No. 18 Cal Poly Loses Game and Series to Long Beach State, 9-5

Sunday, April 28

Long Beach, CA

1 pm

28-13, 8-7

Long Beach State

20-21, 9-6

Cal Poly

Long Beach State

No. 18 Cal Poly Loses Game and Series to Long Beach State, 9-5

4/28/2013 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

LONG BEACH, Calif. – A grand slam by third baseman Juan Avila turned a 5-4 deficit into an 8-5 lead and Long Beach State went on to beat No. 18 Cal Poly 9-5 in the finale of a Big West Conference baseball series Sunday afternoon at Blair Field.

Avila, whose sacrifice fly in the eighth inning Saturday lifted Long Beach State to a 3-2 victory, hit his first home run of the season off Reed Reilly in the seventh inning and helped the Dirtbags win the series, two games to one.

Long Beach State is 20-21 on the year and 9-6 in Big West games, alone in fourth place. Cal Poly fell to 28-13 and 8-7, tied for fifth place with UC Santa Barbara.

The game started well for Cal Poly as the Mustangs scored three times in the third inning and sophomore right-hander Bryan Granger (pictured at right) pitched five scoreless, hitless innings.

Long Beach State opened the bottom of the sixth with a walk and a single, forcing Mustang head coach Larry Lee to summon junior right-hander Michael Holback from the bullpen.

Ino Patron hit a two-run double and Zack Rivera followed with a two-run triple as the Dirtbags grabbed a 4-3 lead.

Mustang sophomore right fielder Nick Torres singled to tie the game in the seventh and Elliot Stewart's grounder up the middle resulted in two Long Beach State errors and an unearned run for a 5-4 Cal Poly lead.

Long Beach State loaded the bases on two singles and a walk in the bottom of the seventh before Avila, a .278 hitter at the start of Sunday's game, hit Reilly's first pitch over the wall in left field for a grand slam and an 8-5 Dirtbag advantage.

Long Beach State added a run in the eighth on Jeff McNeil's third hit of the game, a single to right field.

Eddie Magallon (1-1), the fourth of five Long Beach State pitchers in the game, earned the win, getting two outs in the seventh inning before Ty Provencher tossed two scoreless frames for his first save.

The loss went to Reilly (2-3), who gave up four runs and five hits in one inning of work.

Both teams collected 10 hits. Chavez singled three times while sophomore center fielder Jordan Ellis and Torres both added two hits for Cal Poly. Ellis stretched his hitting streak to nine games.

Ellis and Chavez both went 4-for-12 in the series to lead Cal Poly. Both teams hit .255 and struck out 17 times in the series, but the Mustangs compiled a 5.76 staff ERA.

Cal Poly plays Wednesday at Pepperdine before returning home to host UC Riverside for three Big West Conference games next weekend in Baggett Stadium.