Long Beach State University Athletics
Dirtbags Start Nine Game Road Swing Tuesday At LMU
3/17/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 17, 2014
DIRTBAGS OPEN LENGTHY ROAD TRIP AT LMU
Long Beach State will travel to Loyola Marymount for a 6 p.m. game on Tuesday. Both teams are coming off dramatic victories on Sunday that were won in the final at-bat. LMU's walkoff win completed a series sweep of the Portland Pilots while the Dirtbags walked off on Sunday to get a series win over Indiana.
DIRTBAGS HEAD INTO ROAD-HEAVY PORTION OF SCHEDULE
Long Beach State wrapped up its six-game homestand with a couple of dramatic victories last weekend. The Dirtbags will look to carry that momentum away from the confines of Blair Field over the next few weeks as they hit the road-heavy section of the schedule. Tuesday's game at LMU is the first of nine consecutive away games and starts a stretch of the schedule that features 13 of the next 16 games on the road.
LIMIT ONE PER CUSTOMER
Long Beach State pitchers surrendered 20 hits over last weekend's three-game set with Indiana, which is below its average of just under nine hits per game. However the Hoosiers found a way to get a hit, every one of those 20 hits looked the same in the box score. They were all singles. Not one hit from the Hoosiers trickled down the line or found a gap for extra bases. With Dirtbag pitchers allowing just one-base hits, the Hoosiers were unable to spark a rally that resulted in multiple runs. That proved to make a huge difference in a series that featured a trio of one-run games.
THREE TIMES THE QUALITY BUT BLANKED ON DECISIONS
All three LBSU pitchers turned in quality starts in the Dirtbags series win over Indiana last weekend. However, none of the three starters came away from their quality starts with a decision. Nick Sabo started the trend on Friday with 6.2 quality innings. He left the game in the seventh with a 3-2 lead but had already allowed that eventual third run on base. Andrew Rohrbach was lights out on Saturday, throwing nine innings and allowing just an unearned run. However, the Dirtbags were only able to score an unearned run on the offensive end as Rohrbach left the game after nine with the game tied 1-1. Jason Alexander posted his first quality start of the season with 7.1 innings and surrendered just one run as well. He left in the eighth with the game tied 1-1.
LIMITING EXTRA BASES FROM BEHIND THE PLATE
The pitchers did their part in limiting extra bases so the catchers thought they would pitch in as well. Three different players went behind the dish this weekend but Indiana had a tough time moving up on the basepaths against any of them. Eric Hutting set the tone on Friday night when he threw out 2-of-3 runners trying to swipe second and Nick Sabo picked off another. No one even tried to run on Alex Bishop on Saturday. Freshman Daniel Jackson held his own Sunday throwing out the only two Hoosiers to reach base through the first five innings when both tried to swipe second. Opponents are successful only about half the time (11-of-23) when trying to steal against the Dirtbags this year with Hutting throwing out six of the nine base runners who have tried to run against him.
AS CLOSE AS IT GETS
Last weekend's series against Indiana was not for the faint of heart. All three games were tied heading into the ninth and all three were ultimately decided by one run. The Dirtbags came away with two walkoff wins in the bottom of the ninth while Indiana salvaged the trip with an extra innings win on Saturday. The last time the Dirtbags played three consecutive one run games was in 2012 when they head three such stretches. Only one of those three-game stretches came in a single series and the results were not as positive. The Dirtbags lost three times to Oregon in 2012 by one run - 5-4, 3-2 and 8-7. To make last weekend's series even more dramatic, the teams combined for just 13 runs all weekend long. The Dirtbags took the 7-6 advantage with the pair of wins.
HAMPSON'S HIT STREAK ENDS AT 10 BUT PATRON ON A ROLL
Freshman Garrett Hampson saw his 10-game hit streak come to an abrupt end as he drew a walk in the eighth inning of Sunday's game, finishing 0-for-3 for the day. His streak is the longest by any Dirtbag so far this year and is second only to Ino Patron over the past two years. Patron had an 11-game hit streak in 2013 and has put together a nice stretch of hitting this season after starting 0-for-9. Patron did not record a hit against Vanderbilt but has at least one hit in 13 of the 15 games since then, including the last five consecutively. His five-game hit streak is the longest active streak for the Dirtbags and included a three-game stretch of multi-hit games. In fact, if you throw out the Vanderbilt series, Patron is hitting .345 with 15 RBI and a .517 slugging percentage. Both he and Richard Prigatano have reached base safely in each of the last 10 games while Hampson has done so in 11 straight.
MIDWEEK MARCH MADNESS
Well, maybe not madness but a look into the Dirtbags in midweek contests. No one is enjoying midweek games more than Johnny Bekakis as we get into the middle of March. Bekakis has played and started in three of the four midweek games so far this year and boasts a .545 with four runs scored. Bekakis is 6-for-11 in midweek games, has hit a solo homer and driven in a pair of runs. Alex DeGoti is also hitting .500 in the three midweek games he has started in.
YES, WE'RE REALLY CALLED THAT
The OFFICIAL nickname of the Long Beach State baseball program is the Dirtbags.
