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sports:
baseball
LBSU wins UCSB
finale
By Ben Dimapindan
On-line Forty-Niner
The Long Beach
State men's baseball team reclaimed its winning ways with
a 10-4 victory over No. 25 UC Santa Barbara in Sunday's three-game
series finale.
After dropping
the previous five games, the Dirtbags (30-18, 7-5) earned
a crucial Big West Conference win and tallied its 30th victory
of the season in front of 778 fans at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium,
the Gauchos' home field.
While the LBSU
offense regained its explosive attack, starting pitcher Jeff
Baumback led the defense and troubled the Gauchos batters
for five complete innings.
"Baumback
gave us a strong start today," Head Coach Dave Snow said.
"I thought he did a lot better on Tuesday, and we were
in uncharted territory because he had not gone that much so
far this year."
With the game deadlocked
at 1-1, the Dirtbags' bats finally came to life and erupted
with a nine-run surge in a two-inning span.
Offensively, The
Beach was led by right fielder Paul Macaluso, who had three
hits, three RBIs and three runs scored. Also, shortstop Bobby
Crosby added three hits, one RBI and one run scored, and catcher
Bryan Kennedy and designated hitter Nick Covarrubias each
contributed a pair of hits.
"It's been
a while since we had big innings," Snow said.
With the LBSU offense
running at full throttle, the Gauchos (36-11, 9-3) could only
drive in two runs in the fourth and fifth innings and slipped
into a 10-3 deficit.
In the bottom of
the ninth, a Gauchos rally managed to score just one run and
narrowed the lead to a permanent 10-4 advantage for the Dirtbags.
The UCSB offensive
flow was halted by Baumback, who picked up his third win of
the season, and the relief pitchers, Chad Bentz and
Josh Alliston. The relievers combined to toss four complete
innings and gave up one run on one hit.
In addition, the
only batters to find success at the plate for UCSB were designated
hitter Mike Kolbach, who went 3-for-5, and center fielder
Jared Schumaker, who had two hits and scored one run.
Baseball action
continues tonight as the Dirtbags host the University of San
Diego at 5 p.m.
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