Dr. Dan has been writing an insider’s version of his Diamond Dust column for 49er baseball games since the seventies. Here is the exclusive Stadium Edition that will be in the game programs this weekend.
THE BUCK STOPS HERE FOR THE NEW LOOK ‘NINERS AND OLD FOE FULLERTON
Long Beach State and Fullerton State is a locally famous backyard baseball brawl, with a history of about 22 years dating back to 1989 when the 49ers upgraded their program. CSUF, without the all-sports mojo of LBSU, had put all their marbles in their men’s baseball basket, and some (in a salute to Title IX) for women’s softball. They won titles in 1979 and 1984.
In 1989 the arrival of a Dave Snow team began to shake the Titan trailers to their anchors and when the Beach began its own run of trips to Omaha (1989, 1991, 1993 and 1998) the best looking guys in orange were the Cal Trans crews cleaning up a car wreck. Recently, well the big money BCS schools have taken over the CWS trophy room (except for CSUF in 2004) and both programs hope to shake the mid major collar and get a good seed and a soft regional.
For the F hats it is their 37th season as a D-1 program and they will shoot all of their heralded pitching bullets this weekend in three contests against Long Beach and a single game with visiting North Carolina. (The Heels are in the area to play in the USC Tournament) The Titans will start the remarkable Noe Ramirez Friday; use Tyler Pill in their first Saturday game, then newcomer Jake Floethe in the night cap vs. Brandon Pinder. On Sunday Titan Colin O’Connell will take on JUCO ace Shawn Stuart. Now if there is no Friday (and at press time we just don’t know) roll the schedule forward and expect a Monday night President’s Day contest at Blair.
Back to the present there are not too many hopeful numbers for the Dirtbags who these days you have to track with a GPS. No longer in the first base dugout, the Beach has 20 something new players, five new coaches, and another brand of beer in the concession stand. The good news, the kids don’t know it and the coaches are frothing at the bit to get going. Cal State Fullerton is 20-16 all-time in season openers but just 3-11 in openers occurring on the road. Although they have played an early non-conference series before (cash box not Big West bragging rights) CSUF has never opened a season with LBSU, usually the Long Beach of Nor Cal, some team named Stanford.
As usual the LB headline act is strong starting pitching. 2011 has aces from 2010, Andrew Gagnon and Branden Pinder. Drew is a two-year starter for the Dirtbags, and got rave reviews for his outstanding summer in the Cape Cod League where he was the starting pitcher for the CC All-Star game. JUCO strong man Shawn Stuart, (a junior college All-American, Pitcher of the Year at Merced College) has looked great in the pre-season and with the new quieter bats the Beach brain trust has put renewed emphasis on small ball. There is a new kid at third for the F hats (Joe Terry, POY at Cerritos JC) but not much else has changed including the not-related Noe and Nick Ramirez. Noe is the returning Big West Pitcher of the Year and Nick double duties as a closer and hitter.
Meanwhile LBSU, the new residents of the third base dugout, had eight players selected in the 2010 MLB draft with Junior Jake Thompson a 2nd round pick of Tampa Bay and Devin Lohman in the third by Cincinnati. The 20 something new guys will have to fill spots left by Joey Terdoslavich, LHP Jason Markovitz, OF Jonathan Jones, 1B Steve Tinoco, OF Jordan Casas, and OF TJ Mittelstaedt. The schedule as usual is er, ah, difficult. In 18 of their first 22 games the Beach faces teams who work in the 2010 NCAAs post season but the gooder news is that 14 of those contests are at home. Buck and his staff impress on several levels. My guess is the offense will surprise for two reasons: they now have some good offensive coaches, Zepeda and Gilbert, and the bats have been toned down hence bunting and running will emerge.
The game one starters feature a nice duel between Noe Ramirez off that scary 12-1 year last season and Niner Junior Andrew Gagnon (5-7, 3.28), the home boy ace who has added some muscle to his fairly lean body. The LB pen has Nate Underwood (2-1, 4.11), Eddie Magallon (1-2, 4.79) and guys like Jon Maciel, Jeff Frye, Kyle Friedrichs, Ryan Donahue and Derek Sesma.
The bunters (whops I meant to say hitters) are pleased that the Batted Ball Coefficient of Resolution (or BBCOR for short) has shrunk the sweet spot of an aluminum bat from 22 inches to only 5 inches (down 77%). Who’s who on offense? Returning catcher Kellen Hoime, hitting just .234 does have a great glove and bunts well; Ino Patron (.390 at Granada High) and Jeff Yamaguchi,(.459 with 44 RBIs) is familiar from his Lakewood games with Blair Field and joins the gap hitters; Matt Duffy and Kirk Singer are solid returnees and decent hitters; Longoria look-a-like Mike Marjama (Sacramento City) is big and strong (.346 in his two JC seasons); Singer and Brennan Metzger (.308, .409 on-base percentage) will have to be team leaders, the outfield mix are Jeff McNeil, Matt Hibbert, Juan Avila, Brennan Fulkerson. Michael Hill is a great utility option; some DH pop should come from JUCO Brent Tani, Juan Favela, (6-3 and 245), Jonathan Kim and hitter/pitcher Jake Stassi. Whew-coach, please send in the spell check.