Long Beach State University Athletics
Dirtbags Travel to UC Davis for Key Matchup
4/28/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 28, 2008
LONG BEACH--No. 23-ranked Long Beach State (26-15, 8-4 Big West) will travel to first-year member, UC Davis (26-15, 7-5 Big West) in a key conference match up this weekend. The Dirtbags are 1.5 games behind CS Fullerton (11-4) in the conference standings and a game in front of the Aggies and UC Santa Barbara, who are both 7-5.
LBSU will send the same trio out for the weekend in ace, RHP Andrew Liebel (5-2, 2.09), who reached the seventh inning in his 16th-straight start last weekend (and who is 9-3 as a starter in those 16 starts all-time) at 2:30 p.m., followed by RHP Vance Worley (5-2, 4.17) and RHP Jake Thompson (2-4, 4.72). Saturday and Sunday's games are at 1 p.m. Eddie Gamboa (6-2, 2.40) is slated to start the opener, followed by fellow righthander Brad McAtee (6-3, 3.36) on Saturday. Sunday's starter has not been announced for UCD.
LBSU, which moved up to No. 23 in the Coaches Poll, remained at No. 25 in Baseball America and re-appeared at No. 29 in Collegiate Baseball, have swept the last two conference weekends against two of the Big West's weaker teams, after playing 19 games against top-25 opponents, the most of any team ranked in Baseball America's poll. The team's schedule has featured games against currently ranked No. 3 Stanford, No. 5 Rice, No. 7 San Diego, No. 8 Wichita State and No. 10 UC Irvine. Four other teams are ranked in the top-35 this week.
UCD, which was leading the conference prior to dropping two of three at CS Fullerton last weekend and to Cal Poly the weekend before, were picked to finish sixth in the Big West (or near the bottom in two other polls). They are currently 2.5 games out of first place. The Aggies host Stanford on Wednesday. LBSU leads the all-time series 9-1, taking all three in Davis two years ago and two of three from Rex Peters' club last year at Blair Field.
The Aggies are the conference's second-best hitting club, checking in at .322, but have a team ERA of 4.59 (fifth in the Big West). Third baseman Ty Kelly leads the Big West in batting, at .422, while catcher Jake Jefferies is batting .397. On the mound, Eddie Gamboa and Brad McAtee have six wins a piece, while closer Justin Fitzgerald has seven saves, a 2.49 ERA and 3-1 record in 15 appearances. Three of the team's back-end starters have ERAs over 5.00, in Bryan Evans (5.19), Trevor Fox (5.80) and Jeff Reekers (9.17).
Outfielder Jason Corder became just the second player since 2002 to reach double digits in home runs, as he enters the week second in homers (9) and first in slugging (.667). Since 2001, five of the last eight players to lead the team in home runs, reached the Majors (Crosby-01, McAnulty-03, Bowker-04/05, Tulowitzki-04/05, Longoria-06). The Others?: Jeff Jones was a minor leaguer for the Cardinals, Espinosa and Corder are still with LBSU.
Starting 3B Brandon Godfrey missed the UOP series with a sore shoulder, but should return next weekend at UCD as his reserve, junior Rylan Sandoval, more than covered for him, going 7-for-10 for the weekend with three doubles, a homer and three RBIs.
First baseman Shane Peterson, who homered three times last week to give him seven, enters the week in the Big West rankings in seven offensive categories. Peterson leads the Big West in walks (29), is second in on-base (.473), third in slugging (.601) and third in homers (7). Peterson leads the club with a .366 average and 43 RBIs.
The Dirtbags ERA remains second in the Big West, at 3.35, as eight pitchers have ERAs under 4.00 led by closer Bryan Shaw's 0.43 ERA over 18 appearances.
