Dirtbags
swept, lose ground in standings
By
Karl Peterson
On-line Forty-Niner
The
Long Beach State baseball team was off to
its best conference start in the team’s
history. That was before UC Santa Barbara
came to town.
The
Dirtbags (30-12, 9-3) were swept by the
Gauchos (27-17, 5-7) last weekend at Blair
Field as all three facets of successful
baseball broke down, hitting, pitching and
defense.
Even
the almost unstoppable Jered Weaver had
a tough start. Weaver, who struck out 14
batters passed Rocky Biddle for first on
the career strikeout list at LBSU, was up
4-0 going into the eighth inning. That was
when the wheels fell off the bus.
Weaver
loaded the bases in the eighth and gave
up a grand slam to Chris Malec to tie the
game at four. Brian Anderson relieved Weaver
and did not fare much better. Anderson recorded
the final out in the eighth inning but surrendered
four more runs in the ninth inning, giving
UCSB the 8-4 victory.
It
was the first time the Dirtbags have lost
all season with Weaver on the mound.
Saturday
was more of the same for The Beach. Cesar
Ramos pitched 6 2/3 strong innings with
a career-high 10 strikeouts but allowed
three runs in the seventh inning. The Dirtbags
had been up through the whole game but costly
errors and mental lapses allowed the Gauchos
to come back for the second straight game.
Dirtbag
head coach Mike Weathers said that the team
was let down by the players he expects to
pull the team through the tough stretches
of the season, the seniors. Josh Buhagiar
and Mike Hofius each had errors that allowed
UCSB to extend innings and win the game
and the series.
Weathers
held a long post-game meeting where he told
his players to ask themselves why they lost
focus defensively, lost confidence in throwing
certain pitches and became easy at-bats
late in the game.
The
meeting, however, was not successful as
the Dirtbags lost again Sunday, losing 5-4
in 10 innings.
Nate
Sutton hit a solo home run in the top of
the 10th inning and even though The Beach
loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning,
the team could not score any runs.
“This is a completely different team
from last weekend,” Weathers said.
“They need to remember how they have
played all season.”
Remembering
how they have played all season will be
crucial for postseason success for the Dirtbags.
After the sweep, the team fell to a No.
9-ranking nationally. To be assured of a
home series in the postseason the team needs
to finish in the top eight.
Having
to go on the road could mean that the Dirtbags
may have to travel to Palo Alto to play
No. 1 Stanford, the team that has eliminated
The Beach the past two seasons.
The loss also put the Dirtbags in second
place in the Big West Conference. In one
weekend the team went from one game up on
Cal State Fullerton to two games back with
a crucial three-game series with the Titans
looming May 21-23.
The
Beach is also just one game ahead of UC
Riverside in the conference, which the team
will have to face in two weeks.
The
Dirtbags will host University of Pacific
this weekend with hopes of getting back
on track.
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