{"id":267,"date":"2014-05-28T19:29:23","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T19:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/sports\/dirtbags-post-season-bound-for-first-time-since-2008\/"},"modified":"2014-05-28T19:29:23","modified_gmt":"2014-05-28T19:29:23","slug":"dirtbags-post-season-bound-for-first-time-since-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/dirtbags-post-season-bound-for-first-time-since-2008","title":{"rendered":"Dirtbags Post-Season Bound For First Time Since 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"LBSU<\/p>\n

The Dirtbags play the Tar Heels Friday at 10 AM. Photo: SportsSpeak.com<\/em><\/p>\n

Long Beach State baseball is returning to post-season play for the first time since 2008 as the team travels to Florida where they\u2019ll take on the University of North Carolina in the Gainesville super-regional Friday.<\/p>\n

The Dirtbags earned the number two seed in the region (see full bracket here<\/a>) after finishing the regular season in second place the Big West Conference behind Cal Poly. They face the Tar Heels (34-25) in the opening game of the double-elimination regional at 10 AM Friday morning with the game being broadcast on ESPN3. The University of Florida(40-21), the number two seed nationally and host school, plays the College of Charleston (41-17) on the opposite side of the bracket.<\/p>\n

In 2008, the Dirtbags hosted a regional but were sent home early after going 1-2, being eliminated by the University of San Diego 5-1.<\/p>\n

Long Beach, which finished with a record of 32-24, come into the tournament with some momentum having won five games in a row and ten out of their last 11 overall. The entry into the tournament is the first under fourth-year coach Troy Buckley. A video uploaded to YouTube<\/a> Monday captured the team\u2019s excitement when they found out which region they\u2019d be playing in.<\/p>\n

The Big West had four teams earn a bid into the tournament which includes 16 regionals across the country. Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine and Cal Poly, which is one of two schools West of the Rockies hosting a super-regional, join the Dirtbags as representatives of the conference.<\/p>\n

North Carolina and Long Beach have only played each other one other time with the Tar Heels defeating the Dirtbags 7-6 in 1992. While this is the first time Long Beach has made the post-season since 2008, this is UNC\u2019s thirteenth consecutive bid and 29th appearance overall.<\/p>\n

The super-regionals begin June 6 and the College World Series starts June 14 in Omaha, Nebraska. The Dirtbags’ last CWS appearance was in 1998. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long Beach State baseball is returning to post-season play for the first time since 2008 as the team travels to Florida where they\u2019ll take on the University of North Carolina in the Gainesville super-regional Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":16604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[55],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-dirtbags","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=267"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}