<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
Fresh off their Monday win, the Dirtbags return to Blair to continue Big West play, hosting Cal State Northridge for three games. <\/span>The ‘Bags and the Matadors each need a series win to keep pace in the league, coming in at seventh and eighth in the early part of the league season. The first game is scheduled for Friday, with first pitch at 6:30 p.m., followed by two more afternoon contests at 2 p.m. and 1 p.m.<\/p>\n Then the Dirtbags, while having played on local television before, get their first national exposure of the 2009 season on the road next Tuesday when the team plays San Diego State. Carried on CBS College Sports, the Dirtbags will look to avenge a April 7 loss to the Aztecs, a 4-3 defeat at Blair Field. The Aztecs have become a national storyline due to head coach Tony Gywnn along with ace Stephen Strasburg, the hard-throwing righty presumed to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 MLB draft.<\/p>\n Scouting Cal State Northridge <\/b><\/p>\n Cal State Northridge begins the week with a 15-20 record. The team started out the year with series losses against ranked teams in Pepperdine and San Jose State, but took a game from each team. That has continued to be the way that the Matadors have played in conference play, as the team defeated UC Santa Barbara in a three-game series and took the Friday game from Cal State Fullerton for their three wins in league, having been swept at Cal Poly in the team’s other Big West series in 2009. Todd Eskelin leads the batters with a .386 average, and when light-hitting Jeff Pruitt (.240) gets on base, he is a threat; Pruitt leads the league with 19 stolen bases in 20 attempts.<\/p>\n Long Beach State vs. the Matadors <\/b><\/p>\n Long Beach State holds a 63-52 edge in the all-time series between the clubs, a common opponent even before the teams each joined the Big West, guaranteeing yearly play. Since 1989, the Dirtbags still hold the edge at about the same rate, ahead 27-15.<\/p>\n Dirtbag Era <\/b><\/p>\n Long Beach State will recognize the beginning of an era, as the team honors the 1989 squad with a reunion and presentation on Saturday, April 18. In head coach Dave Snow’s first season with the team, the nomadic “Dirtbags” practiced on an all-dirt field and set a school record with 50 wins and went to the program’s very-first College World Series.<\/p>\n Looking Ahead <\/b><\/p>\n The Dirtbags are a tradition in style, but also have a tradition at the next level of producing MLB talent. The latest, Evan Longoria, will be immortalized on May 2 when the team gives away Longoria bobbleheads to the first 1,000 fans in the ballpark when the team plays UC Davis. Longoria won the AL Rookie of the Year award in 2008, helping lead the Tampa Bay Rays all the way to the World Series after clinching the AL East pennant.<\/p>\n Keeping It Small <\/b><\/p>\n Dirtbag Baseball has always been about doing the little things, and Long Beach State has filled its quota this year. In the most recent NCAA statistics, Long Beach State is 11th in the nation in stolen bases with 73, and is 11th in the country in sacrifice bunts with 38 on the year. Just halfway through the year, the team already has their sights set on the Long Beach State stolen base record, 123 bags in 1980.<\/p>\n JJ at the Top <\/b><\/p>\n After a slow start, Jonathan Jones has put together a monster March and April, recovering in part due to a move back to the top of the lineup where the sophomore found success as a freshman. Jones tied a season-best with a 12-game hitting streak, and is batting .373 as the leadoff batter, reaching base at a .442 rate and hitting five doubles and 12 RBI.<\/p>\n Tinoco’s Turnaround <\/b><\/p>\n Steve Tinoco was another player who had a slow start, but one big game picked him up. The Sunday show at South Carolina, where Tinoco was 5-for-5 with three home runs kick-started the junior’s season. Since that point, he is hitting .412, slugging .725, and has driven in 10 runs in just 13 games played due to injury.<\/p>\n The Truly Big West <\/b><\/p>\n The Big West is living up to its reputation as one of the best college baseball conferences in the nation. The league has three teams currently ranked, has seen as many as five in the Top 25, and currently ranks fourth in conference RPI. In fact, as many as seven teams in the nine-team league have a chance at claiming a post-season berth.<\/p>\n Around The League <\/b><\/p>\n UC Irvine has a healthy lead in the standings, up three games on nearly the rest of the conference. However, the Anteaters surprisingly don’t lead the league in many categories. Cal Poly leads most of the offensive statistics, while Cal State Fullerton has the lead in ERA and strikeouts. Long Beach State’s 75 stolen bases lead the conference, the only team category that they lead.<\/i><\/p>\n From LBSU reports<\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The LBSU full report in advance of the Dirtbags’ big series this weekend against Northridge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"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":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4157","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4157"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=4157"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}