Long Beach State University Athletics
Dirtbags Host No. 25 Pepperdine On Wednesday
4/29/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 29, 2014
Wednesday, Apr. 30
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: Long Beach, Calif.
Stadium: Blair Field
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NO. 25 PEPPERDINE VISITS BLAIR FIELD ON WEDNESDAY
For the seventh consecutive home game, Long Beach State will host a team ranked among the top-25 when No. 25 Pepperdine comes to town this weekend. The Dirtbags and Waves faced off less than a week into the season on Feb. 18 in Malibu with the Waves taking the game 6-3. Since then, Pepperdine has strung together a solid season with a 30-9 overall record and a league-leading 14-4 record in the West Coast Conference.
DIRTBAGS AGAINST THE TOP-25
Long Beach State has evenly split 20 games against ranked opponents this season. After taking two of three from then-No. 1 Cal Poly last weekend, the Dirtbags are now 10-10 against opponents who are in the top-25. With back-to-back series wins over UCSB and Cal Poly, the Dirtbags have now won their last three series against top-25 opponents and have taken four of the six series they have played with ranked opponents this year. Other series wins include a split series win against UCLA and home series win over Indiana. The two series losses were a season-opening sweep to Vanderbilt and a nonconference series loss at Cal State Fullerton. Both opponents were in the top-10 when the Dirtbags faced them.
PONGS BUSTS OUT
Junior transfer Cameron Pongs has made more appearances on the mound this year than with the bat. However, that didn't stop him from having a monster week at the plate on the way to earning the Big West Hitter of the Week honors. Pongs hit .571 in four games last week, including two 3-for-4 performances on Friday and Saturday. His batting average skyrocketed to .400 as he nearly doubled his number of at-bats this season in four starts last week. On Monday, he stroked a double for his first extra base hit and hit two more on Friday night. He also had two runs batted in and two runs scored last week.
TAMING THE BATS
The Dirtbag pitching staff has taken advantage of its pitcher-friendly home park this year, especially in the past two weeks. Visitors into Blair Field are hitting just .220 and averaging only 3.2 runs per game. In the past two weeks, two of the nation's top hitting teams came into Blair Field and were stifled by the Long Beach State pitching staff. UC Santa Barbara came into the weekend hitting .307 as a team (16th in the nation at the time and left hitting .298 (25th in the nation). Cal Poly came into Blair Field the next week hitting .306 as a team (ranked 13th) and left hitting .296 (ranked 29th). Both teams also entered the series averaging over six runs per game. UCSB did not score six runs in the entire series. The Gauchos scored just four times all weekend for an average of 1.33 runs per game and were shutout for just the second time this season. Cal Poly scored eight runs in the three games for a well below average output of 2.67 runs per game. The Mustangs were also shutout for just the second time this season.
A PATTERN OF SHUTOUTS
Shutouts have been coming in on a weekly basis over the last month for the Dirtbags. Each series in the last four weeks has featured at least one shutout from the Dirtbag pitching staff. Josh Frye has started three and Nick Sabo started the shutout last week against Cal Poly. With the four shutouts over the last four weeks, the Dirtbags now have seven on the year. Their seven shutouts rank ninth in the NCAA Division I and are tied for tops in the Big West with Cal Poly.
PATRON CONTINUES CLIMB UP HITS LEADERS
Ino Patron laced six hits last weekend to up his career total to 212 hits. Along the way, he jumped from tied for eighth all-time to alone in sixth. He was tied with Dirtbag great Bobby Crosby going into the weekend. He passed him with his first hit. With his first hit on Saturday, Paton passed another Major league Dirtbag in Jason Giambi. Later in the day, he passed Dan Twiss to move up to sixth. He is three more hits away from catching Chris Gill for fifth all-time with 215 hits. With a solid end to the 2014 regular season, Patron could catch Bryan Kennedy (224 hits) for fourth and possibly Jeff Liefer (230 hits) for third.
A BUSY TIME AT BLAIR
The Dirtbags are currently in a home-heavy part of their schedule that features 11 of 12 games at Blair Field, including three Big West series in a row. Long Beach State welcomed UCSB for three Apr. 17-19 before heading to San Diego for a Monday contest. After the short trip, the Dirtbags play eight in a row at home. The home schedule features three games with Cal Poly, three with Cal State Fullerton and midweek contests with Pepperdine and San Diego State. Three of the five opponents to come into Blair over the next three weeks are ranked in at least one of the major Division I baseball polls.
YES, WE'RE REALLY CALLED THAT
The OFFICIAL nickname of the Long Beach State baseball program is the Dirtbags.
