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The Long Beach State Dirtbags have been searching for momentum.
As frustrations have mounted and results have fallen short of both internal expectations and those of the Dirtbags community, Long Beach State offered a glimpse of promise Tuesday night at Bohl Diamond at Blair Field. The Dirtbags took an early lead and never looked back in a 5-3 win over No. 12 University of Southern California.
It marked the first of five games this week for Long Beach State (12-23, 6-12) and whether the victory sparks a turnaround remains to be seen, but for one night it served as a reminder of what the program can look like when competing close to its best against one of the nation’s top teams.
“I told the team I thought what they did tonight that we haven’t done is just attack the game,” Long Beach State coach TJ Bruce said. “It wasn’t about Tuesday. It wasn’t about USC. It was just about attacking the game and whatever the game presented to us. I thought we did a really good job handling those situations.”
Caleb Anderson pitched 6 shutout innings and struck out a season-high nine batters as the Dirtbags took a 4-0 lead. It was a nice bounce back Anderson who had a rough start against Cal State Fullerton last week.
“It felt good out there,” Anderson said. “I was able to trust the guys behind me and the guys swinging the bats. They’ve been hot, and when they’re doing that, it gives me a chance to go out there and throw up zeros. Having that support definitely helped a lot.”
After Anderson sat the Trojans down in order at the top of the first inning, Kaidan Smaka got the Dirtbags on the board in the bottom of the frame when he smacked a 2-run double to left field that allowed Jake Evans and Matt Toomey to score.
“It’s all about passing the bat to the next guy,” Smaka said. “I’m just trying to fight for my team and trust the guys behind me. When we have guys on the mound like Caleb dealing, our offense feeds off that. That’s just how we play. It’s another opponent, and we’ve got four more games this week, so we’re going to keep doing what we do.”
With the early run support, Anderson continued to mow down the Trojans (30-8) and didn’t give up his first hit until the fourth inning when Isaac Cadena hit a single. Anderson stranded the run and the Dirtbags went right back to work.
Trotter Enright made it a 3-0 lead when he hit a sac fly that let Aaron Perez score and Evans added another run when he singled on an 0-2 count that push Reid Montgomery score to give the Dirtbags a 4-0 lead after the fourth.
After two scoreless innings, Jaxon Baker entered the game in relief for Anderson. After striking out Augie Lopez, Baker walked Maximo Martinez. That’s when USC started to make some noise when Will Stickney pinch hit for Andrew Lamb and singled – pushing Martinez to second base.
Then with two outs, Jack Basser hit a RBI double, but Baker got out of the inning as Long Beach State led 4-1. LBSU got the run back in the bottom of the inning thanks to another clutch at bat by Smaka who grounded out that allowed Evans to score giving the Dirtbags a 5-1 lead after 7.
At the top of the eighth, the Dirtbags went back to the bullpen as Tyler Gebb came in to relieve Baker. That’s when Trojans made another move in the eighth when Cadena singled to left.
After Gebb got Kevin Takeuchi to fly out, Lopez came up and crushed a two-run shot to the scoreboard as USC cut the lead to 5-3. However, Gebb threw three straight strikes to retire Martinez.
“I thought our guys did a really good job,” Bruce said. “We eliminated the freebie war. I think our freebies were one-to-one with USC. We put the ball in play and played pretty good defense. When you do that, you always have a chance to win.”
The Dirtbags will be back at Bohl Diamond at Blair Field on Wednesday when they host San Diego State and then will start their Big West series against UC Riverside on Friday.
