Saturday, March 26
Northridge, Calif.
2:00 p.m.
California State University at Northridge
12-10, 1-4
4
vs
3
Long Beach State
12-9, 3-2
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Long Beach State
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
1
3
6
2
CSUN
0
1
0
0
2
0
1
0
X
4
11
1
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Wentz, Ryan (2-2)
L: Noble, Jack (3-1)
S: Traxel, Blaine (1)
Batting:
2B: Porter, Tyler 1
HR: Jimenez, Chris 1
RBI: Porter, Tyler 1 ; Jimenez, Chris 1
SH: Murillo, Sebastian 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Peppi, Rocco 1 ; Porter, Tyler 1 ; Jimenez, Chris 1
HBP: Luttrell, Chase 1 ; Loust, Charlie 1
Batting:
2B: Moody, Kai 1 ; Le, Mason 1 ; Bohning, Brandon 1
HR: Sojka, Andrew 1
RBI: Sojka, Andrew 1 ; West, Bart 1 ; Bohning, Brandon 1
SH: Moody, Kai 1 ; Tarlow, Graysen 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Sojka, Andrew 1 ; Moody, Kai 1 ; Porter, Drew 1 ; Le, Mason 1
CS: Barraza, Nathan 1
HBP: Simons, Jakob 1 ; Gonzalez, Gabe 1
Game Leaders
AB
5
R
1
H
3
RBI
1
AB
4
R
0
H
2
RBI
1
Players Mentioned
INF
/ BaseballINF
/ Baseball
OF
/ BaseballOF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
Photo by: Will Navarro
Matadors Edge Long Beach State for First Big West Win
3/26/2022 5:08:00 PM | Baseball
NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---CSUN Baseball (12-10, 1-4 Big West) collected its first Big West win of the season by defeating Long Beach State (12-9, 3-2 Big West) 4-3 on Saturday at Matador Field. Ryan Wentz worked six quality innings, allowing one run to go with five strikeouts. Four Matadors had multiple-hit games led by Andrew Sojka who went 3-for-5 with a home run.
In similar fashion to Friday's contest where the Dirtbags would end up scoring five runs in the first, Long Beach State threatened for a big inning early on in Saturday's game. After Wentz walked the first batter of the game on four pitches, he retired the next two batters. However, Jonthon Long singled before Tyler Porter came threw with an RBI single. Wentz would hit the next batter, loading the bases, but bounced back to to sit down Eddie Saldivar to end the threat.
After running into danger in the first inning, Wentz went on to find his rhythm on the mound by retiring 10 of the next 11 batters including inducing a double play in the top of the third inning.
Meanwhile, CSUN leaned on two-out hitting in the bottom of the second to even the game up. Mason Le legged out a single to keep the inning alive before Brandon Bohning delivered an RBI double in the left-field corner.
Long Beach State looked to retake the lead in the top of the fifth when Wentz surrendered a single, hit batter and walk to load the bases. Wentz though wiggled out of danger by inducing an inning-ending double play off the bat of Rocco Peppi, keeping the game squared at 1-1.
CSUN took its first lead of the series in the home half of the fifth on a leadoff home run from Sojka. The Matadors later added a second run in the frame on an RBI single from Bart West to plate Kai Moody for a 3-1 lead.
Wentz worked his way through the sixth inning and returned back to the mound with over 100 pitches thrown in the game. However, after going to a 2-0 count on Chris Jimenez, Wentz was lifted from the game. Blaine Traxel took over the mound and went on to retire the next three batters to maintain a two-run lead.
CSUN extended its lead to 4-1 in the bottom of the seventh on heads up base running from Drew Porter who scored on a play where base runner Nathan Barraza was tagged out in a rundown. The Dirtbags though answered with a single tally in the top of the eighth after a CSUN error allowed Porter to score.
Long Beach State cut the Matador lead to 4-3 in the top of the ninth on a leadoff home run from Jimenez. Traxel though rebounded nicely by retiring the next three batters, two of which on strikeouts, to nail down a save.
GAME NOTES
Moody finished 2-for-3 with a run while Le and Bohning both went 2-for-4 at the plate. Moody also recorded his eighth multiple-hit game of the season, tying West for the team lead.
Traxel made his first appearance since March 13 on Saturday. He finished with three innings pitched and two runs allowed with one earned.
ACCORDING TO COACH DAVE SERRANO
"Ryan goes out and walks the first guy on what I call four uncompetitive pitches. Ryan has shown so far this year that he's gotten himself in jams but he's done a tremendous job with his teammates' help [after that]. We've turned a lot of double plays with him on the mound. He had a good wiggle with his his change, his slider – his fastball was in and out with his command. I felt he earned the right to go out for the top of the seventh. I'm very proud of him and very proud of Blaine Traxel. The guy hasn't pitched in a while for various reasons and he comes out, we've missed that young man. It's good to have him back.
"We had to grind. That's a good pitching staff over there, they throw a lot of strikes, they've got good arms. They're a sound team. I was happy with our execution today. I thought we did some things to move some guys to scoring position. It's just getting over that hump. We can make so many things easier on ourselves. Overall, today was a good day for us and we needed a good win against a very good team in Long Beach State."
UP NEXT
CSUN and Long Beach State play the rubber match of their weekend series on Sunday at 1 p.m. Ghizal Hasan has the call on ESPN+ and GoMatadors.com/Radio.
#UniteTheValley
Â
In similar fashion to Friday's contest where the Dirtbags would end up scoring five runs in the first, Long Beach State threatened for a big inning early on in Saturday's game. After Wentz walked the first batter of the game on four pitches, he retired the next two batters. However, Jonthon Long singled before Tyler Porter came threw with an RBI single. Wentz would hit the next batter, loading the bases, but bounced back to to sit down Eddie Saldivar to end the threat.
After running into danger in the first inning, Wentz went on to find his rhythm on the mound by retiring 10 of the next 11 batters including inducing a double play in the top of the third inning.
Meanwhile, CSUN leaned on two-out hitting in the bottom of the second to even the game up. Mason Le legged out a single to keep the inning alive before Brandon Bohning delivered an RBI double in the left-field corner.
Long Beach State looked to retake the lead in the top of the fifth when Wentz surrendered a single, hit batter and walk to load the bases. Wentz though wiggled out of danger by inducing an inning-ending double play off the bat of Rocco Peppi, keeping the game squared at 1-1.
CSUN took its first lead of the series in the home half of the fifth on a leadoff home run from Sojka. The Matadors later added a second run in the frame on an RBI single from Bart West to plate Kai Moody for a 3-1 lead.
Wentz worked his way through the sixth inning and returned back to the mound with over 100 pitches thrown in the game. However, after going to a 2-0 count on Chris Jimenez, Wentz was lifted from the game. Blaine Traxel took over the mound and went on to retire the next three batters to maintain a two-run lead.
CSUN extended its lead to 4-1 in the bottom of the seventh on heads up base running from Drew Porter who scored on a play where base runner Nathan Barraza was tagged out in a rundown. The Dirtbags though answered with a single tally in the top of the eighth after a CSUN error allowed Porter to score.
Long Beach State cut the Matador lead to 4-3 in the top of the ninth on a leadoff home run from Jimenez. Traxel though rebounded nicely by retiring the next three batters, two of which on strikeouts, to nail down a save.
GAME NOTES
Moody finished 2-for-3 with a run while Le and Bohning both went 2-for-4 at the plate. Moody also recorded his eighth multiple-hit game of the season, tying West for the team lead.
Traxel made his first appearance since March 13 on Saturday. He finished with three innings pitched and two runs allowed with one earned.
ACCORDING TO COACH DAVE SERRANO
"Ryan goes out and walks the first guy on what I call four uncompetitive pitches. Ryan has shown so far this year that he's gotten himself in jams but he's done a tremendous job with his teammates' help [after that]. We've turned a lot of double plays with him on the mound. He had a good wiggle with his his change, his slider – his fastball was in and out with his command. I felt he earned the right to go out for the top of the seventh. I'm very proud of him and very proud of Blaine Traxel. The guy hasn't pitched in a while for various reasons and he comes out, we've missed that young man. It's good to have him back.
"We had to grind. That's a good pitching staff over there, they throw a lot of strikes, they've got good arms. They're a sound team. I was happy with our execution today. I thought we did some things to move some guys to scoring position. It's just getting over that hump. We can make so many things easier on ourselves. Overall, today was a good day for us and we needed a good win against a very good team in Long Beach State."
UP NEXT
CSUN and Long Beach State play the rubber match of their weekend series on Sunday at 1 p.m. Ghizal Hasan has the call on ESPN+ and GoMatadors.com/Radio.
#UniteTheValley
Â
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