The Beach pitches a 5-3 win over USC
By Eric Sorenson - February 03, 2007
If pitching and defense is still what wins championships, maybe Long Beach is officially back after all. J.C. All American Manny McElroy pitched into the seventh inning, giving up just five hits and two earned runs. Coupled with Vance Worley's competant work in a 2-1 loss last night, the Beach has two pretty good weekend starters going for them. Not sure how the Trojan offense will be judged at the end of the season, but they seem potent right now and the Dirtbags handled them pretty well.
Couple of strange, not-so-Blair-Field-like occurrences took place. First off, in the first two innings, two home runs were smacked over the pitcher-friendly wall. Long Beach's Jason Corder, being the first right-handed bat SC starter Brad Boxberger would face, planted a two-run bomb over the left field wall. Next inning, USC's Hector Estrella did the same thing, only it was a solo shot.
Yep, it was an early season game.
The two teams combined for six errors on the day, despite being pretty good fundamental defensive teams. The Dirtbag miscues occurred on the same play by the same player, the usually steady 2B Matt Cline, who fumbled a grounder and then threw wide to first. It led to USC's first inning run.
USC committed four Es on the day, which was one less than the number of runs they scored.
Posted by Eric Sorenson at 08:41 PM on February 03, 2007
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