Baseball to Retire Coach Snow's Number on Sunday versus USC February 4, 2002 WEEKLY RELEASE (PDF) * Dirtbags to Host Alumni Game February 2, Play USC to Open Year
* New Skipper Mike Weathers Set to Take Reigns
* Beach to Retire to Former Coaches Numbers
* Jeremy Reed Leads National Team During Summer Record: 0-0, Big West: 0-0 | Highest Current Ranking: 30th (NCBWA)
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Feb. 8 USC LHP-Chico (0-0, 0.00) vs. LHP-Alvarez (0-0, 0.00) 6 p.m.
Feb. 9 USC RHP-Clark (0-0, 0.00) vs. RHP-Eisentrager (0-0, 0.00) 1 p.m.
Feb. 10 USC LHP-J.P. Howell (0-0, 0.00) vs. RHP-Weaver (0-0, 0.00) 1 p.m.
Next Series: at California (Feb. 15-17), vs. Arkansas (Feb. 22-24)
Beach to Open Season with USC: The No. 30-ranked Dirtbags (0-0, 0-0 BWC) open up the regular season this Friday when they host No. 3-ranked USC at 6:05 p.m. The Beach will then play the Trojans on Saturday and Sunday at 1:05 p.m. All three games of this year’s series will be played at Blair Field due to construction to USC’s Dedeaux Field. Sophomore LHP Abe Alvarez (0-0, 0.00) will get the opening assignment against LHP Matt Chico (0-0, 0.00), followed by RHP Daniel Eisentrager (0-0, 0.00) versus RHP Chad Clark (0-0, 0.00) on Saturday. Sunday will feature freshman RHP Jered Weaver (0-0, 0.00) agianst LHP J.P. Howell (0-0, 0.00). UPCOMING OPPONENT
University of Southern California (Ranked No. 3) | Record: 0-0
Head Coach: Mike Gillespie (668-332-2, 16 years) Team Notes: The Trojans will embark on a 22-game roadtrip to begin the season, as their stadium is undergoing construction. USC will look to replace National Pitcher of the Year Mark Prior and two-time All-American pitcher Rik Currier during the 2002 season. Freshman 3B Joey Metropoulos and JUCO transfer OF David Gordon are the team’s top two newcomers to watch. Returning Players to Watch: OF Brian Barre (.345, 48 RBI), C Alberto Concepcio (.321, 41), 1B Bill Peavey (.307, 48), RHP Chad Clark (4-2, 6.39 ERA), RHP Anthony Reyes (5-4, 3.72). Series Notes: USC holds a 53-20 all-time record against The Beach. Since 1989, USC has won 26 of 39 meetings. The Trojans took three out of four in 2001. The Beach's lone win came at Blair Field on February 10 (9-5). LAST WEEK
Pro Alumni (LONG BEACH): Jeremy Reed had three hits, while Edgar Varela had two RBIs as The Beach doubled up their Pro Alumni 4-2. Before the contest, former head coach John Gonsalves No. 25 jersey was retired. Gonsalves coached The Beach from 1970 to 1988. The Weather(s) Outside is Fine: Mike Weathers enters his first year as head coach of the Dirtbags, taking over for Dave Snow, who retired in July. Weathers previously served as the team's top lieutenant for the previous nine seasons under Snow. Weathers carries a 279-280 record in 11 years as a head coach. Weathers was a head coach at Utah for two seasons in the early 80's and at Chapman from 1984 to 1992. Forever Enshrined: The Beach will retire the jerseys of their last two skippers early this season. No. 25 John Gonsalves, who coached The Beach from 1970-1988 and compiled a 452-634-16 record had is number retired on February 2, while No. 18 Dave Snow, who coached from 1989-2001 and coined the term Dirtbags compiling a 510-294-1 record, will have his number retired on Feburary 10. Reed Has Successful Summer: OF/1B Jeremy Reed (LaVerne) was the second straight Dirtbag to start for the summer National team, when he did so this summer. Reed led the team with a .366 average, 22 runs, 37 hits, a .505 slugging percentage and nine steals. Reed also hit safely in 21 of 26 starts, had a 10-game hit streak and had 12 multi-hit games. Reed was name a pre-season third team All-American by Baseball America. Schedule Tough as Nails: As usual, Long Beach State's schedule is one of the toughest in the country. The Dirtbags will face off against four top-15 foes (USC, Miami, LSU, CS Fullerton) this season. The conference alone features three ranked teams in the Titans, Dirtbags and newcomer CS Northridge. The Beach will host USC (April) and CS Fullerton (May) and travel to defending Champ, Miami, in April and to LSU in March. Rank and File: The Beach are ranked No. 30 by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), No. 37 by Collegiate Baseball and No. 41 by the USA Today/Coaches Poll. The Beach were ranked No. 37 by Collegiate Baseball in the Final 2001 Poll. Beach Picked to Finish Second: The Big West Coaches picked Long Beach State to finish second in the Big West this year. According to Baseball America, they expected The Beach to finish fourth, while Collegiate Baseball picked LBSU third. CS Fullerton is picked to finish first in each of the publications. The next tier featured newcomer UC Irvine, CS Northridge, UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside and Cal Poly. The bottom tier was Sacramento State and Pacific. 2002 BIG WEST BASEBALL COACHES PRESEASON POLL 1. Cal State Fullerton (7) 79 2. Long Beach State 65 3. Cal State Northridge (2) 62 4. Cal Poly 51 5. UC Santa Barbara 45 6. UC Riverside 32 7. UC Irvine 30 8. Pacific 24 9. Sacramento State 17 First-place votes are in parentheses Paz Out For Season: Starter RHP Matt Paz (Stockton) will miss the entire 2002 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery during the winter. Paz was the team's top returning inning eater with over 100 IP over the past two seasons. Getting Info on The Beach: All Dirtbag baseball games can be heard at www.kbeach.org, you will need Windows Media Player to listen to the broadcast. All releases and statistics can be found at www.longbeachstate.com. Print out a schedule, download it to your Palm or PDA or just see what’s coming up by clicking on the datenotes.net icon at the Long Beach State website. Call the 49er Sports Hotline at (562) 985-4655 and then press 3 and 1 to hear updated scores and highlights from that day’s action. Ticket Information: Season tickets run from $95 to $190. The ticket office is also offering four different mini plans from the Weekend Plan, 14 and 10-Game Flex plans and the Home Run Saturday Plan. Visit the website or contact the Pyramid Box Office at (562) 985-4949 for more information. Rotation Down to Five: Five pitchers are expected to vie for three weekend jobs this season. Starting this weekend will be freshman RHP Jered Weaver (Simi Valley), one of the team's hardest throwers, LHP Abe Alvarez (Fontana), who compiled a sub-2.00 ERA in the summer as a starter, and JUCO transfer RHP Daniel Eisentrager (Elk Grove). RHP Nate Beucler (Huntington Beach) is the team's top returning starter with a 3-1 record and 3.87 ERA. Beucler tossed 83.2 innings last year as opponents batted .248. RHP Josh Alliston (Long Beach) moves from his more familar closer’s role to a starting job this season. Alliston compiled a 3.47 ERA and 2-3 record last season before being drafted in the 19th round by the Mets. Strength in Numbers: This year's staff features 12 healthy pitchers, of which six are returning pitchers, two are JUCO transfers and four are freshmen. Who's On First, What's on Second, I Do Know Whose at Third: Heading into January, Coach Weathers was pretty sure that Todd Jennings (Orangevale) would be the team's starting catcher, Edgar Varela (E. Ranch Dominguez) would be at third, and Chris Wright (Valencia) and Jeremy Reed (LaVerne) would patrol the outfield. After that, double days in January and the first two weeks of the season will solidify the rest of the lineup. Strength From the Left Side: One thing the Dirtbags won't have to worry about is hitting. The left side is especially potent, with five players with Division-I experience. OF Chris Wright (Valencia) is a career .318 hitter, IF Kevin Randel (Montclair) returns to The Beach after batting .370 at Riverside JC, 1B Mike Hofius (Lakewood) batted .297 as a freshman, OF/1B Jeremy Reed (LaVerne) is the team's top returning hitter with a .348 mark, 1B/OF Paul McAnulty (Oxnard) had a .386 average at Oxnard JC and 3B Edgar Varela (E. Rancho Dominguez) batted .266 last year. Drafting For the Future: Last year's team saw 10 players drafted, of which eight signed. SS Bobby Crosby was a first round (25th pick overall) of the A's, while Southpaws Russel Rohlicek (6th) and Chad Bentz (7th) were drafted in the first 10 rounds. RHP Josh Alliston (19th) and LHP Bobby Cramer (38th) both chose to stay for their senior seasons. | 
