LONG BEACH, Calif. — Long Beach State answered the call Saturday night, grinding out a walk-off win over Cal State Fullerton in a tightly played rivalry matchup at Bohl Diamond at Blair Field.<\/p>\n
The Titans struck first in the opening inning. After two quick groundouts to shortstop by Nick Miller and Ty Thomas, Cameron Kim lined a single down the right field line. Andrew Kirchner was then hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. Niko Lombardi followed with a double down the right field line, scoring Kim and moving Kirchner to third.\u00a0Luke Howe<\/a>\u00a0responded by striking out Eli Lopez to limit the damage to one run.<\/p>\n The Dirtbags answered immediately in the bottom half.\u00a0Trotter Enright<\/a>\u00a0worked a leadoff walk and moved to second on a groundout by\u00a0Jake Evans<\/a>.\u00a0Matt Toomey<\/a>\u00a0then delivered a ground-rule double to deep left, scoring Enright to tie the game. After\u00a0Dylan Lina<\/a>\u00a0is struck out swinging,\u00a0Smith Chandler<\/a>\u00a0shot a single past the left side of the infield to bring home Toomey from second, giving Long Beach State a 2-1 lead.<\/p>\n Howe settled in from there, retiring the side in order in the second with a strikeout, groundout and lineout. He then worked a clean third inning with a strikeout and two more groundouts. The freshman continued to pound the zone, keeping Fullerton off balance.<\/p>\n Fullerton tied the game in the fourth when Lombardi led off with a solo home run to left field. Howe bounced back with back-to-back strikeouts and a groundout to end the inning.<\/p>\n In the bottom of the fourth, Chandler grounded out and Kaiden Smaka<\/a> followed with a triple into the right field corner after the outfielder’s diving attempt came up short, but a flyout to deep center stranded him at third, keeping the score tied.<\/p>\n Howe worked around traffic in the fifth, as Cade O’Hara reached safely and later moved into scoring position, but Howe struck out Ty Thomas looking and induced a flyout to left to end the threat. He followed with a dominant sixth, striking out Kirchner and Lombardi retiring the side in order, and added two more strikeouts in the seventh to reach double digits.<\/p>\n The Dirtbags regained the lead in the sixth. Chandler beat out an infield single and stole second, then advanced to third on a deep flyout by Smaka.\u00a0Aaron Perez<\/a>\u00a0reached on a throwing error by the second baseman, allowing Chandler to score and put Long Beach State ahead 3-2.<\/p>\n Fullerton responded in the eighth. Cameron Kim singled to left, and Kirchner followed with a double into the left-center gap, scoring Kim from first to tie the game at 3-3. Howe limited further damage with a groundout and flyout to send the game into the late innings.<\/p>\n