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Peterson is Doing Everything
by Abbey Mastracco, Daily 49er
April 17, 2007
When Long Beach State faced conference rival Cal State Fullerton last
month, Shane Peterson was slated to start as the Dirtbags' designated
hitter.
The DH position, usually reserved for a power hitter, rarely not played
by someone batting below .100. Everyone must have thought Dirtbags head
coach Mike Weathers was crazy for using Peterson, who was 3-for-38 on
the season, as the DH in one of the biggest games of the year, especially
when facing National Player of the Year candidate and starting pitcher
Wes Roemer.
Peterson himself had no idea how his average had gotten so low. After
batting .328 as a freshman in 2006, and being named second-team all-conference,
this slow start was not something Peterson was used to.
But as the series wore on, Peterson finally saw his slow start speed up.
He managed to slug his way out of his slump with a solo homerun, two doubles
and two RBIs.
"That game it just all fell into place for me," Peterson said.
"I started to get hits finally. That felt really good."
Over the past month, his average has raised to .287. Last week, Peterson
drove in four runs against Pepperdine and four against CS Northridge.
Peterson proved that his bat is back, along with something else - his
confidence, which had gone down as far as his average.
"It was tough. I had confidence issues and I was really struggling,"
Peterson said. "I started off this season right where I wanted to
be and then I found myself out of the lineup."
After concentrating mostly on pitching in the Alaska Summer League, Peterson
came back hitting well in the fall. Projected as one of the Dirtbags'
top hitters this season, Peterson fell far below the marks that he - and
everyone else - had set for himself.
Baffled as to why he suddenly couldn't hit, Peterson thinks he may have
put too much pressure on himself.
"We don't have the Evan Longoria's or players like that, so I felt
like I had to step up and fill in that role," Peterson said. "I
think maybe I pressed a little too hard, especially when I wasn't doing
too well."
Weathers said Peterson took his struggles to heart. As a mental player,
Peterson internalized the trouble with his bat, and let it affect his
play.
""He doesn't show a lot of emotion," Weathers said. "But
it was eating him up, no question it was eating him up,"
Pitching became Peterson's outlet for his frustration. With starter Manny
McElroy out for much of the beginning of the season, and with several
Tuesday games on the schedule, a starting pitcher was needed. Despite
being unable to produce offensively for the Dirtbags, Peterson was able
to make up for it on the mound.
"I don't know if [slumping] helped me, but I would get on the mound
and be upset from hitting," Peterson said. "I would go out there
and say, 'Just forget about hitting and do something right.'"
Confidence on the mound came easier to Peterson. Although he was shaky
on the mound at first, pitching coach Troy Buckley helped him block out
other distractions and concentrate on throwing.
"At the beginning of the year, I wasn't really trusting myself, not
really believing that my stuff was good enough to get the hitters out,"
Peterson said. "Now I go out there and let them hit the ball and
let my defense take care of it. It's a lot easier that way."
His work on mound paid off. In eight appearances and seven starts, Peterson
has compiled a 3.25 ERA, and produced a 2-1 record with a .248 opponent
average. Last Friday night against CSUN, Peterson notched a career-high
six strikeouts, and gave up two unearned runs in five innings pitched
- his best outing of the season.
"He works very hard, and he has to because he's a two-way player,"
Weathers said. "He has to practice full-time at pitching, and he
has to be a position player. But he does a good job of trying to separate
them."
Peterson has not only doubled as a pitcher and designated hitter, but
he also has made seven starts at first base, teaming with Brandon Godfrey.
Last season, Peterson's bat landed him a spot in left field. For only
a sophomore, Peterson has seen a lot of action in a variety of positions.
"We got him out of high school thinking he would do both [pitch and
hit], almost more pitching than hitting," Weathers said. "But
last year when he turned into such a good hitter and was a freshman DH,
all-league guy, we knew we had something special."
Constant encouragement from Weathers reminded Peterson that he would be
able to turn his slump around. Advice from senior Allen Woods and his
roommate, Kip Masuda, also kept his morale up.
"[Weathers] brought me into his office a couple times to see how
I was," Peterson said. "It really helped to know that he hadn't
lost confidence in me. He knew that I would turn it around."
Since the Fullerton series, everything is back to normal with Peterson.
He's batting in the third spot again, driving in runs, throwing career-high
numbers on the mound and is even about to earn an Academic All-American
award. The self-proclaimed "perfectionist" has no doubts in
his mind that in the remainder of this season and the next, his numbers
will continue to rise.
"I think this actually helped me, because now in the future when
something like this happens, I'll have something to look back on,"
Peterson said. "I'll be able to say, 'This is all going to turn around
and you're really better than you think you are. You're better than you're
playing.'"
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