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Long Beach State (17-30) came into its final home series of the 2026 season on a good note: winners of five of their last six games and fresh off a sweep of UC San Diego last weekend.
However, the Dirtbags ran into a solid all-around performance from No. 10 Oregon State (38-11) on Friday night on Bohl Diamond at Blair Field, falling behind early and suffering a 7-2 loss against the visiting Beavers.
Oregon State opened the scoring with a pair of runs in the second inning, and led 5-0 before Long Beach State got its first baserunner of the night. Beavers starter Ethan Kleinschmit was perfect through the first 4.1 innings until Kaiden Smaka laid down a bunt single in the fifth to give Long Beach some action.
LBSU’s best chance to score was in the sixth, when the first five batters of the inning reached base, starting with a ringing double by DH Conner Stewart off the left field wall. He would later score on an RBI single from Camden Gasser to put the Dirtbags on the board and cut the deficit to 5-1. Then a walk to Smith Chandler forced Kleinschmit out of the ballgame.
“I thought he did a really good job,” said Dirtbags coach TJ Bruce of Kleinschmit’s performance. “Anytime you can mix, and you’ve got multiple pitches to go to in different counts, it’s always a challenge. I thought we did a really good job during that middle inning. We were just super aggressive in the zone, we were on the fastball, and we were super aggressive early in the count. We didn’t allow them to get to two strikes a whole lot during that one inning, obviously just looking for the big hit.”
LBSU was able to plate a second run on an RBI single from Trotter Enright to score Damon Valdez and make it a 5-2 ballgame, but OSU’s Isaac Yaeger was able to get a big strikeout for the first out of the inning, then wriggle out of the bases loaded jam with an inning-ending double play ball.
The Dirtbags had at least one baserunner in every inning starting in the fifth, but it was too little too late against the Beavers, who tacked on insurance runs in the seventh and ninth innings off Dirtbags reliever Caleb Anderson, who struck out six in 3.1 innings of relief to finish the game.
The visitors totaled 12 hits on the evening, but only two went for extra bases, as they benefitted from putting the ball in play and finding holes. Bruce estimates that LBSU starting pitcher Ka’imi Kahalekai only gave up two hard-hit balls in his 5.2 innings of work, allowing five runs (four earned) on seven hits and three walks.
“I thought our guys did a really good job. That’s one of the tougher teams in the country to strike out,” said Bruce of his pitchers. “They do a really good job with two strikes. I think we did a good job of not getting two strikes, and they do a good job with two strikes. It’s just kind of going to be a battle, and it’s going to be like that all weekend.”
Long Beach State’s lineup has had a new look to it in recent weeks with several starters unavailable due to injury. Without key figures like outfielders Trevor Goldenetz and Matt Toomey, plus infielders Jake Evans and Aaron Perez, other players have had to step up in expanded roles. Bruce singled out Murchael Turner and Justin Roulston in particular who’ve taken advantage of those opportunities.
Turner smacked a double to lead off the seventh inning for Long Beach, extending his hitting streak to seven straight games. Roulston, meanwhile, drew a walk in his final plate appearance and worked counts effectively, seeing 23 pitches in his four trips to the plate, including three full counts.
All nine Dirtbags in the starting lineup reached base safely, with seven collecting exactly one hit. However, there were only two extra-base hits for Long Beach and they only recorded multiple hits in the same frame during their two-run sixth.
The Dirtbags and Beavers will face off again on Saturday night, back on Bohl Diamond at Blair Field at 6 p.m. The final game of the weekend, and Senior Day for the Dirtbags, will have a scheduled first pitch of 12:05 p.m. on Sunday.
