Poor Pacific

This weekend, the Dirtbags swept the Pacific Tigers fair and square.





The Dirtbag's shortstop Danny Espinosa hit a milestone, and we're not talking baseball at all. On April 25th, Mr. Espinosa turned 21 and gave himself a great birthday present: going two for three at the plate with a double, a triple and two walks. The Dirtbags took the game with the final score of 10-3. There was quite a lot of excellent hitting by Shane Peterson (who hit his 6th homerun), Jason Tweedy, TJ Mittelstaedt and Steve Tinoco.






The second game did not go as smoothly as the first game did. It started quite similar when the Dirtbags had a solid 6-2 lead in the third when Jason Corder hit his 10th home run of the season. However, the tables turned when the Tigers lit up starter Vance Worley taking the lead 7-6. David Roberts took over for Worley in the forth, but didn't help the situation out too much. When the fifth inning came to an end, the Tigers were up 10-6. This did not discourage the Dirtbags. They came back swinging. Rylan Sandoval, Danny Espinosa, Jason Cordor, Jason Tweedy and Travis Howell were on a mission and they took over the game 13-10. Nonetheless, this slug-fest was so far from being over. Dirtbag reliever Nick Vincent gave up three runs in the ninth letting the Tigers tie the game. In the bottom of the ninth, Shane Peterson answered the fan's prayers when he hit and hard chopper up the middle to score in the winning run, ending the game 14-13. Close call.






Game three followed along the lines of game two, with one major difference, the 11 innings it went into. Starting pitcher Jake Thompson pitched for 5.2 innings, giving up five earned runs and 10 hits. Nick Vincent came in to relieve him, but didn't have too much luck, giving up one unearned run in the sixth. Right-hand pitcher Bret Lorin came in to clean up the mess. He had two shut out innings to keep the game 6-3 in the sixth. The game started to turn around for the Dirtbags in the eigth inning when Shane Peterson hit a solo home run (his seventh of the season) and Rylan Sandoval hit and RBI, making the score 6-5. In the bottom on the ninth, Jason Cordor hit a clutch one-out single to left field, tying the game and sending it into extra innings. There was not too much action until the bottom of the eleventh when Danny Espinosa started it off by hitting a single up the middle. Rylan Sandoval hit a double and Jason Tweety was intentionally walked when TJ Mittlestaedt came up to the plate with bases loaded. Unfortunately for the Tigers, Mittlestaedt hit a single, allowing Espinosa to come home, winning the game for the Dirtbags. Yet another squeaker.

The Rollarcoaster

Things were looking up for the Dirtbags after the first month of the season. However, the tables did turn soon there after.


Here's the up to date results:


Rice series- Won 2 out of 3
San Diego- Lost
Wichita State series- Swept
Loyola Marymount- Won
Hawaii series- Swept
Western Illinois- Lost
USC- Swept
SDSU- Won
UCLA- Swept
Harvard- Won


And then it starts...


Pepperdine- Lost
Cal series- Lost all 3
Standford- Lost
Fresno State- Lost
UC Riverside series (Conference)- Lost 2 out of 3
Loyola Marymount- Lost
UC Irvine series (Conference leader)- Lost 2 out of 3


And then things start looking up...


Peperdine- Won
Cal State Northridge (Conference)- Swept


This are so far from being over. There are still 5 more conference series left. If the Dirtbags play the way they did last weekend against Northridge, things will be soaring high yet again.

Check it out

Check out rivals.com! Long Beach is ranked no.3 and Shane Peterson, Danny Espinosa and Andrew Liebel are on the power-rankings.

Coming soon....

Sorry I've been slacking on game reports. I will be posting the USC and UCLA game stories. FYI- they swept both series....

Bring out the Brooms

The Dirtbags have completed their second sweep of the season, after the series against Hawaii University's Rainbow Warriors. So what does this victory mean to the Dirtbags? Well according to Rivals.com, they have moved up significantly in the rankings. They are now ranked No.7, up from No.12, with a 9-2 record. They have soared passed the other conference teams in the ranks, including No.12 Irvine and No. 16 Riverside. Other teams they have already played or soon will play against are underneath them at the moment. Rice drops to No.9, UCLA took a dive to No.10, the reigning champions from Oregon State fell to No.22 and Wichita State moved down to No.24. All of these plunges from highly pre-season ranked teams is nothing but good news to the Dirtbags. However, it is very early in the season to get hot heads.

Coach Weathers decided to take 28 eligible players on the team, including freshman catcher John Hill, who made many firsts in his collegiate baseball career. Hill, a freshman from La Quinta High School, was brought into game one as a pinch-hitter in the 8th inning. He made his first appearance at the plate as well as his first hit in the Dirtbag uniform. Hill ended up tying the game at 3-3, giving the Dirtbags a chance to win. The game went into extra innings, finally ending with a RBI from Shane Peterson at the top of the 12th. The Dirtbags notched their first win in paradise at 4-3.






Shane Peterson

In game two, Vance Worley started on the mound. He struck out 11 batters, notching a career-high in strikeouts over eight innings. The Dirtbags took no time to get some points on the board in this game. The designated hitter of the game, Robert Burk, hit his first collegiate home run, bringing home three. Taylor Krick hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Devin Lohman, allowing the Dirtbags to sit on a four run lead. Nick Vincent, the closing pitcher, came into the game in the 9th to secure the 4-2 win over the Rainbow Warriors.

Things in game three didn’t start off as well for the Dirtbags. Nonetheless, things began to change when second baseman Jason Tweedy made a clutch diving play in the 6th inning, preventing the Rainbow Warriors to score more runs. At this point, the Dirtbags were trailing by two. In the 7th inning, the Dirtbags went on a five-run rally. Shane Peterson hit a RBI, starting off the change of pace for the Dirtbags. John Hill made his first collegiate start in game three and had an RBI single in the 7th, tying the game at 4-4. Jason Corder hit a single, allowing two runners to come home, making it 6-4. Then finally Chris Nelson hit an RBI single, giving the Dirtbags a three-run lead. The final score of the game was 8-4; thus, completing the sweep of the Rainbow Warriors.






Jason Corder

LMU comes to Blair Field

Six is a great number for the Dirtbags. In tonight's games against LMU Lions, the game turned into the favor of the Dirtbags in the 6th inning, securing their 6th win in the season.

The Lions didn't have to travel too far for this Tuesday night game. The game started slow, with a double steal by Big West Player of the Week, Shane Peterson and the Dirtbag's designated hitter, Rylan Sandoval; however, they were left on base when it all came down to it. The Lions scored the game's first run in the top of the second inning.

Both pitchers start for the first time this season. Tyler Topp started on the mound for the Dirtbags. He's made 2 appearances so far, pitching 5 innings. The Lions right handed pitcher Nate Keadle notched his first start, after making 3 prior appearances, pitching 2 total innings. Topp was pulled in the middle of the 6th inning, only letting 5 hits and 1 run pass by. He did not walk any batters.







"I thought he threw very well," Weather's said of Topp.

The 6th inning was also the end for Keadle, after he walked in the tying run, not to say he had a bad night given the fact he had a career high of 10 strike outs.

"It's disappointing to strike out that many times," Weathers said. "I thought we were making some advances in our strike outs...we've been putting a lot of work at it."

Ernie Cho entered the game for the Lions to replace Keadle, but did more damage. He walked designated hitter Ted Lemasters, forcing another runner to come home. Chris Nelson made squeeze play, bunting in the runner at 3rd and making it safely to first. The Dirtbags ended up scoring 4 runs in the 6th inning.

There was another squeeze play hit by Shane Peterson in the bottom of the 7th, allowing the Dirtbags to sit on a 3 run lead. These advances from bunts are very typical coming from Weathers, small ball is very popular at Blair Field.

At the end of the day, Bryan Shaw came in to close the game and solidify another win for the Dirtbags. The next game they play will be in paradise. 28 of the 36 players on the roster will make the trip to Hawaii to play the Hawaii University Rainbow Warriors, according to Weathers.

Over the Weekend

The Dirtbags had a exciting weekend series against Wichita State. At the end of the Sunday, they sealed a Shocker sweep. Shane Peterson was a great team player, batting in 7 of those runs, hitting .500. He also received the title "Big West Player of the Year" after his great performance. Taylor Krick brought in a deep home run, soaring past the 400 sign at Blair Field. Danny Espinosa got a hold of 6 hits, making it around the bags 5 times.







This series was a great win for the Dirtbags. At the beginning of the series on Friday, they were 2-2. At the end, celebration was in need, boosting that figure to 5-2.