUF were in a matchup that was very close between the two but The Beach would ultimately end up falling short to the Titans after the third set as CSUF’s YuSeung Suh defeated Nikola Homolkova 7-5, 2-6, and 6-3.
The Beach will return to action this week as they play CSUN at 11 AM.
Women’s Water Polo
Women’s Water Polo played two matches over the weekend.
The Beach started off with a home victory over UC Davis over the weekend as Long Beach State was led by senior attacker Orsi Hertzka who went 5-10 in the game making 50% of her shots. This helped The Beach win the game as they would finish with a victory of 9-4.
On Sunday, The Beach would play their last home game of the year as LBSU went on to face the University of Hawai’i.
Long Beach would end up losing with a final score of 14-5.
Long Beach was in a tough defensive match to start the game for the first six minutes, but they would end up dropping that shortly after Hawai’i took a 2-0 lead over The Beach.
In the third period, Hawai’i would score six points which put the game out of reach for The Beach as they were down 10-3.
Long Beach will look to recuperate this week as they get ready for their last game of the year on Saturday at 12:00 against CSUN.