SAN DIEGO, CA--- The California Baptist baseball program opened its Tony Gwynn Classic slate on Friday afternoon against Long Beach State and fell to the Dirtbags 10-3. The Lancers move to 4-2 on the season, while Long Beach State improves to 2-3.

CBU opened the day well, going head-to-head with the Dirtbags through the first five innings. After Long Beach scored on a double steal, Ryan Kim would even things up in the bottom of the first with a double to bring home Julian Alvarez. After the third inning, Jacob Wilson was ejected from the game for a suspected foreign substance on his hands while pitching, and Noah Smith tossed the next two innings with four strikes while allowing just one hit. The sixth inning was where Long Beach State capitalized on some struggles from the Lancer's bullpen, putting up an eight spot for a significant lead. The Dirtbags put up a lone run in the top of the eighth for their final run of the afternoon.

The Lancers finally found the groove of things in the ninth inning and loaded the bases before Connor Ross was hit to bring in a run. Another single from Kim would bring home the second run of the inning for CBU, scaling back Long Beach State's lead to seven. Andrew Walters and Kim lead the way for the Lancers with two hits each. CBU out-hit the Dirtbags 11-7, but the discrepancy came down to walks, where LBSU totaled nine while the Lancers only had five. The Lancer's pitching staff did strike out 10 Dirtbags, while Long Beach State was only able to sit down a pair of Lancers.

California Baptist is back in action tomorrow evening as they take on UCSD at 6 p.m. at Triton Stadium.