Long Beach State University Athletics
No. 9 Dirtbags Host Tuesday Contest vs. UCLA
4/25/2017 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Tuesday, April 25
No. 9 Long Beach State vs. UCLA
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: Long Beach, Calif. (Blair Field)
Listen: KBeach Radio | Live Stats | Tickets
LAST TIME OUT
• Long Beach State earned its first ever road sweep of UC Irvine over the weekend, outscoring the Anteaters 17-4 in their home ballpark. The Dirtbags have now recorded four series sweeps this season, but this was the first away from Blair Field.
• Junior RHP Darren McCaughan tossed a three-hit shutout in the opener, recording his second career shutout by throwing his second consecutive complete game. Because of that performance, McCaughan was named Big West Pitcher of the Week, winning the award for the third time in his career and first time this season.
• Starters John Sheaks and Dave Smith each picked up wins as well, with Sheaks tied for the Big West lead with six victories this season and Smith leading the conference with a 1.50 ERA. • The Dirtbags offense recorded 13, 13, and 11 hits, respectively, in the series. Ramsey Romano was 4-for-4 in game one and even started Saturday's game with consecutive hits to have singles in his first six at-bats in Irvine.
• Brock Lundquist finished a home run shy of the cycle on Friday, reaching base four times including a walk. The Dirtbags leadoff man drew four walks in the series and now carries a team-best on-base percentage of .417.
• Jarren Duran posted a career-best four RBIs in Saturday's win, with three of them coming on one swing with a bases-clearing triple to break the game open. Lucas Tancas also hit a home run in Saturday's win, giving him a team-high six on the season.
SCOUTING THE BRUINS
• UCLA enters Tuesday's contest at .500, the same way it entered its last meeting with the Dirtbags just a week ago. The Bruins came away with a 2-1 win in 11 innings, scoring the walk-off run on a sacrifice fly from Chase Strumpf.
• The Bruins hosted the consensus No. 1 team in the nation, Oregon State, over the weekend, dropping two out of three to the Beavers. UCLA won the middle game of the series, scoring seven runs in the first three innings and holding on for a 7-1 victory. Oregon State won the opener 4-2 in 10 innings, then scored a run in the eighth and ninth innings to win Sunday's rubber match, 2-1.
• DH Kyle Cuellar leads the team with a .356 batting average in 24 starts, while 1B Sean Bouchard supplies the power with team-highs in home runs (6), RBIs (27), and slugging percentage (.582).
• Probable starter Justin Hooper was the starting pitcher for last week's meeting, going 5.0 innings against the Dirtbags. Hooper allowed one unearned run on three hits and three walks with five strikeouts.
• Long Beach State and UCLA played a thriller in their last meeting at Blair Field. UCLA led 11-2 in the third inning, but the Dirtbags scored eight unanswered runs to lose by an 11-10 final score. The nine inning game took 4:44 to complete.
BLAIR FIELD RENOVATIONS
• The ongoing improvements at Blair Field took a major step forward during the offseason with the construction of the Troy & Danyll Tulowitzki Batting Facility along the right field side of Blair Field.
• Also constructed during the offseason was the Jered Weaver Bullpen beyond the fence in right field. There was also an update to the Dirtbags locker room which includes new lockers, general maintenance and repairs and new designs and graphics on the interior walls to honor the history of Long Beach State Baseball.
• The renovation efforts began prior to last season with the installation of a new outfield fence. The old dimensions of 348-387-400-387-348 were reduced to a slightly more hitter-friendly 335-380-393-380-330 moving from left to right field. The result was an increase in home runs hit at Blair Field from four in 2015 to 23 last season.
USA BASEBALL
• LBSU head coach Troy Buckley was announced as a pitching coach for the 2017 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team this summer. This will be Coach Buckley's first coaching stint with Team USA, becoming the third straight Dirtbags head coach to work with the Collegiate National Team.
• Buckley will join former Dirtbags head coach and LBSU Hall of Famer Dave Snow as a pitching coach with the Collegiate National Team. Coach Snow worked as a pitching coach last season, and 2017 will be his fifth time coaching with the CNT in his career.
• The Dirtbags have also had a player on each of the past two Collegiate National Teams. In 2015, shortstop Garrett Hampson was selected and last summer Darren McCaughan was a pitcher for Team USA. LBSU has had 12 players selected to the Collegiate National Team in its history.
LB IN MLB
• For the seventh straight year, Long Beach State had more players in the major leagues than any other college or university. There were 13 former Dirtbags who played in the Major Leagues in 2016 and the all-time total for Long Beach State is 46 big league representatives.
• When the Chicago Cubs won the World Series, first base coach Brandon Hyde became the third former Dirtbags player in as many seasons to win a ring. Matt Duffy and the San Francisco Giants won the World Series in 2014 and Jason Vargas and the Kansas City Royals were World Champions in 2015.
• It was a very productive year for former Dirtbags in the big leagues, led by Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Marco Estrada, who was named to his first All-Star Game last season.
• Starting out the 2017 season, Long Beach State had 10 former players on Opening Day MLB rosters, tying with Arizona State for the most of any college or university. The former Dirtbags who started the season on big league rosters is: Bryan Shaw (Cleveland), Jason Vargas (Kansas City), Danny Espinosa (Los Angeles (AL)), Jared Hughes (Milwaukee), Jered Weaver (San Diego), Nick Vincent (Seattle), Matt Duffy (Tampa Bay), Evan Longoria (Tampa Bay), Troy Tulowitzki (Toronto), and Marco Estrada (Toronto).
• On Apr. 14, former Dirtbags pitcher Shane Carle was called up to the Colorado Rockies, making his MLB debut the same day in San Francisco. Carle became the 47th former LBSU player to reach the big leagues. Interestingly, Shane Peterson was called up to the Tampa Bay Rays earlier in the day and hit a two-run home run in his first at bat.
WE ARE THE DIRTBAGS
• The OFFICIAL nickname of the Long Beach State baseball program is the Dirtbags.
