Barrera Helps Long Beach Beat UCSB

Iran Barrera, making his first start of the season, threw six solid innings to help visiting Long Beach State beat UC Santa Barbara, 3-2, in a Big West Conference baseball game Sunday.

Barrera, normally a reliever, was impressive, giving up five hits and two earned runs. He had three strikeouts.

It was his second consecutive strong performance. Last Tuesday, he pitched four shutout innings for his third save as the 49ers beat Loyola Marymount, 12-4.

“I saw the old Barrera Tuesday and against Loyola [Marymount] and again today,” Long Beach Coach Dave Snow said. “His velocity is back and he stepped up his performance.”

Ara Petrosian, a junior transfer from Cypress College, continued to pitch well. Petrosian, the conference’s pitcher of the week last week, gave up one hit in three innings of relief to get his fifth save.

J.J. Newkirk, who hit the second pitch of the game for his fifth home run, had a run-scoring groundout in the sixth to put Long Beach ahead, 3-2.

Casey Martin had a run-scoring single in the third for Long Beach (13-11, 5-1), which has won seven of eight, including a series sweep against Santa Barbara.

Martin’s single drove in Jaron Madison, who singled before stealing second.

Barry Zito, a freshman left-hander, pitched an eight-hitter with 10 strikeouts for UC Santa Barbara (11-14, 1-5). He struck out four of the final six he faced.