April 19, 2005

Box Score

Los Angeles, Calif. - For the second time in three weeks, LMU baseball notched a victory over a top-ten team when the Lions defeated ninth-ranked Long Beach State 10-6 Tuesday at Page Stadium. LMU (16-20) scored more runs and tallied more hits than any other team to face the 49ers (27-13) this season in the final mid-week home match-up.

LMU broke open a 4-4 game in the bottom of the fifth when a two-out, two-run single by senior Joe Frazee gave the Lions a three-run cushion. LMU entered the top of the sixth with 7-4 lead after scoring the three runs off Long Beach State reliever Andrew Liebel.

The Lions had built a 4-0 lead after just two innings of play against top-10 49ers, scoring all four runs on five hits off of starter Cody Evans.

But Long Beach State tied it at 4-4 in the fourth on an RBI double by Cole Jacobsen. Three 49er runs in the third inning cut the lead to 4-3. A two-run single by Sean Boatright followed by an RBI single by Evan Longoria made it a one-run ballgame.

The two teams then traded runs in the sixth as a Chris Pettit solo homerun off of Matt Fitts made it 8-5. LMU added two insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth, highlighted by senior Jon Oller's team-leading seventh home run of the season to make it 10-5.

Six Long Beach State pitchers combined to give up 13 hits, on a day the national statistics released that the 49er pitching staff led the nation in ERA (1.94).

Long Beach State was led by Evan Longoria, who went 4-for-5 with two RBI, while Sean Boatright extended his hit streak to 17 games with two more hits.

LMU starter Kyle Huddy (2-2) struck out four in his five innings of work, before sophomore Daniel Macias pitched the next 1.2 shutout innings. Blake Feaser pitched the final 2.1 innings to earn his third save of the season.

Frazee finished the day 2-for-3 with three RBI and a run scored in a game that saw every spot in the LMU lineup tally a hit.

The Lions now travel to San Francisco to face the Dons in a three-game WCC series beginning Friday at 3:00 p.m.

-GO LIONS-