By snoadmin
Three weeks ago, the Dirtbags were having a nice, yet unspectacular, season with a 22-14 record.
Then it began.
The first win came on a Sunday afternoon against UC Davis at Blair Field. Two days later, the Dirtbags shut out San Diego State. Then, LBSU went up to Northern California to take three from Pacific. After that, the Dirtbags swept an up-and-coming Cal Poly squad at home. Then last Tuesday, LBSU went down Interstate 5 to beat SDSU.
And finally, this past weekend, LBSU extended its winning streak to historic proportions, winning three memorable games at UC Santa Barbara. The Dirtbags (ranked No. 22 in the Baseball America top 25, which came out last Monday) have now won 12 consecutive games, 13 straight Big West Conference games, and are in first place in the conference.
But more than once this weekend, it looked as if the Dirtbag winning streak were going to come to a halt.
On Friday, LBSU’s No. 1 starter Manny McElroy pitched seven strong innings, giving up two runs on nine hits en route to an 8-3 win.
That was the easy game.
Then on Saturday, UCSB scored four runs in the bottom of the eight inning to take an 8-4 lead going in the ninth.
With one out in the top of the ninth, Danny Espinosa hit a 3-run homerun to give the Dirtbags a 9-8 lead. Robert Perry followed Espinosa’s homerun with one of his own, and Bryan Shaw pitched the bottom of the ninth to close out the 10-8 win.
Again on Sunday, it looked as if the Dirtbags’ winning streak was all but over, with Gauchos leading 4-1 going into the eighth inning.
With two outs and the runners on second and third, Jason Corder tied the game with a three-run homerun.
The game remained tied until the top of the 11th inning, when a ground ball to third base looked like a possible double play ball, but the throw by Gauchos third baseman Scott Cohen was dropped by second baseman Patrick Rose, which allowed Perry to score the go-ahead run.
Then the flood gates opened, as the Dirtbags scored eight runs in the 11th, which was highlighted by a grand slam by Chris Nelson. The homerun for Nelson extended a streak of his own, as it was the fourth straight game he hit a homerun.
The Dirtbags will try to make it 13 in a row, when they travel to Loyola Marymount on Tuesday. Then next weekend, LBSU will host second-place UC Riverside, and could conceivably cling the Big West title if they sweep the Highlanders.
Big West Standings
Conference / Overall
Long Beach State 13-2 / 34-14
UC Riverside 12-3 / 33-17
UC Irvine 10-5 / 34-14-1
CS Fullerton 8-7 / 31-19
Cal Poly 8-7 / 27-23
UC Santa Barbara 9-9 / 21-25
CS Northridge 2-13 / 14-36
Pacific 1-17 / 13-40
