Coast Finish Inaugural Road Trip With Back-to-Back Sweeps

MARYSVILLE, CA – The Long Beach Coast (9-3) beat the Yuba-Sutter Freebirds (5-7) at Bryant Field on Sunday night, completing back-to-back series sweeps to conclude their season-opening road trip.

Long Beach’s first two weeks have been driven by an offensive surge throughout the lineup. Sunday night’s 13-6 victory marked the eighth of the initial 12 games of the season that the new Pioneer League franchise scored 10 or more runs in a game.

The game also marked the 10th contest where the Coast hit multiple home runs, hammering four in the series finale – two of which came off the bat of catcher Cuba Bess. With the four long balls on Sunday night, the Long Beach Coast became the first team in the PBL to reach 40 home runs as a team in the 2026 campaign.

Freebirds starter Ryan Velazquez minimized big Coast rallies in his 6.1 innings of work. Velazquez gave up six walks and five hits in his outing, four of which were home runs. Long Beach scored in five of the seven innings Velazquez started, but never scored above two runs in any of those innings. The fourth and fifth innings Velazquez pitched were the only frames that the Coast offense went scoreless all night. 

In the first four innings, there were four lead changes, but the Coast never found themselves in a deficit. The third and final Long Beach lead acquisition was courtesy of a solo home run in the sixth inning by Emilio Corona.

Both teams made five pitching changes in the nine-inning contest, but for Coast manager Troy Percival’s bullpen, no arm went longer than a two-inning appearance. Starter Kristofer Bow and reliever Steven Ordorica gave up the initial five runs to the Freebirds in the first four frames, but the remaining four arms delivered four scoreless innings, three shutdown innings, and only one run on a long ball by Freebirds catcher Zach Chamizo.

Long Beach finished the month of May six games above .500, putting them in a tie with the Glacier Range Riders for second place and a half game behind first.
The Coast will return to Long Beach and prepare for their inaugural home opener at Blair Field on Tuesday at 6:35 PM PDT, kicking off a 12-game homestand against the RedPocket Mobiles (1-11) and the Modesto Roadsters (8-4), respectively. Opening Day is sold out, but tickets are still available for the upcoming homestand. Secure your chance to witness history at tickets.longbeachcoast.com.

Joey Miller