Long Beach State University Athletics
Dirtbags Travel up Coast to Take on Cal Poly
5/14/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 14, 2008
LONG BEACH--Long Beach State (31-18, 11-7 Big West), winners of 12 of their last 17, will hit the road for the final time during the regular season, playing at Cal Poly (23-27, 7-11 Big West). The Dirtbags return home on Monday, May 19 to host two-time defending National Champion, Oregon State at 6:30 p.m.
The Dirtbags enter the final two weekends of the regular season, 2.5 games behind front-runner CS Fullerton, who is off and playing San Diego State, and a game back of surprising UC Riverside (10-6), who play at UC Santa Barbara this weekend. The other key matchup has UC Irvine playing at UC Davis as all six teams are at most 3.5 games back of the front-running Titans.
The final weekend of the season features LBSU hosting CS Fullerton at Blair Field.
The biggest change for the Dirtbags will be their starting rotation, as freshman RHP Jake Thompson (2-5, 4.48) is out for the series after getting a ball hit off his calf in last Sunday's starter. In his place, sophomore RHP Brett Lorin (3-3, 3.09) will get his first career weekend start after pitching in 12 games and six weekday starts this year.
National Pitcher of the Week Andrew Liebel (7-2, 1.69) will get the ball in the opener on Friday at 6 p.m.against RHP Eric Massingham (2-4, 5.69), before Lorin opposes LHP Jared Eskew (5-2, 3.70) on Saturday at 6 p.m. Sunday's finale will feature RHP Vance Worley (5-3, 4.76), who moves back to Sunday with the Thompson injury, against RHP Steven Fischback (5-3, 4.58).
Liebel leads the Big West in ERA and innings pitched and is second in strikeouts (84). He has won his last four decisions.
From the plate, Shane Peterson continues is upward assault on the .400 mark, batting .385 to enter the weekend with seven home runs and 47 RBIs. He leads the Big West in walks (36) and on-base percentage (.495). Peterson is batting .393 in the team's 18 conference games.
Freshman outfielder Jonathan Jones is batting .347, has he has started the last 37 games in centerfield after not expecting to start. With Chris Nelson ending his career with knee surgery, Jones was inserted in the lineup 12 games into the season and has not reliquished the slot. He has scored 34 of 37 starts and has hit safely in 32 of 37 starts.
Jason Corder leads the club and the Big West in homers (13) and slugging (.648) and along with Peterson (47 RBIs) has driven in 96 of the team's runs this year. Danny Espinosa is batting .325 at shortstop with 41 runs scored, while stealing a team-best 9-of-11 from the base paths.
3B Brett Morel leads the Mustangs with a .371 average and team-best 55 RBIs and seven home runs. Cal Poly is 14-11 at home and 8-15 on the road, countering LBSU's record of 11-12 on the road and 20-6 home mark. OF Logan Schafer chips in a .366 average with eight home runs. The team ERA is 5.26, while the team batting average is .302.
The Dirtbags feature the fourth-best ERA in the country, at 3.27, after pitching their second one-hit shutout of the season at San Diego State on Tuesday.
