The Trojans used five pitchers to shut down the Long Beach State offense and move to 8-11 on the season. The Dirtbags fall to 3-16 on the year.
Each team scored in the opening inning, with Long Beach State getting a leadoff home run from Riki DeSa to take the early lead. Only three Dirtbag players would get past first base the rest of the game. Blake Sabol answered the homer with a leadoff triple for the Trojans and Chase Bushor brought him home with an RBI groundout.
USC would take the lead in the fourth with a two-out rally. CJ Stubbs started it off with a single, followed by a double from Ben Ramirez. Both runners were brought home when Tyler Lozano singled into center. Ramirez would add to the Trojan lead with an RBI single in the fifth and Sabol singled home a run in the bottom of the eighth.
Chandler Champlain got the start and gave up one hit and one run in 2.0 innings of work, before handing it off to Gus Culpo who tossed 2.0 perfect inning to pick up the win. Calvin Schapira gave up one hit and one run in 1.2 innings and Carson Lambert tossed 2.1 innings, giving up just a hit. Chris Clarke threw a 1-2-3 ninth to earn his third save of the year.
TOP PERFORMERS
- Ben Ramirez continued his hot hitting, going 3-for-4 with an RBI and run scored. He moved his team-high batting average up to .375.
- Tyler Lozano went 3-for-4 with two RBI and one run scored, moving his average to .370 on the year.
- Blake Sabol had two hits, an RBI and one run scored.
- CJ Stubbs went 2-for-4 with a run scored.
- Gus Culpo struck out two batters in 2.0 innings of work and walked none. He moved to 1-0 with the victory.
- Carson Lambert had two strikeouts and no walks in 2.1 innings pitched.
COMING UP
The Trojans head to Washington this weekend for a three-game Pac-12 series starting on Friday.