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The Long Beach State Dirtbags picked up their first Big West series win in front of a packed crowd Saturday night by coming back to beat CSU Fullerton 4-3 on Bohl Diamond at Blair Field.
Trailing 3-0 in the seventh inning, the Dirtbags bats came alive as John Newman Jr got on base with a single to left field. Later in the inning, Cole Santander double to center allowing Newman Jr to advance to third. Alex Champagne followed that up a RBI single to score Newman Jr, and then advanced to second on a throwing error and Santander advanced to third.
With runners on the second and third, Nick Marinconz hit an RBI sacrifice fly to left field to score Champagne and tie the game at 3-3.
After John Largaespada came in relief and retired the Titans in order to give the Dirtbags an opportunity to take the lead. Kyle Ashworth led off with a single up the middle and Adrian Lopez hit a grounder to Nico Regino and he threw out Ashworth.
Lopez took second on a steal and then advanced to third to bring up Connor Charpiot with a chance to take the lead. Charpiot did what he needed to with a sacrifice fly to right field that scored Lopez for the eventually game-winning run.
“This place is just so great,” Charpiot said. “The whole town’s out here it feels like. It’s such an awesome place to play. When you got all those people behind you— it’s hard not to feel the electricity that’s here.”
The win gives the Dirtbags their first series win and back-to-back victories as LBSU is starting to figure out what its identity is.
“We want to be Dirtbags to the core,” coach Bryan Peters said. “We want to do what it takes to win the game like that. That’s our identity.”
While LBSU is starting to get back to the brand of baseball they were playing in the first month of the season, Peters said the team is getting back to who they are.
“You can never count us out,” Peters said. “Even when we’re bleeding and we feel like we’re buried. We obviously showed earlier in the year what we’re capable of with making late pushes in a game. Apparently we’re better with our backs against the wall. That’s a really hard trait to be able to have on a team, so like I said last night Fullerton brings the best out of us.”
CSUF got a big lift from Long Beach native and Millikan Alum Moises Guzman who homered to left field to give the Titans a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning. He finished the game 3-4.
For the Dirtbags, John Newman went 2-4 and Kellen Montgomery finished line 6IP, 7 H, 2 R, 4 K, and a walk.
On Sunday, the Dirtbags will look to pick up the series sweep at 1 p.m.
