Long Beach State University Athletics
Dirtbags Host Pacific This Weekend
4/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 24, 2008
LONG BEACH-- No. 25-ranked Long Beach State (23-15, 5-4 Big West) will host a three-game series with the University of the Pacific (8-28, 2-10 Big West) starting on Friday at 6:30 p.m., and continuing on Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
LBSU has won four of five following a Tuesday loss at No. 9-ranked San Diego, while Pacific has lost six in a row-- two at Cal Poly, one to California and three at CS Fullerton.
In a continuing effort to recognize the heroes of today, the Dirtbags will have their third Salute to the Services Day on Saturday and lost a local SPCA Day on Sunday. Free admission will be given to any member of a service industry, such as the Fire and Police Departments or Military, and a guest (with proper identification) on Saturday.
The Dirtbags are just one loss behind CS Fullerton (9-3), UC Santa Barbara (6-3) and UC Davis (6-3) in the conference standings as UC Riverside is also 5-4 on the season. UCSB will play at Cal Poly this weekend, CS Northridge will be at UCR and UCD will be in Fullerton. LBSU remaining conference series include three-game matchups with UCSB and the Titans and at UC Davis.
The team's rotations have been set with Pacific going with: RHP Tyler Waldron (2-4, 4.74) on Friday at 6:30 p.m., RHP Mark McCain (1-3, 3.81) on Saturday at 2 p.m. and LHP Joey Centanni (0-2, 4.15) on Sunday at 1 p.m. LBSU will counter with the familar trio of RHP Andrew Liebel (4-2, 2.04), RHP Vance Worley (5-2, 3.44) and RHP Jake Thompson (2-4, 4.34). Liebel and Worley are both 2-1 in their three conference starts, with nearly identical ERAs, Liebel at 2.66 and Worley at 2.74. LBSU's team ERA is 3.11, compared to Pacific's 6.51.
The Dirtbags entered the week with the third-best ERA in the nation and the least amount of walks allowed per nine innings. Liebel ranks 28th nationally in ERA and is 23rd in strikeouts per nine innings (8.14).
Third baseman Brandon Godfrey is hitting a team-best .379 in eight conference games, while leftfielder Steve Tinoc is batting .364. Shortstop Danny Espinosa is batting .343 with 10 RBIs, while Shane Peterson has scored a team-high 12 runs in the nine conference games this season.
Overall Peterson, the reigning Big West Player of the Week, leads the club in overall average (.373) and RBIs (39), while Jason Corder has nine home runs, a .325 average and 36 RBIs.
The Dirtbags bread and butter continues to be its bullpen, as LBSU is a combined 18-1 when leading after six innings, as right handers Bryan Shaw (0.52) and Nick Vincent (0.96) both enter the weekend with ERAs under one out of the bullpen.
Pacific's leading hitter is shortstop Adam Ching, who is batting .303 with 19 runs and 19 RBis, he also has made just seven errors at short, picking up 117 assists, second to Espinosa's 123. The team is batting .240 as a team.
Long Beach State leads the all-time series 66-21 and are 55-7 since 1989 against the Tigers. LBSU has won the last eight meetings and have swept the series in seven of the last eight years.
