With a single up the middle in the bottom of the twelfth inning, infielder Matt Duffy insured a walk-off win for the Long Beach State baseball team in a 1-0 victory against UC Riverside Highlanders on Friday night at Blair Field.
For nearly 12 innings, both the Dirtbags (17-15, 4-3 Big West Conference) and Highlanders (15-13, 3-4) were kept scoreless by exceptional pitching.
Dirtbags starter, Andrew Gagnon (4-4), went eight strong innings and surrendered only one hit, while striking out ten batters — including five in a row at one point.
Meanwhile, Highlanders starter Matt Andriese (1-3) was just as impressive, if not more so, as he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before allowing three hits in 10 innings of work.
“[There was] good pitching on both sides,” Dirtbags head coach Troy Buckley said. “Our goal was to get as many ground ball outs as possible. [Gagnon] was able to get a couple of secondary pitches over for strikes. When he’s able to do that he can pitch backwards at times.”
LBSU first baseman Ino Patron singled off of Andriese after left fielder Jeff McNeil flew out to right field to give the Dirtbags their first hit in the seventh inning.
Andriese struck out six batters and walked three in 10 scoreless innings. This marked the second time this season a visiting pitcher had taken a no-hit bid this far into the game at Blair Field. Oregon State right-handed pitcher Sam Gaviglio allowed just one hit to LBSU in the eighth inning on March 18.
LBSU relief pitchers Branden Pinder, who earned the win, and Eddie Magallon each threw two shutout innings after Gagnon had left the game. Like Gagnon, Pinder struck out five consecutive UCR batters in his first appearance out of the bullpen this year.
“[Coming out of the bullpen] was fine, I was just trying put up some zeros on the score board,” said Pinder, who has primarily been Saturday’s starting pitcher for the Dirtbags all season.”It doesn’t really matter for me; I just go one pitch and one hitter at a time.”
Both teams had their fair share of chances to score. The Highlanders placed a runner on third in the sixth inning, while the Dirtbags loaded the bases in the seventh. However, neither team could get runs across as they were held up by stellar pitching.
Patron led off the twelfth inning with a single to left field off Riverside relief pitcher Dylan Stuart, who was charged with the loss.
Utility player Mike Marjama, who began the game at third, but switched to catcher by the end of the contest, then executed a sacrifice bunt to push Patron to second base.
Duffy then followed up Marjama’s effort with a single up the middle past a diving Riverside shortstop Trevor Hairgrove. Center fielder Tony Nix came up throwing, but Patron slid wide of catcher Bart Stepanovich to score the game’s only run.
“[Stuart] was getting ahead [in the count] pretty well with all his pitches,” Duffy said. “His change up was one of his better pitches, so I was looking out for it.”
The RBI was Duffy’s team-leading 22nd of the season. Duffy and Patron each finished with two hits.
The Dirtbags will continue their weekend series against the Highlanders at Blair Field on Saturday. First pitch is slated for 5:30 p.m. with LBSU’s Shawn Stuart scheduled to take the mound against UCR’s Dustin Emmons.
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