Long Beach State University Athletics
Dirtbags Back At Home For Pair Of Midweek Games
3/9/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Long Beach State Game Notes
Tuesday, March 10
Time: 6p.m.
Location: Long Beach, Calif.
Stadium: Blair Field
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Wednesday, March 11
Time: 6p.m.
Location: Long Beach, Calif.
Stadium: Blair Field
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THE MATCHUPS
· Long Beach State hosts two midweek games with perennial opponent San Diego State and east coast visitor George Washington both coming to Blair Field.
· The Dirtbags fell to SDSU in the only matchup between the two last season. The Aztecs hold the all-time advantage 50-80-1. However, the Dirtbags are 23-13 since 1989.
· LBSU and George Washington will meet for the first time on Wednesday. At 7-3, the Colonials are off to their best start since 1983.
· Both San Diego State and George Washington pose offensive threats as the Colonials are hitting .299 through ten games and SDSU is hitting .320 to fuel its 13-3 record.
POWER IN THE DESERT
· The majority of the Long Beach State offense last weekend came from an unusual place - the long ball.
· The Dirtbags hit two homers last weekend to account for seven of their 11 runs.
· Eric Hutting's first career home run was a grand slam to left field in the fourth inning on Friday. Zack Rivera hit his second homer of the season on Saturday with a three-run shot just inside the foul pole that lifted the Dirtbags to a late 3-2 lead.
· Rivera's two homers through the first 15 games matched the Dirtbags regular season leaders from last year. Ino Patron and Johnny Bekakis each had two homers through the 56 regular season games in 2014.
A TUESDAY CRUZ
· Junior Ryan Cruz takes the mound again on Tuesday. As the Tuesday starter, he has given up just one earned run through 17 innings for a 0.53 ERA. He also has 22 strikeouts to just four walks.
· Opposing lineups are hitting just .164 against him on Tuesday.
· His 0.90 ERA this season leads all four Dirtbags starters and he ranks third on the team with 20 innings pitched.
· Cruz has allowed a run to cross the plate in just two innings as a starter. UCLA's home run in the sixth and LMU's three-run burst after an error in the third are the only innings in which opponents have scored against Cruz on Tuesday.
FRIEDRICHS SET FOR MIDWEEK START
· With a rare off weekend for the Dirtbags, Kyle Friedrichs will make a midweek start on major league rest.
· The Dirtbags usual Friday night starter will take the mound at Blair Field where he has a 1.80 ERA and has held apposing lineups to a .171 batting average
BULLPEN GIVES STRONG EFFORT AT ASU
· The very last inning may leave a sour taste for the Dirtbags bullpen, but the relief effort was solid until that point.
· Five Long Beach State relief pitchers combined for seven scoreless innings in all three games at ASU until the Sun Devils plated four in the eighth inning of the last game. Austin McGeorge, Darren McCaughan and Logan Lombana each tossed a pair of scoreless innings last weekend. Ty Provencher also threw a scoreless ninth for his fourth save.
· McGeorge entered on both Friday and Saturday with runners in scoring position but turned away the Sun Devil bats without allowing a run to score. It was a pair of groundouts on Friday that got him out of the jam and big strikeout on Saturday that held ASU without a run in the frame. By recording the final out in the seventh, McGeorge earned his second win of the year.
· Lombana struck out two in each of his one-inning appearances and McCaughan sat down the Sun Devils in order in a one-inning appearance on Friday and another one-inning appearance on Sunday.
MORE ON MCCAUGHAN OUT OF THE PEN
· Freshman Darren McCaughan has been nearly untouchable, allowing just two hits in his first eight and a third innings on the mound in college baseball. Opponents are hitting just .069 against him.
· McCaughan's short career is highlighted with the final two innings of the Dirtbags first-ever no-hitter on March 1. Those two innings are part of a current six-inning streak in when the freshman righty has not allowed a hit. In fact, he has retired the last 12 batters he has faced in order over his last three appearances.
· The freshman has struck out nine and walked three and has yet to surrender an earned run. He has logged the most innings out of the bullpen for the Dirtbags this season at 8.1.
FRESHMEN DH
· Two freshmen have quickly made their presence known in the middle of the lineup for the Dirtbags. Right-handed hitter Luke Rasmussen and lefty Brock Lundquist have combined to make nine starts at DH.
· Both are hitting over .300 with the small sample size and have combined to hit .357 with a pair of runs batted in and seven runs scored.
· Rasmussen's five singles have him hitting .385 while four singles and a double for Lundquist have him at .333. Rasmussen drove in both runs but Lundquist has scored five times. Lundquist has also walked four times and been hit by a pitch for a .500 on base percentage.
