The Loyola Marymount Lions (24-16, 12-6 WCC) took an early lead but couldn't hold onto it and dropped Tuesday night's game to Long Beach State 4-2.
 
Drawing the mid-week start for head coach Jason Gill was freshman Nate Madole and he gave LMU 2.0 innings of one hit baseball. 
 
The Lions bullpen put in most of the work against Long Beach State with the combination of Josh Robins, Giuseppe Benedetti, Alexander Burge, Kyle Mora and CJ Fernandezees each seeing action on the mound. 
 
LMU didn't waste any time as they plated runs in the bottom of the first. The Lions' Nick Sogard started off the inning with a single up the middle followed by a Brandon Shearer walk. Trevin Esquerra reached on a fielder's choice moving Sogard to third. Esquerra advanced to second on a wild pitch and with two runners in scoring position Steven Chavez singled up the middle to put the Lions out in front.  
 
Robins ran into a little bad luck in the top half of the third. With runners on second and third LBSU's Calvin Estrada hit a seeing eyed single to center field scoring two runs and tying the game at two apiece. 
 
Long Beach State managed to put runs on the board in the top of the fifth and sixth innings. In the top of the fifth LBSU's Jacob Hughey had an RBI single and in the sixth Santino Rivera singled to right bringing in Riki DeSa for the Dirtbags fourth and final run of the game. 
 
The Lions put together a late rally in the bottom of the eight with two outs. Esquerra and Tommy Delgado both drew walks bringing up Chavez. Chavez and LBSU's Dylan Spacke battled but the Dirtbags were able to get the pinch runner Ryan Ruley out at second as Chavez sent the ball to the shortstop who tossed it over to second for the third out.
 
The Lions now turn their attention back to the West Coast Conference for a three-game weekend series against Pepperdine with first pitch slated at 3:00 p.m., on Friday, April 26^th.