Long Beach State University Athletics
Dirtbags travel to LMU, host UC Irvine this week
4/17/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 17, 2012
Long Beach, Calif. -
Leading Off
Long Beach State will try to extend a six-game winning streak as the Dirtbags head back to the road for one game on Tuesday, facing Loyola Marymount for the first time this season at 3 p.m. The Dirtbags then return to Blair Field for a three-game series with Black and Blue Rival UC Irvine, beginning on Friday at 6:30 p.m. Saturday's game is set for a 5:30 p.m. start, and then the series finishes with a 1 p.m. start on Sunday. All Dirtbag games can be followed through live audio or Gametracker at www.longbeachstate.com.
Make It Six Straight
The Dirtbags picked up their first series sweep since the 2009 season last weekend, taking all three games from UC Santa Barbara to move into a tie for first place in the Big West. The Dirtbags won two games in over eight hours of baseball in a double-header on Saturday, winning in 14-innings on Saturday night before returning on Sunday. Shawn Stuart then had another outstanding start, throwing seven innings and striking out seven, moving to 3-0 with a 1.17 ERA and 22 strikeouts over three starts in the Big West.
Scouting LMU
Long Beach State readies for the first of four games against the Lions this season. LMU is led by Cullen Mahoney, who has started every game for the Lions and is hitting .305 on the season. In common opponents, the Lions were swept in a four game series agaist Cal Poly earlier in the year, but did take two of three from UC Santa Barbara at UCSB. The Dirtbags have a 81-46 all-time lead against the Lions, and split a home-and-home midweek series last season, winning at Page Stadium 3-2.
Scouting UC Irvine
Despite still receiving votes in the polls, UC Irvine hasn't been overwhelming this season, and comes in with a record of 4-5 in conference. That said, the Anteaters have played two of the best teams in the league, losing three at Cal Poly before dropping a series with Cal State Fullerton last weekend. Three returning regulars are all hitting over .300, but the team is led by Connor Spencer, hitting .367 with five triples on the year. The staff is led by Andrew Thurman, who in nine starts has posted a 3-2 record and 3.86 ERA. The Dirtbags had the highs and lows at UCI last season; the team was no-hit on Friday by Matt Summers, but then LBSU recovered to win the series with two wins the next two days. The Dirtbags were swept the last time the teams played at Blair Field. The Anteaters lead the all-time series 60-47.
In Buck We Trust
After one season under head coach Troy Buckley, the Dirtbags lowered their team ERA from 4.67 to 3.55, and the starting pitchers are again impressing in 2012. Long Beach State dots the league leaders in many of the top pitching categories. All three pitchers rank in the Top 10 in ERA, with Stuart leading the way at 2.06 in 3rd place. Stuart and Strufing rank 2nd and 6th in opponent batting average at .190 and .222, and Matt Anderson is 8th in innings pitched at 54.2 and ninth in strikeouts with 39. All three starters come into this weekend with an ERA of 2.80 or under.
The Hard Way
After getting hit by a pitch on Sunday against Cal State Fullerton from Koby Gauna, Senior Brennan Metzger passed Jeff Jones for the second-most HBP in school history, and he currently has 48 in his career. HBP is just one of many categories where the center fielder is is moving up the lists. The senior has started every game in 2012, and can reach the top 5 in games started and top 10 in games played this season. Additionally, with one more doubles, Metzger will tie Allan Burke and Terrmel Sledge for fifth-place in school history, and the senior has reached base in 16 straight games.
Night and Day ... Or Big West and Not ... And Other Split News
Long Beach State has totally turned around the team hitting in Big West play, improving what is still an overall mark of .257 to a league mark of .287, led by Matt Duffy, who is hitting .412 in Big West games. He is just one of four players hitting over .300 for the team in conference, leading a surge for the Dirtbags in offense, as the team ranks second in the league in hitting to balance the team's league-best 2.11 ERA. In more inexplicable split information, the Dirtbags are 10-4 in the sunshine and 6-13 at night.
Schedule Strength
Long Beach State, as usual, as one of the toughest schedules in the nation, and enterered conference play having had the No.1 non-conference strength of schedule in Boyd Nation's SOS rankings. That remained the same through last week, and only UCLA has a tougher schedule as of April 16. Only three opponents on the Dirtbags schedule thus far are outside the Top 100 in the RPI (San Diego State, UCR, UCSB). The Dirtbags received votes themselves to start the season, and 11 of the 18 teams on the schedule were either ranked or receiving votes in at least one poll, including four other Big West schools, and Cal State Fullerton, Cal Poly, and UC Irvine are all either still ranked or receiving votes in this week's polls.
This and That
Long Beach State had 10 former players on opening day rosters, and Adam Wilk was promoted soon after to give the Dirtbags 11 major leaguers, the most on active rosters ... The Dirtbags are the second team at Long Beach State who played the nation's toughest non-conference schedule, joining the Men's Basketball team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament ... Brennan Metzger has started every game at center field for Long Beach State ... Matt Duffy, Ino Patron, and Jeff McNeil have played in every game ... Long Beach State has never lost a game in 14 innings (3-0) ... In the interest of empirically testing uniform luck, LBSU media releations presents the inaugural Uni Watch: Pinstripes (2-4); Black (3-8); White (3-0); Gray (3-4), Gold (5-1).
