May 3, 2008

Box Score

DAVIS, Calif. - Senior first baseman Evan Hudson knocked out a two-run double in the seventh inning to cap a three-run rally, and junior Justin Fitzgerald broke a school record with his ninth save of the season to lift UC Davis to a 5-4 victory over No. 23 Long Beach State in the second game of a Big West Conference baseball series Saturday afternoon at Dobbins Stadium.

The Aggies improve to 8-6 in conference and 28-16 overall while the 49ers drop to 27-16 and 9-6. The UC Davis win ties the series at a game apiece and sets up a rubber match tomorrow for the series victory.

UC Davis rallied from a 3-2 deficit in the seventh inning with three runs to take a 5-3 lead heading into the final two innings. Kyle Mihaylo was hit by a pitch to open the inning and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt from Kevin James and an infield single by Scott Heylman. Ryan Royster beat out another infield single to score Mihaylo and tie the game. Hudson then knocked the double to left center field to bring home the eventual game-winning run.

Fitzgerald came on in the ninth and recorded his school-record ninth save of the season, which broke a three-way tie with Joel Needham, Neal Swank and Don Hubert. The save did not come without its drama, as the Dirtbags managed to score a run off two hits. Jonathan Jones singled to lead off the inning and Steve Tincoco doubled during the next at bat, but the Aggies were able to avoid a run after Jones was throw out at home plate on a 9-6-2 putout. A ground out RBI following a wild pitch scored a run, but Fitzgerald got out of the jam with a ground out to the second baseman.

"It was a big win for us. You don't want to lose the first two games and try to salvage the series," said Aggie coach Rex Peters. "Now we've got a chance to come out and get a series win tomorrow. You have to work hard for all 27 outs against an elite team like Long Beach State."

Hudson's two RBI's stood up as a team-high. Royster, Matt Dempsey and Jake Jefferies also supplied RBI's for the Aggies. Jefferies' RBI gave him 50 for the season and puts him on the single season list. A total of eight Aggies had hits in the game with only Jefferies getting multiple hits.

Jason Corder and TJ Mittelstedt were the only two Dirtbags with RBI's in the game as two runs came off wild pitches.

The Aggies jumped out to a 1-0 lead after the first inning following an RBI from Jefferies. Long Beach starter Vince Wroley then went on to retire the next 11 batters. During that time the Dirtbags scored single runs in the fourth and fifth innings to take the lead. Both runs came off wild pitches.

UC Davis tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom half of the fifth with an RBI single from Dempsey. Long Beach would score another single run in the sixth following a throwing error to reclaim the lead, 3-2.

Andy Suiter came on to record the final out of the sixth inning and shutdown the Dirtbags over the next two innings by striking out a game-high five batters and allowing only one hit in his second win of the week. He also defeated No. 3 Stanford earlier in the week.

The series concludes tomorrow at 1 p.m. That game can be heard live through ucdavisaggies.com and KDVS 90.3.