Brennan Metzger gets on base by taking one for the team. Photo courtesy of CSULB Media Relations.
10:15am | Infused with the spirit of Saint Patrick–the green shakes from the Golden Arches, plus green ketchup on my French fries–we intend to float only positive balloons into your sporting sky today.
Not much to add to the basketball talk, the fandom now has turned their focus on who’s coming back and who’s coming in. The Niner team as the world knows, made the sweet 64. Initial reports on Twitter had some of the Beach boys a bit blue i.e. Eugene Phelps who tweeted, “Now that basketball season is over I really have nothing to do with my life.” Da Tatted Beast then quickly rebounded and was back to organizing pick up games.
James Ennis began plotting a Casper Ware like summer in the Drew League and mentoring his Ventura College pal (and talented guard) Joseph Soto who now has his academics in order after having to turn away high school suitors like the University of Virginia. Like other JUCO stars, Soto may use the All American showcase to earn a ride to a four year hoop home. Back to Ennis, the NBA-hooked up DraftExpress scouts say James is “…Impressive. 6-7 athletic…Defends multiple positions. We need to see more of his skill-level.” Ditto for Dan Monson.
Web blogger BTF takes a useful guess at next season’s tall-ish LBSU roster: Nick SHEPHERD 6-9 So.; Dan JENNINGS 6-9 Jr.; Gatete DJUMA 6-9 Fr.; Kyle RICHARDSON 6-7 Sr.; Tony FREELAND 6-7 Jr.; Kris GULLEY 6-7 So.; James ENNIS 6-6 Sr.; Deng DENG 6-5 Fr.; Keala KING 6-5 Jr. ; Javion WATSON 6-3 Fr.; Branford JONES 6-1 Fr.; Mike CAFFEY 6-0 So.; Jerramy KING 6-0 Jr.; Peter PAPPAGEORGE 6-0 Sr.; Edgar GARIBAY 6-10 Jr.; Willie HANKINS 6-3 Jr. A couple of those lads are walk-ons and a couple may well be red shirts. And if you insist on searching for the next Ennis or Caffey from the newcomers, try 6-7 marksman Tony Freeland.
Now let’s look at the non-Big West out-of-conference opposition, and this is pure speculation at this point, except for the highly anticipated firm date, at home, in the Pyramid, with Blue Heaven, North Carolina. On top of hosting a bracket buster game next season the other names in the schedule mix are USC, Maryland, LMU, Oklahoma and–ta, dah, UCLA. The lightning rod for the locals in that list is, or are, the Bruins. After a season on the sink will Ben Howland be under pressure to right the ship or ship out? 49er fandom weighs in.
From an old timer. “I would play UCLA in Siberia if that is what it took to pay them back for the Tarkanian Years! If the Brackets in the 70’s were done the way we do them now, we would have gone to the Final Four five years in a row, because there is a 75 percent chance we would not have been seeded in the West Region with UCLA.” Heady wine or heady whine?
Back to more positives, my favorite baseball stat is the HBP and I, like Stan the Man Metzger, also become a proud papa when our boy Brennan Metzger collected his 45th career hit-by-pitch. I won’t jinx him but the record is just around the corner (that would be Brian Kennedy who wore 56 doses from 1998-2001.)
The Dirtbags actually won the series with Fullerton, if you use the DD+ total runs scoring method. Just add Sunday’s 7-2 victory over the Titans (that’s a plus five) with a couple of 2-1 losses (minus two) and, well you get my drift. This week begins another road session, mid-week at Pepperdine and then weekend at Wichita State.
The Shockers are sort of a mirror image of the Dirtbags, they too like small ball and are huge fans of Beach boss man and pitching guru Troy Buckley. After one season under Buckley, the Dirtbags lowered their team ERA from 4.67 to 3.55, and the pitchers are again impressing in 2012. Over 18 games, Long Beach State has posted a team ERA of 2.99, holding opponents to 54 earned runs over that time. 12 of the 13 pitchers on the roster have seen time on the mound, as Long Beach State’s depth is showing.
Offensively the production is still modest but Dirtbag baseball is synonymous with tough, gritty baseball, giving yourself up for the cause. LBSU leads the nation in 2012 with 33 sacrifices, averaging just under two per game. The other true grit guy is Senior bruise master Brennan who just passed Jeff Jones for second-most in school history with 44 in his career. HBP is just one of many categories where the center fielder is moving up the lists. Metz can reach the top 5 in games over the weekend. He also needs just six more doubles to pass Allan Burke and Termell Sledge for fifth-place in school history.
Spring Breaking Dust
More good news of the green kind and it came from the hot sticks of Kevin Lim. He fired a tournament low 5-under-par 66 in Sunday’s final round of the Bandon Dunes Championship to finish in second place and help lead Long Beach State come from seven strokes behind to tie for first and share the team championship with third ranked Washington. This is LBSU’s third tournament victory this year as the 49ers shared the team title at the Bill Cullum Invitational back in October and won the Folino Invitational last month. LBSU is back on the course Mar. 26-27, returning to the state of Oregon for the Duck Invitational at the Eugene Country Club.
LBSU is now a clear favorite to win the Big West Conference tournament in May, and when next week’s ratings come out, they may climb inside the at-large number with just under 2 months to go before the playoffs are announced. Last add links, LB PGA alum John Mallinger had another nice payday this weekend, $53,839 in the Palm Harbor Florida tour stop.
More grass notes, it is off season for LBSU soccer but their Elite Eight run last fall was voted LA’s BEST MOMENT IN SPORTS for 2011 in Division I Athletics. Nice hardware and a fancy party with the LA Sports VIPs at Club Nokia.
The newest Beach sporting entry is Sand Volleyball where the team is 1-0 in dual matches and something else in tourney stuff. We will let “staff reports” explain this: Caitlin Ledoux and Tara Roenicke defeated USC’s Katie Fuller and Natalie Hagglund 18-21, 21-12, 16-14 on Sunday, highlighting Long Beach State’s effort in the pairs championship between LBSU, USC, Florida State, and Pepperdine in the final day of the three-day event.
Ledoux and Roenicke were the highest seed for Long Beach State, winning that match in the Round of 16 before falling in three sets to the eventual champions, Aurora Newgard and Brittany Tiegs of Florida State 21-16, 15-21, 15-5. Long Beach State’s Libby Fontanilla and Alma Serna, along with Tyler Jackson and Janisa Johnson, also both competed in the Round of 16 in the single-elimination format, falling to the No. 4 and No. 3 seeds respectively.
The day’s single elimination bracket play was contested under challenging weather conditions, with constant on-shore winds gusting at 25 to 30 miles per hour and the temperature around 50 degrees.
Long Beach State returns to dual play next week, where the team is 1-0. The Beach will play Pepperdine at the Long Beach State Sand Courts at 2 p.m. Wednesday (BYO Chair). In its first year under the NCAA umbrella, here are the other teams working this Spring: Pepperdine, Southern California, Loyola Marymount, Hawaii, Florida State, College of Charleston, Stetson, Jacksonville University, U. of North Florida, University of Alabama/Birmingham, Tulane, Mercer, Florida Atlantic, Florida International and Florida Gulf Coast University.
Need more structure, then look to USA Volleyball who will sanction the 2012 events of the National Collegiate Sand Volleyball Association (NCSVA). The NCSVA, founded by beach volleyball World Champion and Olympian Sinjin Smith, is the only annual national collegiate sand volleyball championship to bring together the best men’s and women’s players from local and regional tournaments to compete for the title of National Collegiate Open Beach Volleyball Champions.
The NCSVA is scheduled to have 25 regional events, including eight regional championships this year. The winners of the regional championships will be flown to the national championship set for the crown jewel of volleyball, right here in Long Beach. Your serve — now say something nice.