Big
West Champions
By Michael Bower
On-line Forty-Niner
 Jered
Weaver reared back and fired a 97-mile per
hour fastball to strikeout Richie Burgos
in the bottom of the ninth inning Saturday
to give the Dirtbags its first Big West
title in six years.
Weaver
pitched a complete game, and John Bowker
provided two RBIs as the Dirtbags celebrated
a 4-1 victory over the Cal State Fullerton
Titans on Saturday at Goodwin Field in front
of a sellout crowd of 3,501.
“[Weaver]
just dominated,” said Todd Jennings, who
extended his hit streak to 22 games with
a 3-for-5 night. “That is the most fun I
have ever had.”
Abe
Alvarez led the charge out of the dugout
as the Dirtbags celebrated the title on
the mound of their rivals to the chants
of “Long Beach State” from the crowd.
“Oh
my gosh,” Mike Hofius said with a huge smile
on his face. “It feels so awesome. Words
can’t describe how I feel.”
Hofius
said it was great to win the Big West title
on the field of the 49ers’ biggest rivals.
“Especially
after [Friday night],” he said. “It just
made it that much better … They celebrated
[Friday night] and we remembered that.”
Freshman
Troy Tulowitzki said it was the greatest
moment in his baseball career.
“This
is a dream come true … but this is only
our first step. We still have a lot to accomplish,”
Tulowitzki said.
The
Dirtbags failed to get the job done on Friday
night as they suffered a tough-fought 4-3
loss, but Weaver didn’t give the Titans
a chance Saturday.
Weaver
struck out nine and gave up just four hits
as he retired 15 of the last 17 Titans he
faced en route to his 12th win on the year.
“I
felt a lot stronger going into the later
innings,” Weaver said.
Bowker
ripped a home run in the first inning as
Hofius and Chuck Sindlinger added two hits
apiece to provide the offensive firepower.
“It’s
as good as it gets tonight,” Jennings said.
The
Dirtbags now have an excellent chance at
hosting a regional tournament at Blair Field
with the clinching of the team’s sixth-regular
season Big West title.
The
49ers will play host to a three-game series
with the Miami Hurricanes starting Thursday
before the NCAA Regional Tournament begins
on May 30.
Alvarez
and the Dirtbags were at war on the diamond
Friday, and they battled all the way to
the bitter finish.
The
Dirtbags were just seven outs away from
the Big West title before David Fischer
smashed a three-run homer to spark a 4-3,
come-from-behind win for the Titans in front
of 2,923 at Goodwin Field.
The
Dirtbags took a 2-0, lead into the bottom
of the seventh as Alvarez danced his way
out of trouble throughout his six and two-thirds
innings of work.
After
throwing 106 pitches, head coach Mike Weathers
opted to remove Alvarez from the game in
the sixth. Weathers turned to his big right-hander,
Bo Ashabraner, with two outs and runners
on second and third.
Fischer,
who hadn’t had a homer all year coming into
the game, belted Ashabraner’s first pitch
over the right-center field wall, and suddenly
the Dirtbags were trailing, 3-2.
Alvarez’s
reaction to the homer:
“Nothing,”
he said. “That was one pitch. As a Dirtbag
you have to trust yourself and have faith.
That’s what Dirtbags do and that’s what
we did.”
Indeed
that is what they did.
The
Dirtbags came right back and answered the
Titans with a run in the top of the eighth
inning off reliever Chad Cordero. Cordero
had not given up a run in his last 23 innings
before the Dirtbags got to him.
Jennings
ripped a single to leadoff the inning before
he moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by
Travis Udvarhelyi. Bowker then smashed a
double in the left-center field gap to tie
the game, 3-3. Cordero then hit Adam Heether,
but managed to escape the inning without
anymore damage as Hofius struck out and
Tulowitzki flew out.
The
Titans wouldn’t let down though as they
pushed across what proved to be the game
winner in the bottom of the eighth.
Ashabraner
surrendered a one-out triple to Shane Costa,
but with the infield drawn-in Kyle Boyer
grounded to Heether at third base. Heether
gunned down Costa at the plate for the second
out of the inning.
Boyer
managed to steal second base before Ashabraner
issued a two-out walk to P.J. Pilittere.
Burgos made Ashabraner pay with a game-winning
RBI double that never left the ground and
deflected off the glove of Sindlinger at
second base.
The
Dirtbags had their chance in the top of
the ninth inning but they wasted a leadoff
double by Brad Davis. Josh Buhagiar bunted
Davis to third but Cordero got Chris Hanson
to groundout and Jennings to fly out to
end the game.
“We
just didn’t get it done in a situation where
you got to get it done, and they did. That
was the difference in the game,” Weathers
said.
The
Dirtbags took an early 2-0 lead in the second
inning. Tulowitzki and Davis hit back-to-back
singles and with two outs Tulowitzki scored
from third on a passed ball. Sindlinger
then singled in Davis.
Ashabraner
took the loss for the Dirtbags as Cordero
picked up the win for the Titans.
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