Long Beach State Takes Advantage of Fullerton Errors

Leave it to a series with Cal State Fullerton to get Long Beach State back on the winning track in baseball.

The 49ers had only one victory in their previous six games and had won only seven of their first 17 before taking two of three games from the Titans in the first Big West Conference series of the season.

Long Beach won Sunday’s deciding third game, 7-1, in front of 1,237 at Blair Field, thanks to a defensive collapse by Fullerton that opened the door to a six-run eighth inning.

“We’ve had several big innings against us this season, so I guess we were due for one of our own,” Long Beach Coach Dave Snow said. “My club has really been struggling, so this is great. Our guys needed this from a confidence standpoint, and hopefully we can go on and play better baseball now.”

Two of the Titans’ four errors led to Long Beach’s big inning.

Titan pitcher Brandon Duckworth lost his footing on Jaron Madison’s bunt and threw wildly to first base, and J.J. Newkirk scored from second after a leadoff double. That turned out to be all the 49ers needed to win, although they scored five more times before the inning ended.

“We did something we were trying to do all day,” Snow said. “We got a bunt down with decent direction. We forced their pitcher to have to make a great throw. That opened the door, and we were very opportunistic after that.”

After a walk, Casey Martin hit a one-hopper to shortstop Jerome Alviso, but Alviso’s throw to the plate was high and wide toward third, and the ball got away from catcher Mike Wright, scoring another run. John Alkire replaced Duckworth after an intentional walk loaded the bases with none out. Alkire gave up an RBI single to Chuck Lopez and walked in another run. Five of the six runs were charged to Duckworth, who lost his first game in four decisions.

“We seem to play our worst baseball this season when a game is close,” Titan Coach George Horton said. “We field the worst, hit the worst and sometimes pitch the worst. That makes me concerned about our competitive attitude. That’s been the missing ingredient for us. And if we don’t change that, we’ll be about a .500 baseball team this season.”

Fullerton, a slight favorite over Long Beach in a preseason coaches poll to win its division, fell to 13-10 for the season. Long Beach State is 9-11. Under the Big West’s new schedule format, the teams will play another three-game series in Fullerton April 11-13. In the past, they played only one series in the regular season.

Duckworth, who gave up five hits, was nicked for only one unearned run through the first seven innings. That came in the first, aided by another Titan error. Outfielder Scott Seal dropped Newkirk’s fly ball in right center on the first play of the game. Newkirk scored on Izzy Gonzalez’s single. “That error was a result of two outfielders calling the ball at the same time and not hearing each other,” Horton said. ‘That created some confusion. But it was a game of mistakes from our standpoint, and it hurt a quality pitching performance. We made more mistakes than they did, and they did a good job of capitalizing on them.”

The Titans scored their only run on Aaron Rowand’s leadoff homer in the second.

That was one of only two hits Long Beach starter Keith Cowley gave up through 5 2/3 innings. Cowley developed a sore elbow in the sixth, and Snow replaced him with his top reliever, Ara Petrosian, who was equally effective. Petrosian (3-1) gave up only two hits over 2 1/3 innings to pick up the victory.

“Cowley threw a pitch and said he felt something pop in his elbow,” Snow said. “He was doing a good job at the time. That’s the most he’s thrown for us. I hope he’s healthy. We really need a quality third starter, and he could be the guy.”