Long Beach State University Athletics
Big West play continues for the Dirtbags at UCSB
4/20/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 20, 2011
Long Beach, Calif. -
Complete Baseball Release in PDF Format 
Leading Off
Big West play continues for Long Beach State this week, as the Dirtbags get started one day early to avoid the Easter holiday. The Dirtbags will travel to UC Santa Barbara, with the first game with the Gauchos coming at 3 p.m. on Thursday. Another day game follows on Friday with another 3 p.m. start, and the series will close on Saturday with a 1 p.m. game. The series also marks the first time the two teams have played in Santa Barbara since May 13, 2007, as the 2009 series was moved to Goodwin Field in Fullerton following fires in the greater Santa Barbara area. As always, fans away from the ballpark can follow the action via live audio and Gametracker at www.longbeachstate.com.
Down By The River
An outstanding Friday night pitching matchup highlighted Long Beach State's three-game set with UC Riverside, where the Dirtbags took two out of three games to win the team's second Big West series. In the Friday opener, Andrew Gagnon allowed just one hit over eight innings, but was matched by UCR's Matt Andriese as the teams moved through 11 scoreless innings before Matt Duffy drove in Ino Patron to give the Dirtbags a 1-0 walkoff win. The next day, the Dirtbag bats led the way in a 7-5 win, with Duffy hitting four singles, before a forgettable 14-2 loss in the finale.
Scouting UC Santa Barbara
The Gauchos have played just two conference series this season, beating Cal Poly to open Big West play at home before getting swept by Cal State Fullerton last weekend. 14-16 overall, the Gauchos are much better in Santa Barbara, where they have an 11-4 record as opposed to a 2-10 mark on the road. Sean Williams is the team's top hitter at .342, closely followed by Mark Haddow at .336, both of which are in the top ten in the conference. The second-most played series for Long Beach State all-time, the Dirtbags hold an 85-72 all-time edge over the Gauchos. Long Beach State also took two out of three games at Blair Field last season, winning the first two games before dropping Sunday's finale 4-1 in the last game between the two teams.
Gagnon. Fridays.
Junior starting pitcher Andrew Gagnon has anchored the Friday night pitching role since the 2010 season and has had tremendous success in 2011. Gagnon has one of the Big West's lowest ERA's at 2.20, and has allowed just 14 earned runs over 57.1 innings this season while holding opponents to a league-best .198 batting average. Gagnon started off the season by matching up against six straight ranked opponents, beating Arizona, Rice and Stanford on Friday nights in the process. Gagnon has also been involved in both shutouts of the season for Long Beach State, striking out eight over seven innings against Pacific before striking out 10 Highlanders and allowing just one hit over eight innings in a 1-0 victory over UC Riverside.
Big West Notables
With nine games played, additional trends are beginning to emerge from the season. Long Beach State's early struggles with the bat have lifted some, with the team batting average ranking seventh overall for all games, but second in Big West games only. The Dirtbags are led by freshman Ino Patron, whose .438 mark in league games ranks sixth overall, and is just one of nine players to bat over .400 in Big West play. Meanwhile, Andrew Gagnon's 20 strikeouts are fourth-most in Big West games, while his .113 batting average against in league is just behind UC Santa Barbara's Nick Capito. Matt Duffy has 10 RBI in Big West play, which is tied for second place and one off the league lead, held by UC Irvine's Ronnie Shaeffer.
Fresh Faces
With just 12 returning players from the 2010 squad, Long Beach State's team has the newest look of any squad since the original Dirtbag team under Dave Snow in 1989. Freshman Ino Patron leads the Dirtbags in hitting at .333 and is also the team's leader in OBP at .420. Transfer Mike Marjama has not missed a start and is second behind Patron with a .294 batting average and 37 hits on the year. Freshman Royce Murai is third on the team in batting, hitting .292, just in front of two other freshman in Jeff McNeil (.264) and Jeff Yamaguchi (.250).
In The Show
With 11 players on opening day rosters in the MLB, Long Beach State leads all colleges in professional alumni, two ahead of Miami (Fla.) and Arizona, who each had nine so far in 2011. 2010 All-Stars Jered Weaver, Troy Tulowitzki and Evan Longoria are joined by John Bowker, Bob Cramer, Danny Espinosa, Marco Estrada, Jason Giambi, Cesar Ramos, Jeremy Reed, and Jason Vargas in populating big-league rosters so far in 2011.
