Long Beach State University Athletics
Dirtbags Host LMU For Tuesday Game
4/7/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 7, 2014
Tuesday, Apr. 8
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: Long Beach, Calif.
Stadium: Blair Field
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DIRTBAGS WELCOME LMU FOR TUESDAY GAME
Long Beach State will look to ride the momentum of its series win over UCLA into a midweek game with Loyola Marymount on Tuesday at 6 p.m. The midweek game will be the first at Blair Field since the Dirtbags 2-1 win over USC on Feb. 25. LMU is 18-14 on the year and is currently third in the West Coast Conference. The Lions have lost six of their last nine contests, including three of the last four.
PRIGATANO IS THE BIG WEST'S PLAYER OF THE WEEK
In his junior season, Richard Prigatano garnered his first Player of the Week honors for leading the Dirtbags to a 2-1 series win over UCLA. Prigatano had six RBI for the second week in a row to raise his season total to 27 RBI. The junior outfielder has already surpassed his career-best for RBI in a season and now ranks third in the conference. His batting average also rose to .340 after going 6-for-12 last weekend and he notched his team-leading 11th stolen base.
BUCKLEY HITS THE CENTURY MARK
Head Coach Troy Buckley hit the century mark last weekend with win Nos. 100 and 101. The Dirtbags 4-0 shutout of UCLA on Saturday was the 100th career victory for the fourth year head coach and Sunday's comeback win was 101. He is now 101-96 in leading the Dirtbags and owns a 44-34 record in Big West games.
PITCHING SHINES AGAINST UCLA
The Dirtbag pitching staff was nearly lights-out all weekend long against a nationally-ranked UCLA team. The Dirtbags allowed the Bruins to score in only two of the 29 innings played in the three-game series. The Bruins were gifted the only run of Friday night's 11-inning game and scored five in the second inning on Sunday. That equates to 27 shutout innings on the weekend and 21 consecutive innings without surrendering an earned run. The bullpen tossed 12.1 innings last weekend and surrendered just the one unearned run.
PATRON CLOSES IN ON HISTORY
Through his first three seasons as a Dirtbag, Ino Patron recorded 168 hits. With 30 hits already this season, he is just two shy of becoming the 11th Dirtbag to join the 200-hit club. Mike Hofius and Brad Davis (former major leaguer and current Dirtbag Undergraduate Assistant Coach) were the last to reach the mark in the 2004 season. Davis finished with exactly 200 hits (10th all-time) and Hofius ranks ninth with 204 hits. He has already entered the record book for games played and started in a Dirtbag uniform and could end up very near to the top of both lists. His 194 games played ranks 32nd among all active players in the NCAA Division I.
COUNT ON MILLISON
Senior Ryan Millison has been solid throughout the first half of the season for Long Beach State. With the season tipping into the second half of the schedule, Millison leads all Dirtbag pitchers with a 0.92 ERA in his first 19.2 innings of work. Millison has not allowed an earned run since Mar. 15 against Indiana and has allowed just three runs (two earned) to score in his first 12 appearances. The senior picked up the start last Tuesday at USC and allowed a single unearned run to cross the plate in four innings of work. He also threw two perfect innings on Saturday to pick up the second save of his career. Opponents are hitting just .167 against him while he has an 8/3 K/BB ratio.
ANOTHER DIRTBAG JOINS THE TRIPLE PARTY
The Dirtbags had their 13th triple of the season hit on Sunday and this time it came off the bat of Eric Hutting. He scorched a ball off the wall in left field and wound up on third after it banked back over the left fielder's head for the first triple of his career. Hutting is the seventh member of the Dirtbags to hit a triple this season. The Dirtbags' 13 triples rank 11th in the nation.
DIRTBAGS FINALLY STAYING HOME MIDWEEK
Long Beach State will have an unfamiliar feeling on Tuesday as it does not get on a bus for a midweek contest for the first time since Feb. 25. The Dirtbags have played seven midweek games and only one of those have been played at Blair Field. The Dirtbags defeated USC 2-1 in that game in front of 2,697 fans. Since then, the Dirtbags have played six consecutive midweek games on the road and are 2-4 in those games. One of those losses was a narrow 4-3 loss at LMU on Mar. 18.
YES, WE'RE REALLY CALLED THAT
The OFFICIAL nickname of the Long Beach State baseball program is the Dirtbags.
