{"id":199911,"date":"2026-03-02T01:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T01:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/199911\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T01:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T01:39:08","slug":"skjonsby-delivers-late-wsu-knocks-off-long-beach-state-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/199911\/","title":{"rendered":"Skjonsby Delivers Late, WSU Knocks Off Long Beach State Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONG BEACH, Calif. (March 1, 2026) \u2013 Washington State senior and Long Beach native Ryan Skjonsby<\/a> delivered the go-ahead two-run single in the eighth inning for a 9-7 victory over Long Beach State at Blair Field Sunday afternoon.
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\nFreshman Mason Pirello<\/a> recorded three hits, doubled and drove in three runs, Skjonsby had two hits and three RBI, Maz Hartman scored three runs, Gavin Roy<\/a> had a two-run single and Dustin Robinson<\/a> tripled in a run. Cougar starter Griffin Smith<\/a> worked into the fifth inning, freshman Ryan Falke<\/a> ended a bases-loaded fifth-inning threat with a flyout, Rylan Haider<\/a> recorded the final two outs of the seventh and August Richie<\/a> retired all six hitters he faced to earn the save.
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\nThe Cougars scored four times in the fifth and built a 7-3 lead in the sixth but Long Beach State tied the game with three in the sixth and one in the seventh.
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\nWSU (5-6) finished its 10-day road trip with a 4-4 record after splitting a four-game series at Big West Conference favorite Cal Poly last weekend and lost a pair of games to BYU in the ninth inning before beating Long Beach State 8-3 Friday and 9-7 Sunday.
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\nKEY MOMENTS OF THE GAME
\nThe Cougars struck first as Max Hartman<\/a> pulled a two-out single through the right side in the third inning and Robinson jumped on the first pitch he saw, going the other way for an RBI-triple to left-centerfield and a 1-0 lead. Pirello followed with a hard-hit RBI-single through the left side for a 2-0 advantage. Long Beach State answered with a pair of runs on three hits in their half of the third.
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\nPirello struck again in the fifth, driving an RBI-double deep to left-centerfield to score Hartman all the way from first. Long Beach native Ryan Skjonsby<\/a> followed with an opposite-field RBI-single to left-centerfield, Dane Chavez<\/a> singled to right field and Roy pulled a two-run single through the left side for a 6-2 Cougar lead. Pirello singled back up the middle to score Northrop in the sixth.
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\nLong Beach State answered with three runs on four hits, a walk and error in the sixth inning and tied the game with a run in the seventh after a pair of walks, an error and wild pitch.
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\nIn the eighth, Northrop reached on a one-out error, Hartman pulled a single to right field and Robinson was a hit-by-a-pitch to load the bases for Skjonsby who line a 2-0 pitch back up the middle, scoring two runs to break the 7-7 tie.
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\nRichie retired the Dirtbags in order in the eighth and ninth innings to earn his first career save.
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\nINSIDE THE BOX SCORE
\nNoah Thein<\/a> had 2 sacrifice bunts and was hit-by-a-pitch
\nRyan Haider earned the win
\nWSU recorded its fifth road of the season, had three road wins all of last season
\nWSU improved to 8-12 all-time against Long Beach State
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\nNEXT UP
\nWSU continues its 19-game road stretch to open the season with a four-game series at Texas State beginning Tuesday in San Marcos, Texas.
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\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONG BEACH, Calif. (March 1, 2026) \u2013 Washington State senior and Long Beach native Ryan Skjonsby delivered the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-199911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}