Long Beach State University Athletics
A look back at the 2011 Dirtbags season
7/5/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
July 5, 2011
Long Beach, Calif. -
Complete Final Baseball Release
Final Wrap
Long Beach State won five of its final seven games to push past .500 and finish the year with a 29-27 record, the first winning season for the team since 2008. The Dirtbags also finished in fourth place in the Big West, climbing out of the cellar in the first year under new head coach Troy Buckley. Long Beach State also had series wins over both UC Irvine and Cal Poly, two of the three teams that finished ahead of the Dirtbags in league play.
Awarding Talent
Long Beach State had four players honored by the Big West with the announcement of the Big West All-Conference teams. Junior Andrew Gagnon was chosen as a second-team pitcher for the second year in a row, finishing fifth in the conference in strikeouts and ninth in ERA. He was joined by second-baseman Matt Duffy on the second team. Duffy, a sophomore, led the Dirtbags with 31 ERA and was a staple in the middle of the lineup throughout the season. Catcher Mike Marjama earned honorable mention honors, hitting .290 and leading the team with 63 hits on the season. Senior Matt Hibbert also merited honorable mention selection. The outfielder led Long Beach State witgh a .293 batting average, and had eight doubles to go with seven stolen bases in 2011.
Moving On Up
The second day of the draft was the busy one for Long Beach State, as the Dirtbags had four players selected in the 2011 MLB draft. Junior Andrew Gagnon was the first player to go, being selected in the third round by the Milwaukee Brewers. Fellow starting pitcher Branden Pinder was the next picked, going in the 16th round to the New York Yankees. Catcher Mike Marjama was chosen in the 23rd round by the Chicago White Sox, and Kirk Singer rounded out Long Beach State's selections, as the junior shortstop was tabbed by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 29th round.
Hitting the Books
Junior outfielder Brennan Metzger was again honored by CoSIDA for his all-around work in the classroom and on the field, earning Academic All-District honors for the second year in a row. Metzger, a criminal justice major, has a 3.58 GPA while being just one of two players on the 2011 squad to play in every game. Metzger led the team with 13 doubles as well as in stolen bases, with 11.
Senior Salute
Long Beach State said farewell to a pair of seniors in 2011 in Troy Watson and Matt Hibbert. Both came to the program as transfers, as Watson joined the team from Sacramento City while Hibbert was a LA Harbor product. Watson made 15 apperances over his career, throwing 18.2 innings and allowing no earned runs over the course of 2011. Hibbert, after playing in just eight games in 2010, had a breakout year in 2011, hitting a team-high .293 with eight doubles and 14 RBI, while also leading the team in OBP at .375.
Gagnon. Fridays.
Junior starting pitcher Andrew Gagnon has anchored the Friday night pitching role since the 2010 season and had tremendous success in 2011. Gagnon has one of the Big West's lowest ERA's at 2.81, and has allowed 31 earned runs over 99.1 innings this season while holding opponents to the league's fifth-best .225 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.
Weekday Warriors
Long Beach State returned to a tradition of excellent play in midweek games under Troy Buckley in 2011, posting a 9-2 record, including season sweeps of home-and-homes against Pepperdine, USC, San Diego State on the year. Under Buckley as the head coach and as an assistant, the Dirtbags have posted a 56-26 (.682) record on weekday games since 2001, while posting a 14-12 record (.538) in the two years of his absence. The Dirtbags also improved from a 5-6 record in midweek contests last season to this year's outstanding mark. The Dirtbags posted a 2.68 team ERA in midweek games this season, while hitting .271, led by Ino Patron who hit .359 in 11 starts, while Matt Hibbert hit .353 in eight starts. Freshman Johnny Bekakis also hit .438 in 16 at-bats in midweek games.
Looking Ahead
After turning over nearly the entire roster in 2011, Long Beach State will have a nice core of experience to build around in 2012. The Dirtbags will return at least seven starting position players, including the entire outfield, and will have 12 pitchers returning, including a pair that finished the season in the rotation in junior Shawn Stuart and freshman Ryan Strufing.
Fresh Faces
With just 12 returning players from the 2010 squad, Long Beach State's team had the newest look of any squad since the original Dirtbag team under Dave Snow in 1989. Long Beach State had six position players qualify in batting, led by Ino Patron with a .286 average and Jeff McNeil who hit .265, with each playing in over 50 games this season as full-time starters. Mike Marjama, a junior college transfer, has also been an impact addition, hitting .293 with 25 RBI and slugging .366. On the mound, freshman Ryan Strufing and junior Shawn Stuart have entered the rotation as newcomers, while over half of the team's innings pitched came from new pitchers, with freshman Kyle Friedrichs (47) and junior Matt Johnson (45) leading the way along with Strufing and Stuart.
In The Show With 15 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 was next after being called up at the end of April, and 2009 draftee Adam Wilk made his first appearance in the majors after getting called up with the Detroit Tigers. Bryan Shaw then made the Dirtbags' total 40 all-time after getting called up by the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Drew Carpenter made the trip up from AAA for the Phillies.
Schedule Strength
Long Beach State once again had one of the strongest schedules in the country, one ranked third overall and first in non-conference strength going into the 2011 season. The Dirtbags played an astounding 17 teams out of 22 total that received votes in the preseason polls. With seven straight games against ranked opponents, Long Beach State's strength of schedule has gone back up to No. 5 in the nation at the start of the week, just behind Georgia, USC, Stanford, and Washington State with one week to play.
This and That
Long Beach State hit ten home runs on the year, but six came in just two games, with Juan Avila and Ino Patron each making two homers in a single game ... Long Beach State improved to 13-4 in one run games and 6-0 in extra innings with its 4-3 win over Cal State Northridge, showing the team's toughness in close games ... On the flip side of that mark, the loss Sunday at Cal State Fullerton made the team 2-13 in games decided by five or more runs, with Long Beach State's 20-0 win over Pacific and the 7-1 win at USC being the only exceptions.
