In the 1970s that reality-singer-cult figure Meat Loaf had a hit tune entitled “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad.” Dirtbag baseball would be happy with that result the rest of this year, a season likely to finish outside of the NCAA tournament.

This weekend, like last weekend, is against a middle of the pack Big West bunch in the form of the free swinging UC Davis Aggies. The UCDs are fresh off a come-from-behind victory over Saint Mary’s on Tuesday when they survived a 16-15 dance with Saint Mary’s at home and needed the long ball to do it when John Williams, Nick Lynch and Paul Politi all homered on a blustery day at Dobbins Stadium.

For the Dirtbags, it was also come from behind time at SDSU. Down 3-0 entering the bottom of the ninth, Jeff McNeil started the inning with a double, his third hit of the day, and Long Beach State scored three runs to tie Tuesday’s game before the Dirtbags finished off the comeback in the 11th inning, thanks mostly to Ino Patron’s triple which panicked Tony Gwynn into a couple of intentional walks which in turn set the stage for a literal walk off 4-3 victory.

Such good news was wearing stripes the previous Sunday when the Dirtbags scored three runs in the top of the ninth inning at Pacific, took a late 6-5 lead, but gave back three more in the bottom half of the inning and lost the game 8-6 and the series 1-2. With that fresh result on their mind, the Niners were determined Tuesday. As noted above Jeff McNeil doubling to start the ninth, the Dirtbags scored three runs to tie the game and force extra innings.

Ty Provencher struck out the side in the top of the 11th, and Ino Patron’s leadoff triple in the bottom half of the frame led to the win after Josh Guerra drew a walk following intentional passes to Juan Avila and Richard Prigatano. With the win, the Dirtbags won their first and only extra inning game in 2013, and had their second walk off victory of the season.

Pacific comes in with a record of 11-19, 0-6 Big West and overall LBSU is only slightly better at 13-18 and 3-3. The good news is for a team like the Beach that struggles with lefties the Aggie rotation is all right handed starting with RHP Harry Stanwyck (3-4, 5.10 ERA) on Friday, RHP Spencer Koopmans (0-4, 5.82) on Saturday and RHP Evan Wolf (1-1, 4.10) on Sunday. Troy Buckley’s rotation is the same again this weekend, RHP Shane Carle (1-5, 3.33), LHP Jake Stassi (3-1, 2.17) and RHP David Hill (1-2, 5.24). Last weekend Davis got broomed by No. 4 ranked Cal State Fullerton, 3-0, on Friday against Titan ace Thomas Eshelman and 5-2 on Sunday in the series finale. The one that got away was Saturday’s game two, when the Aggies blew a 2-1 lead with one out in the ninth and Cal State Fullerton won, 4-2. Likewise Long Beach could have won their series but the Sunday stumble put The Titans’ game-winning two-run single was set up by an error, a walk and a wild pitch.

NOT VROOM, VROOM DUST…Don’t listen for the off shore winds to send Blair field fans some of the whines from the Long Beach Grand Prix because that party is next weekend…but you might get some mild expletives from the US Little League golf championships underway across the street at Little Rec…Around baseball in the Big West this weekend Hawai’i heads to Cal Poly, Pacific visits UC Riverside, Northridge travels to UC Irvine and first-place Fullerton plays host to UC Santa Barbara. Davis ranks No. 4 in the Big West Conference with a .284 team batting average, behind UC Irvine (.296), Cal Poly (.292) and Cal State Fullerton (.287). The Aggies feature four players hitting .300 or better and are No. 2 in the league with 55 doubles, led by Batty and Politi with a team-high eight doubles each. In the Big West, UC Davis also ranks No. 3 in runs scored (163) and No. 3 in total hits (296)…the other Niner Diamond entry is softball 26-15 but the Big West will likely get one bid and unbeaten Hawaii appears to have it locked up…Kim’s kids do get a campus double header on TV this Wednesday… Sand Volleyball split their day trip up the freeway, losing to nemesis Pepperdine and beating UCLA…they do appear to be locked in for a return trip to the national championships in Alabama…men’s volleyball has also wrapped up a quarter final bye in the MPSF party but have some games left…in tennis the athletes of LB are also pretty good students, getting their umpteenth team GPA award Thursday in the University Union…next up of importance is the Big West championships in Indian Wells…Water Polo ladies are also a legit dark horse for a title or at least a good showing…they wrap up the season with home matches vs the Orange County kids from Irvine and the “not a state school” chanting UC Santa Barbara…back to baseball Davis comes into the weekend winless in Big West play, but faced two of the top teams in the conference in Cal Poly and Cal State Fullerton, both ranked when they faced the Aggies. Sophomore Nick Lynch is the top hitter for the Aggies, batting .354 on the season with a pair of home runs…LBSU holds a 15-9 all-time series lead over the Aggies…In league play, the Dirtbags rank second offensively behind a few standout performers. Michael Hill is leading the league with four triples this season, and is sixth in the Big West in slugging percentage at .505, adding four doubles and two home runs while topping the Dirtbags lineup with a .330 batting average. Just behind him is McNeil, who leads the Dirtbags with 40 hits in 124 at-bats, the most on the team. Also leading a conference category is the slugging sophomore Prigatano, who has ten doubles, and a .445 number. Over and Out—DR. DAN