Long Beach State Blanks UC Irvine for Second Straight Win, Snapping Slump

Long Beach State extended its recovery from a long skid on Saturday, beating UC Irvine 4-0 at Blair Field for its second consecutive victory. The result followed a 10-game losing streak and gave the team renewed momentum with about a month left in the season.

Two moments decided a tight game. Pitcher Marques Johnson struck out Caden Kendle to escape a jam in the seventh, and freshman Eddie Saldivar then delivered a two-out, two-strike single in the eighth that broke the scoreless tie.

Johnson, making his fifth start of the season, allowed only two hits and three walks while striking out six over seven innings. UC Irvine got a runner to second base just twice in the game, and Johnson ended the seventh by overpowering Kendle with a runner in scoring position and two outs. His teammates call him "Doc," a nod to the similarity of his mechanics to those of Dwight Gooden.

"It was a mano-y-mano situation for Doc in a game where we needed to keep putting zeros on the scoreboard," Long Beach head coach Erik Valenzuela said.

The eighth inning opened with a walk to Peyton Schulze and a single by Tyler White. Tanner Carlson bunted the runners up a base, and after an out, Saldivar hit a grounder that slipped past diving attempts by UC Irvine first baseman Ben Fitzgerald and second baseman Woody Hadeen, driving in two runs. Three more singles added two more runs in the inning.

Valenzuela praised the freshman's at-bat, noting that Saldivar swung and missed at two pitches to fall behind before lining a single on the same pitch type. "You're just trying to make something happen in a game where one run might be all you need," Saldivar said. "We have a lot of baseball left and we're trying to just move forward." Devereaux Harrison (5-2) closed it out with two scoreless innings, striking out three and allowing two hits.

The win secured Long Beach's first series victory over UC Irvine since 2017. The Dirtbags improved to 17-24 overall and 7-10 in the Big West Conference. They had won Friday's opener 6-2, holding the Anteaters to two hits in that game.

UC Irvine (23-17, 9-8) has now won only twice in its last eight games, and the loss further dented its conference title hopes. Anteaters coach Ben Orloff pointed to the offense, noting his team had six hits over 18 innings in the series. "We're really struggling offensively to control the strike zone," he said. UC Irvine starter Michael Frias (5-2) pitched well, allowing four hits over 7-1/3 innings and carrying a shutout into the eighth. Taishi Nakawake went 2 for 2 with a walk.

The teams meet again Sunday at 1 p.m. at Blair Field, with the game set to air on ESPNU. Elsewhere in the Big West, UC Santa Barbara (29-10, 18-2) leads the conference and has won the first two games of its series at second-place Cal Poly (24-18, 11-6). Cal State Fullerton (17-22, 10-6) was playing at Hawaii (18-19, 11-8) late Saturday and could take sole possession of second place by the end of the weekend.