Long Beach State University Athletics
Rivalry Comes To Blair As Dirtbags Ready To Host Fullerton
5/1/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 1, 2014
Friday, May 2
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: Long Beach, Calif.
Stadium: Blair Field
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Time: 2 p.m.
Location: Long Beach, Calif.
Stadium: Blair Field
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Sunday, May 4
Time: 1 p.m.
Location: Long Beach, Calif.
Stadium: Blair Field
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May The Fourth Be With You
IT'S RIVALRY WEEK AS DIRTBAGS HOST FULLERTON IN BIG WEST SERIES
Long Beach State finds itself in the top half of the conference standings after two big series wins over UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly. The Dirtbags have won their last three in a row and will look to keep the momentum going in a three-game series with Cal State Fullerton this weekend at Blair Field. The Titans are 22-18 on the year and 6-6 in the Big West after sweeping Hawai'i last weekend. The two rivals met earlier this season with the Titans taking two of three games in a nonconference series in Fullerton.
21 SCORELESS AND COUNTING
Just last week, the buzz was around Josh Frye's scoreless inning streak that ended after 30.2 innings on Saturday. The Dirtbags now have a new scoreless streak going with the Dirtbag pitching staff combining for 21 scoreless innings in a row. Ironically, the last two runs scored against the Dirtbags are the two runs that ended Frye's streak in the sixth inning of Saturday's win over Cal Poly. After those runs, Frye pitched two more scoreless frames and Kyle Friedrichs pitched a scoreless ninth. Nick Sabo started Sunday's shutout win and tossed 6.2 innings before Ty Provencher closed out the shutout with 2.1 scoreless. On Tuesday, it was Ryan Millison for seven and Nick Rossetta for two to shutout Pepperdine. Andrew Rohrbach will take on the streak when he goes to the mound on Friday night.
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. He kept the bat going on Wednesday with an RBI single in the Dirtbags 7-0 win over Pepperdine.
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. Pepperdine came in to Blair on Wednesday scoring about five and a half runs per game but failed to get on the board while managing only seven hits.
SHUTOUTS REACHING INTO HISTORY
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. Ryan Millison and Nick Rossetta then combined for the shutout on Wednesday giving the Dirtbags back-to-back shutouts and pushing their season total to eight. Only three previous pitching staffs have recorded eight shutouts in LBSU's history with the 2014 staff becoming the fourth to reach the mark. In 1972 and 1999, Long Beach State shutout eight opponents. In 1965, LBSU had a school record nine shutouts. Only Josh Frye and Andrew Rohrbach have gone the distance for complete game shutouts but all three weekend starters have started at least one shutout. Frye and Nick Sabo have each started three. A total of seven Dirtbag pitchers have been used during shutout performances this year.
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.
