Dirtbags
back on track in Big West
Jered Weaver
Cesar Ramos
Baseball:
Strong pitching helps the baseball team
get well in a sweep of University of Pacific
and a midweek win at Pepperdine after being
swept by UC Santa Barbara.
By
Michael Bower
On-line Forty-Niner
The
Dirtbags may have hit the lowest of the
lows after being swept at home against the
UC Santa Barbara Gauchos a week ago, but
the team has rebounded with four-straight
wins.
The
Dirtbags produced a three-game sweep over
the Pacific Tigers last weekend at Blair
Field and a 13-10 victory over the Pepperdine
Waves last Tuesday.
The
Dirtbags (34-12, 12-3) have now won four
Big West Conference series and 14 overall.
The team is one game out of first place
after the Cal State Fullerton Titans (13-2)
took two out of three from UC Riverside
(9-6).
The
final six conference games will be crucial
to the Dirtbags’ chances at defending
the Big West Conference Championship and
they won’t be easy. The Dirtbags will
travel to third place UC Riverside this
weekend and then host a three-game series
against the Titans beginning May 21.
The
No. 8 Dirtbags were powered by strong starting
pitching all weekend long. Jered Weaver,
who struck out a Long Beach State single-game
record 17 batters, hurled a complete game
Friday night, Cesar Ramos went 8 2/3 innings
Saturday and Jason Vargas followed with
8 innings of six-hit baseball Sunday. The
only run given up in the three-game series
came off Vargas. The Tigers (18-28, 3-12)
managed just 12 hits in three games.
The
only problem with the Dirtbag starters hurling
into the late innings is getting the bullpen
some work, head coach Mike Weathers said.
Weathers pulled Ramos, who had thrown 115
pitches, in the ninth inning of Saturday’s
game with two outs just to get the closer,
Neil Jamison, some work.
“We
don’t want our bullpen to get cold,”
Weathers said. “[Pitching coach Troy]
Buckley and I decided that Jamsion needed
to get some work.”
The
Dirtbags still looked a bit sluggish at
the plate compared to a couple of weeks
ago but did enough to get the job done against
the last place Tigers. Mike Hofius extended
his hitting streak to 14 games with a 2-for-3
performance Sunday, while Vargas, after
being pitched around for most of the series,
ripped a two-run double Saturday to put
the Dirtbags up, 4-0. In all, the Dirtbags
pounded out 28 hits over the three games,
with 15 of those hits coming Sunday.
Weaver
continues to draw national attention to
the Dirtbag program. He has been featured
in USA Today, Sports Illustrated, the Los
Angeles Times and Friday ABC had a cameraman
out to catch a glimpse of “The Dream.”
“It’s
pretty sweet,” said Weaver of all
the attention. “I really haven’t
taken it in yet.”
Weaver
did not disappoint any of the 1,498 fans
or the ABC cameraman as he cruised to his
13th win of the season, behind a two-hit
17-strikeout performance in a 3-0 Dirtbag
victory at Blair Field Friday night.
It
has become a tradition to hear the crowd
chant “Weaver! Weaver!” every
time he has two strikes on a hitter. Some
members in the crowd are waving shovels
in the air every time Weaver gets two strikes
on a hitter, and if Weaver strikes the hitter
out they make a digging motion and pretend
to throw the dirt away.
“It’s
awesome,” Weaver said of the crowd.
“It really pumps me up.”
The
Dirtbags scored two runs in the second inning
and one run in third inning, but the offense
sputtered out after that. Josh Bugagiar
had a RBI single, and a throwing error by
the Tigers put the Dirtbags on top, 2-0.
Hofius then hit a sacrifice fly in the third
to finish the scoring.
“I
think we stayed in the game and swung the
bats well in the beginning,” Weathers
said. “We didn’t swing the bats
so well in the end though. I think we had
too many easy outs.”
Weathers
said he thinks the team is hitting too many
fly balls and they need to hit more line
drives and ground balls to be successful
at Blair Field, which is one of the hardest
parks in all of college baseball to hit
home runs at.
Saturday
was more of the same on the mound as Ramos
(9-3) gave up just three hits and struck
out eight in a 5-0 Dirtbag win.
Hofius
and Brad Davis hit back-to-back singles
to put the Dirtbags up 2-0 in the fourth
inning. Buhagiar finished the game 2-for-3,
while Davis had two hits and an RBI.
Sunday
Vargas fired off a six-hitter in eight innings
of work on the mound as the offense helped
with 15 hits in a 6-1, victory.
Troy
Tulowitzki had three hits while Hofius,
Travis Udvarhelyi, Danny Mocny and Sean
Boatright each had multi-hit games.
The
Dirtbags will continue its quest to defend
the Big West Conference crown on Friday
at 7 p.m. for the first of a three-game
series against host UC Riverside Highlanders.
|
