Imagine taking a two-month road trip with a couple dozen of your fiercest rivals, with minimal practice time, and facing intense criticism if you come back with anything less than utter domination. A daunting task to be sure, but a Dirtbag is never one to shy away from challenge. <\/p>\n
CSULB baseball head coach Mike Weathers and junior-to-be shortstop Danny Espinosa are spending the summer battling the world’s best competition as members of the U.S. National Team, made up of the best collegiate freshmen and sophomores in the nation. Despite a rocky start, both have been enjoying the opportunity. Weathers was an assistant on the 2003 team, and this year he accepted the role of head coach. “It’s been up and down,” he said in a phone interview from Durham, N.C., where the team spent the week in a series against Japan. “Everything’s on your shoulders [as head coach], but that’s why I wanted this job.” <\/p>\n
Those shoulders have already endured a lot of weight, from his team’s lack of practice – “the team was really thrown together in a short amount of time” – to the varying styles of play from other countries – “Chinese-Taipei and Japan don’t have a lot of strength, so they play very fast ball.” <\/p>\n
Espinosa has learned about the differences in the international game the hard way, starting the summer off hitless through his first twenty at-bats. “It’s been a struggle, hitting-wise,” he said. “The pitchers have different windups and timing. Their style of baseball is a lot quicker, they’re real fast.” <\/p>\n
Despite struggles at the plate, Espinosa has played very well in the field while sharing time with Oklahoma State shortstop Jordy Mercer. Weathers is pleased with Espinosa’s defense, but says he is still waiting for his star to find his swing against tough international pitching. <\/p>\n
The competition isn’t the only challenge for Weathers and the players, who have essentially been playing one marathon season after joining the team immediately following the collegiate season. “We don’t stay at a place for more than one day,” Espinosa says. “Practice every day, game every night. You learn to get comfortable and fall asleep on busses.” <\/p>\n
Weathers notes that the wear and tear affects pitchers the most, who fatigue quickly and lose throwing velocity. “But all of these guys will be professionals one day, so they’re going to have to get used to it eventually.” <\/p>\n
Despite the tough competition, Team USA has improved quickly while gearing up for the Pan-American Games, to be held in Brazil, July 14-19. And while both Weathers and Espinosa are focused on their national duties, the Dirtbags are never far from their minds. Weathers remains in daily contact with his assistants. “It’s like working two full-time jobs,” he says. <\/p>\n
Espinosa insists he isn’t thinking about next season too much, instead focusing on his current play. But he also can’t wait to return to Long Beach to begin gearing up for next season, one that he hopes will be more successful than this year’s NCAA Regional appearance. “I just thought we could’ve gone farther,” he says. <\/p>\n
He’ll be as determined as ever after having to suffer while watching rivals Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine play in the hallowed College World Series. “It was great to have the conference represented with two teams there,” Espinosa says. “But it sucks.” <\/p>\n
For now, though, the two continue their quest to bring Pan-American gold back to the states. They will play in a loaded pool, which includes host country Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua – who defeated the U.S. in 2003. Weathers will have to guide his squad to two wins in those three games to advance to the semifinals. It won’t be easy, but he’s been encouraged lately. <\/p>\n
“They’re coming together as a team really well,” Weathers says. With such a short amount of time with the team, he’ll avoid trying to change the players to fit his strategy. “You don’t want to make them over-think things, so you try to just let their natural ability take over.” <\/p>\n
Far from home, both Dirtbags look forward to representing their program and country while relishing the opportunity they’ve been given. “It’s been a lot of fun,” Espinosa says. “I’m getting to play against the best talent in the world.” <\/p>\n
A scary thought for anyone facing Long Beach next season.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/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-5955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5955","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=5955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5955"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5955"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}