The562’s coverage of Dirtbags Baseball for the 2023 season is sponsored by P2S, Inc. Visit p2sinc.com to learn more.
The Long Beach State Dirtbags walked off winners for the second consecutive day, and the third time this week, to sweep Cal Poly on Bohl Diamond at Blair Field.
Eddie Saldivar drove home the winning run on Sunday, 9-8, with a bases loaded single in the bottom of the tenth inning.
Below is video from one of our Long Beach Unified School District interns Jack Cammarata. CLICK HERE to see his photo gallery.
It is the eighth consecutive victory for the Dirtbags (18-8, 6-3) who are now tied for fourth in the Big West behind UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, Cal State Fullerton and tied with CSUN.
LBSU hasn’t won eight consecutive games since 2017.
The Dirtbags scored six times with two outs in the second inning while sending 11 hitters to the plate. Jonathon Long, who hit a walk-off home run on Saturday night, hit another two-run homer in the inning. It’s his fourth home run of the week and seventh of the season, and he was named the NCAA Player of the Week.
Cal Poly scored in the top half of the tenth inning to take a 8-7 lead, but once again the Dirtbags responded with a two-out rally. Pinch-hitter Tyler White even had two strikes on him when he hit a game-tying home run.
Nick Marinconz followed that with a single before consecutive walks to Joey Walls Jr. and Alex Champagne. With the bases loaded, Saldivar won the game with a clean single to center field on the first pitch he saw.
LBSU started the weekend with a big win on Friday night that included two home runs from Jack Hammond.
The Dirtbags host No. 12 UCLA on Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.
