Long Beach State University Athletics
Dirtbags head out of town for four road games
5/3/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 3, 2011
Long Beach, Calif. -
Complete Baseball Release in PDF Format 
Leading Off
Long Beach State plays five straight non-conference games, starting with four on the road this week before the home stretch of the regular season. The roadie starts with a contest at San Diego State on Tuesday, May 3. The team will then travel to Tempe as the Dirtbags face their eighth Pac-10 opponent in 2011, the Arizona State Sun Devils. That series will begin with two night games on Friday and Saturday before a 12:30 first pitch on Sunday, May 7. As always, fans away from the ballpark can follow the action via live audio and Gametracker at www.longbeachstate.com.
Picking Up One More
Pushed against the wall after a 10-0 loss in Friday night's game with Cal Poly and trailing in the second game, the Dirtbags used a game-winning RBI from Juan Avila to rally past the Mustangs 4-3 on Saturday to set up a rubber game for the series on Sunday. Freshman Ryan Strufing, making his second weekend start, then pitched 5.2 innings, allowing one unearned run as Long Beach State took the lead and held on for a 5-2 victory. Eddie Magallon collected his ninth save of the season on Saturday, moving into a tie for the Big West lead, while Mike Marjama had two hits in each game of the series, finishing the week with six total.
Scouting San Diego State
The Aztecs have struggled throughout 2011, posting a 15-29 overall record and are 6-9 in Mountain West play. San Diego State comes in with a little momentum, however, having won their last three games, sweeping a series on the road at Western Carolina. Cody Smith leads the team with a .298 batting average. The Aztecs have shown some power on the season, as Chris Wilson leads the team with five home runs and Brandon Meredith has four. Long Beach State won the Apr. 5 meeting between the teams, winning 3-1 behind six no-hit innings from Jake Stassi and Ryan Strufing, along with a pair of hits each from Juan Avila and Ino Patron. With that win, Long Beach State puled to 47-77-1 in the all-time series, but improved to 20-10 in the Dirtbag era against the Aztecs.
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 2.36, and has allowed just 19 earned runs over 72.1 innings this season while holding opponents to the league's second-best .197 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 12 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 third in Big West games only. The Dirtbags are led by freshman Ino Patron, whose .352 mark in league games ranks eighth overall. Patron is also second in Big West play with three home runs. In RBI, Patron is second in the league with 14 in Big West play, while Matt Duffy is tied for seventh with 14, just two behind the Dirtbags' freshman. Meanwhile on the mound, Andrew Gagnon's 33 strikeouts are third-most in Big West games, while his .165 batting average against in league is the best in the conference.
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 .321 and is also the team's leader in OBP at .403. Transfer Mike Marjama has not missed a start and is third behind Patron with a .299 batting average and 46 hits on the year. Jeff McNeil is fourth on the team with a .264 batting average, just in front of another freshman in Royce Murai at .254. The Dirtbags have just one returning player hitting over .270 in senior Matt Hibbert (.309).
In The Show
With 12 players that have played in the Majors in 2011, Long Beach State leads all colleges in professional alumni, three 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. Vance Worley also won a start after being called up at the end of April.
