3:04pm | The weather man (the actual weatherman, not former LBSU baseball coach Mike Weathers) may try to rain on the upcoming Dirtbags opening weekend, but the Beach athletic brass is still smiling from their “Cindy Masner Saturday.” Translated, the University’s Senior Women’s Administrator isn’t given buckets of money or marketing, but last weekend everything she touched was in the black and turned to gold.
It started Saturday morning when her softball team, who finished fourth in 2010 (26-26) and without an invite to the post-season had a comeback 5-3 win in their 9:00am game with hit-happy LMU. Meanwhile down the sidewalk at the Rhodes Tennis Center the ladies tennis team lost the doubles point to chippy CSUN and their argumentative head coach but ground out a 4-3 win to stay undefeated in conference.
The action then shifted back to softball, the sport that Masner played when she was a student-athlete back in the mid-eighties. This time, the Beach led all the way for a 2-0 win over Boise State and cleared Cindy’s calendar for the 4:00pm basketball game. Over the right field fence, Masner was thumbing feverishly in her fancy phone/PDA when she picked up the good news that her women’s water polo squad earned a rare 5-2 win over No. 12 UCSB. Rare of course is also the adjective used to describe wins by her ladies of basketball who whipped Northridge, 74-64 mid-week before a Courtney Jacob dagger to the Davis heart clinched the 60-59 upset. The Aggie team (powerful on paper and in the top three of the conference most of the season) got sent packing back to the farm scratching their heads.
If you are scoring at home, by supper time Masner had a 5-for-5 day and smiled as much as the nearly invisible former catcher allows.
Also on the smile patrol were the fans of 49er men’s basketball who claimed two more key wins on the road, at UC Davis, 93-69 and at Northridge, 79-62. The sickly star Casper Ware averaged 22.5 points and five assists per game in the two road wins and picked the Big West Player of the week award. The Monson gang now dreams of a full house for both the UC Riverside tilt Wednesday (7:05pm) and the Bracket Buster visit from Montana (Saturday, 8:00pm) in front of the ESPN2 TV cameras.
In between Jody Wynn’s warriors, riding an unaccustomed two game win streak, play UC Riverside in their Senior Night salute Thursday night. Men’s volleyball, upset by CSUN and dropping in the polls, plays at UC Irvine Wednesday at 6:00pm and at UC San Diego Friday at 7:00pm.
More road workers: Softball, 4-0 is at the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic in Las Vegas, playing an atlas full of foes, Hawaii on Friday at 1:30pm; Southern Illinois Edwardsville on Friday at 3:45pm; SEC power Arkansas on Saturday at 1:30pm; Boise State on Saturday at 3:45pm and then Utah on Sunday at 11:15am in the big Eller Media Stadium at UNLV. Women’s tennis leaves the comforts of home to test No. 60 San Diego State on Friday at 2:00pm.
Now back on our original task: Things about Dirtbag baseball where, wet or dry, the Troy Buckley era opens with non-conference action facing their original baseball rival, Fullerton featuring games Friday and Sunday at the dreamed about but still the same Blair Field. It is a split series that counts in the cash box but not the Big West conference standings. Weather permitting, Friday’s first pitch will be at 6:30pm then shifts to Nutwood and Goodwin Field for game two Saturday at 6:00pm, then back to Blair Sunday at 1:00pm.
As usual, the LB headline act is strong starting pitching with aces from 2010 Andrew Gagnon and Branden Pinder. Drew has been 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 and the Central Valley Conference Pitcher of the Year at Merced College) looks to fill the Saturday spot.
There is a new kid at third for the F-hats but not much else has changed including the not-related Noe and Nick Ramirez. Noe, the team’s ace, returns as the Big West Pitcher of the Year and Nick has duties as both 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 second round pick of Tampa Bay and Devin Lohman taken 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.
Closing numbers: If you overspent on your valentine, consider just $30 for four games – two men’s basketball and two Dirtbag baseball – what girl could say no?