Long Beach Hot Once Again

LONG BEACH — So that’s what a whirlwind turnaround looks like.

Quicker than you can say “Snowman,” Long Beach State has made everything that recently seemed wrong right again. Coach Dave Snow is at the center of the 49ers’ postseason surge, which continued Friday night with a 4-0 victory over Pacific in the Big West Conference tournament in front of 1,075 at Blair Field.

The South Division champions, a complete mess at the end of the regular season, play the winner of today’s Nevada-Pacific game at 7:30 tonight at Blair Field. Long Beach, the only undefeated team in the double-elimination tournament, is assured of playing Sunday, the tournament’s final day.

Snow found the formula he needed to help Long Beach (36-22) break out of its regular season-ending funk. He hasn’t won five Big West coach of the year awards--including the last two--for nothing.

Long Beach has received great starting pitching in the tournament. On Thursday, it was staff ace Marcus Jones shutting down UC Santa Barbara. Daryl Grant was the star Friday.

“Daryl Grant turned out to be a money pitcher for us tonight,” said Snow, whose team had lost four of its final five games to conference opponents at home. “We had confidence going with him after his last three outings.

“They were all outstanding performances. To see him do it tonight was like watching him take another step.”

Grant (3-0) looked super in only his fifth start of the season. He wasn’t quite as overpowering as Jones was--but pretty darn good nonetheless.

The freshman left-hander pitched 6 1/3 innings, the longest outing of his career. He gave up seven hits, struck out five and walked three. He has allowed only two earned runs in his last 20 2/3 innings.

He left with runners on first and second in the bottom of the seventh. Closer Ara Petrosian entered to face Shane Rooney, one of the Big West’s best power hitters. Rooney bounced into an inning-ending double play and Petrosian pitched the final two innings to earn his 14th save.

Toby Sanchez, the Big West’s second-best hitter during the regular season, helped Long Beach score an insurance run in the top of the fourth inning. Sanchez doubled to open the inning and went to third on a sacrifice by Chuck Lopez. Keith Cowley’s ground out to first brought Sanchez home, giving Long Beach a 2-0 lead.

Grant recorded ground out after ground out, the 49ers backing him up with solid to spectacular fielding. Grant’s only really rocky moment came in the bottom of the fifth.

But it provided several moments’ worth of tension for Long Beach.

Pacific loaded the bases against Grant, who hurt himself with a fielding error that put a runner aboard. To complete the worst-case scenario, Rooney was coming up. Rooney just happened to be three for four with eight RBIs with the bases loaded.

Grant didn’t flinch. He baited Rooney into swinging at his first pitch and Rooney hit a weak grounder toward the mound. Grant tagged Rooney along the first-base line for the final out.

Long Beach, designated the visiting team, took a 1-0 lead in the second on an RBI sacrifice fly by Steve Doherty. Cowley opened the inning with a single, took second on a wild pitch by Pacific starter Kyle May (6-7) and went to third on a sacrifice fly by Casey Martin.

Doherty then hit a line drive to left-center and Pacific center fielder David Gradstein dove for the ball and made a great catch, but Cowley scored easily from third. Gradstein injured his left wrist on the play but remained in the game after he was examined by a team trainer.

The 49ers failed to capitalize on a scoring opportunity in the first. J.J. Newkirk opened the game with a single and took third with one out on a single by Izzy Gonzalez. However, both runners were stranded when May struck out Sanchez and Lopez flied out to left to end the inning.

The Tigers (28-28) had the door shut on an early scoring opportunity thanks to a great defensive play by Sanchez. Gus Rubio opened the bottom of the second with a single and went to second on a one-out single by Blake Dunbar.

Gradstein hit a line drive to first that Sanchez caught on a bounce, and Sanchez immediately threw home to Martin. The ball arrived well before Rubio, breaking for home on contact, reached the plate and Martin applied the tag for the second out. The inning ended one batter later when Joss Clausman grounded out from shortstop to first.