To say the Dirtbags had high hopes for the ‘08 season would be an understatement, with prized freshmen joining the baseball fraternity alongside the staple of veteran pro-prospects.  

Now, to say that the Dirtbags have exceeded those lofty expectations would be even crazier considering they were chosen to win the Big West by the conference coaches and nearly every website covering the college game. But a month into the season the Dirtbags have climbed as high as number six on the rankings and have not lost a three-game series or an away game.

Long Beach State has won 14 of 15 coming off a sweep of preseason favorites UCLA. The Dirtbags are playing their best ball with a critical Bay-Area road trip coming up.

After tonight’s home game (Blair Field, 6.30pm) versus a solid Harvard squad, the team will travel to Pepperdine followed by a trip this weekend up to Northern Cali where they will face off in a series against Cal followed by games versus Stanford and Fresno State.

But if the Dirtbags back-to-back sweeps of USC and UCLA (yes rub it in your buddies’ faces) have been any indication, they’ve channeled their inner Pedro Serrano and have begun to crush the ball as of late, putting up 27 runs on SC and 26 runs in the UCLA series.

The Dirtbags handled a double-header on Easter eve at Blair Field after going up to Westwood on Friday for a 13-3 skunk on the Bruins. The closest of the games went down in the second game of the series, with the Dirtbags rallying in the ninth to pull off a 3-2 win.

In that game, freshman Jake Thompson opened up for the Dirtbags going 4 2/3 innings, Whodini-ing out of two bases-loaded jams in the first two innings, giving up only one run. Then, just as they have all season long, the Dirtbags bullpen kept the bats in check, not allowing a run or hit for the rest of the game.

Later, it was T.J. Mittelestaedt’s turn to play hero for Long Beach State, hitting a one-out double in the ninth to score freshman Jonathan Jones, and tie the game. Mittelestaedt then scored on an error by Bruin third baseman Jermaine Curtis to end the game.

What is most impressive about the Dirtbags’ success this season is that they still are not close to having a set line-up because of the production by so many players. But it seems like day-to-day tweaking of the order by head coach Mike Weathers is working. Recently, Weathers inserted freshman centerfielder Jonathan Jones into the lineup and all the rookie D-bag has done is hit .455 in seven starts and chased down everything in the outfield.

And J.J. isn’t the only Dirtbag freshman who has been clutch this first month of the season. Thompson might only be 1-1 but has given Long Beach State five quality starts. John Hill has joined the catching platoon, hitting over .500 in his first five collegiate starts and coming up with timely hits in the Hawaii and UCLA series. With Jason Tweedy being out of the lineup for up to three weeks with a shattered finger, expect David Lohman to fill in the role nicely, just as he has filling in for Tweedy throughout the year. Lohman is hitting an even .300 in 10 starts this season.

The freshmen have complimented the great play by the veterans on the club. First baseman Shane Peterson is hitting a blink under .400 and has a team high 26 RBIs. Shortstop Danny Espinoza has seen his share of struggles at the plate after making some of the nation’s best pitchers look like they were tossing batting practice. Espinoza and Peterson are the only Dirtbags to start in all 19 games this season, validating their preseason leadership expectations.

But the backbone of this years’ team has been the pitching with a 2.12 team era. The three-man rotation of Andrew Liebel, Vance Worley and Thompson has been nearly unhittable, and the bullpen has been untouchable. Out of the ‘pen, closers Bryan Shaw, Nick Vincent, Adam Wilk, David Brown, Jason Markovitz and Brett Lorin are yet to give up a run and have each appeared in at least four games. David Roberts and Dustin Rassco have appeared the most out of the pen and held opponents under a .200 batting average.

It is cliché but this roster really is complete top to bottom.