Long Beach’s Victory Has Unlikely Hero

JoJo Zimmer, a late-inning defensive replacement, had a run-scoring single in the bottom of the ninth that gave Long Beach State a 6-5 victory over visiting UC Santa Barbara in a Big West Conference baseball game Sunday at Blair Field.

UC Santa Barbara scored five times in the second to build a 5-0 lead and Long Beach State rallied with two runs in the third, one in the sixth and two more in seventh.

Jeff Tagliaferri started the ninth-inning rally with a two-out single. Kevin Moore walked and Zimmer singled up the middle.

The victory completed a three-game sweep of the series for Long Beach (17-9, 3-0). The 49ers have won 16 of their last 21.

Will Skett had three hits and scored twice and Chris Martin had two hits and drove in three for Long Beach.

In Big West Conference softball:

Utah State 1-4, Cal State Fullerton 0-5--Fullerton (20-9, 7-3) rallied for three runs in the seventh inning of the second game to avoid the sweep.

Senetha Thomas had three hits and drove in two runs and Traci Fischer had two hits and drove in two runs for the Titans.

Brandi Isgar, who got the victory in relief, also had a single and drove in a run for Cal State Fullerton.

Rhealee Thorn pitched a four-hit shutout, with five strikeouts in the first game, for Utah State (14-11, 6-6).