Coast Bounce Back in Rubber Match

MARYSVILLE, CA – The Long Beach Coast (26-7) took the rubber match over the Yuba-Sutter Freebirds (11-22) for their seventh consecutive series victory on Thursday night.

The Coast offense began early in the top of the first for the second time this series. Cooper Vest and Matthew Bardowell scored the two leadoff Coast outfielders Eddy Pelc and Emilio Corona on sacrifice flies, who reached initially on back-to-back singles.

The Freebirds got one run back off of Coast starter JJ Almeda, who made his third start of the season. Almeda held the 2-1 lead until the Freebirds charged ahead with a four-run rally in the bottom of the third. Yuba-Sutter right fielder Josh Phillips tied up the game on an RBI single, leading to Almeda being taken off the mound with one out in the third.  

Shortly after the 2-2 tie in the same inning, Freebirds backstop Josh Lopez hit a bases-loaded single to center field off of Coast reliever Jaxon Byrd, advancing to second and clearing the bases courtesy of an error made by Corona.

Long Beach bats were kept silent early on by Freebirds starter Riley Egloff after the two runs scored in the first inning, allowing the Freebirds to take a 6-2 lead into the fifth. Coast infielder Cooper Vest ended Egloff’s positive trend in the top of the fifth, collecting his second home run of the series to score three and put the Coast within one run.

Egloff left the game after throwing 85 pitches through five frames. Freebirds reliever Dylan McCall followed the trend of his starter in the fifth, allowing Corona to tie the game at 6-6 in the sixth on an RBI single. McCall would then hand Long Beach the lead in the seventh on a go-ahead sacrifice fly from infielder Jacob Jablonski, leading to even further damage by McCall’s successor Drew Aguilar, who walked in another Coast run to give a two-run advantage to Long Beach heading into stretchtime.

The final two Long Beach relievers, Mason Bryant and Zach Voelker, allowed one run each in the seventh and eighth innings respectively, but the Coast methodically kept up their run production through the finish line, having plated a run in every one of their final five offensive innings.

Voelker came into the game in the bottom of the eighth for a two-inning save opportunity he successfully finished, striking out five of the final six defensive outs of the game for his season high in 19 appearances. The Coast closer is now tied for the league lead in saves with six on the year.

The 10-8 Coast victory marked their eighth series victory of the season and their fourth over the Freebirds. The series finale was the 10th win over Yuba-Sutter in 12 completed matches of the 2026 campaign. 

Long Beach remains a half game above the Billings Mustangs (25-7) heading into their next three-game series in their first trip to Modesto this weekend. The series opener of the second-ever I-5 Series between the two newest California-based Pioneer League franchises begins at 7:11 PM PDT at Modern Woodmen Field on Friday night.

Joey Miller