Long Beach State University Athletics
Dirtbags Begin Road Trip Up North
3/26/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 26, 2008
LONG BEACH-- No. 4-ranked Long Beach State (17-4) will continue their 10-game road trip this weekend when they play at No. 11-ranked California (15-5-1) for three games in Berkeley starting on Friday at 2:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. LBSU will remain in Northern California to take on Stanford next Monday and close out their Northern road swing at Fresno State next Tuesday. LBSU begins Big West play at defending Big West Champion, UC Riverside starting on April 4.
The Dirtbags season-best eight-game win streak was snapped on Tuesday at No. 31-ranked Pepperdine, 7-5, as LBSU are in the midst of two-straight five-game weeks. The Dirtbags began the week on Monday, defeating Harvard, 15-0, behind a one-hitter.
The Dirtbags have been in a bit of a fielding slump as of late, committing 10 errors over the last two Tuesday games and fielding at an uncharacteristic .956 clip with 37 overall errors this season, including nine at second base.
California, dropped its second-straight 10 inning game on Tuesday against Santa Clara. Cal had won 12 of 13 prior to their current two-game losing streak. Josh Satin is batting .4329 with 23 runs and 27 RBIs, while David Cooper is batting .383 with a team-best 27 runs and 26 RBIs. Both have hit nine home runs as Cal is hitting .320 as a team. Matt Gorgen, the brother of UC Irvine's ace, Scott, is 0-2 with a 3.46 ERA and three saves over 11 relief appearances. Kevin Miller has yet to allow an earned run in 27.1 innings of work, while former Dirtbag Daniel Wolford is 2-0 with an 0.78 ERA over nine relief appearances.
The all-time series has LBSU leading 27-26, with it even since 1989 at 24-24. Last year LBSU won both meetings at Blair Field.
Friday's match up should be one of the best in the country as RHP Tyson Ross (3-0, 2.65), a member of Team USA this past summer and a pre-season All-American will face off against Dirtbag RHP Andrew Liebel (2-0, 1.14), who has struck out 11 batters twice this season and ranks second in the Big West in strikeouts. Liebel's ERA ranks 15th nationally to enter the week as the team's ERA of 2.12 is second nationally to conference foe, UC Irvine. Liebel's 42 strikeouts is 11th nationally.
On Saturday LHP Craig Bennigson (3-0, 4.88) will go for the Bears, with Sunday's starter yet to be determined. The Dirtbags have already set up their rotation through Stanford, sending RHP Vance Worley (3-0, 2.97), RHP Jake Thompson (1-1, 3.62) and RHP Brett Lorin (1-0, 0.00) against the Pac-10.
Former Cal outfielder Jason Corder, who transferred following his sophomore season, is batting a team-best .417 this season for LBSU with 13 runs and 18 RBIs. Corder has a .688 slugging percentage as well. Travis Howell, also a catcher for Cal prior to transferring for the 2007 season, has started 10 games behind the plate and was a first team All-Big West pick last year for the Dirtbags.
Freshman OF Jonathan Jones has hit safely in all nine of his starts, batting .400, while another classmate, John Hill, is batting .542 in his first eight collegiate games. 1B Shane Peterson continues to hit, batting .400 with a team-best 28 RBIs and a .500 on-base percentage this season.
