By: Wichita State
Box Score Long Beach, Calif.- The two teams combined for 27 hits, but Long Beach State came out on top, 8-5, Saturday afternoon.
Wichita State (3-2) pounded out 14 hits, and Andy Dirks led the way with a 3-for-5 effort. Dusty Coleman and Bret Bascue each went 2-for-4. Coleman had a triple and a homerun while adding two RBI. Conor Gillaspie added two hits and two RBI and Ryan Jones also had two hits.
Despite the Shockers' offensive power and the Dirtbags two errors, Long Beach State put together its 13 hits for eight runs to top WSU. Danny Espinosa, Shane Peterson, Taylor Krick and Jason Tweedy all had multiple hits with Tweedy contributing two RBI.
Long Beach struck first with back-to-back singles by Peterson and Zach Barger. Krick doubled a run in to go up 1-0 in the first inning.
Wichita State answered with two runs in the top of the second. Tyler Hill singled to center field and Coleman hit his second homer of the season, making it 2-1.
The Dirtbags came back to knot it in the third after a single from Espinosa. The runner advanced on a balk by WSU starter Aaron Shafer and crossed the plate with a double from Peterson.
The Shockers took a temporary lead by adding two runs in the top of the fifth. Bascue led off with a single up the middle and Dirks reached on an error by the second baseman. Jones bunted for a hit to load the bases and Gillaspie drove two in with a single to center field.
Long Beach State roared back in the sixth, scoring five runs on four runs, two walks and one hit batter.
Workman doubled in Gillaspie, who had reached on a single in the seventh, but Long Beach State got that one back in the bottom half of the frame, bringing it to 8-5.
Shafer (1-1) suffered the loss, giving up six earned runs on eight hits in 5.1 innings. Logan Hoch had a brief appearance with one run in 0.1 innings. Matt Smith allowed one earned run in two frames. Khol Nanney faced one batter in the eighth and picked up a strikeout.
Starter Vance Worley earned the win and gave up four earned runs on 12 hits in 6.1 innings. David Roberts earned the save with one scoreless inning of work.
Wichita State will try and avoid the sweep Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. CST.
-Wichita State-
