|
Dirtbags
follow playoff dreams to Omaha Friday
By
Trent Loomis
Online Forty-Niner
Despite
being swept by third ranked Miami this past
weekend, the Dirtbags look forward to begining
post-season play at Palo Alto in the NCAA
regional tournament, which starts Friday.
The
Hurricanes (44-11) not only took the three-game
series from the 12-ranked Dirtbags (36-19)
who have lost a season-high seven games
in a row, the most since 1988, but were
successful in handing staff ace Jared Weaver
his first loss of the season.
The
series started last Thursday with Golden
Spikes nominee and undefeated (14-0) staff
ace Jared Weaver and it ended with three
straight loses 8-5, 7-3, 7-6 eventually
handing Weaver his first loss in almost
a year.
Although
they were swept, they put together quality
games losing only two of the three in the
late innings.
Oddly
enough, the only game where Dirtbags played
poorly was the first game in which Weaver
pitched.
The
dependable right-hander who has been the
most dominating player in college baseball
this year gave up season highs in runs (7),
hits (8) and walks (4), while striking out
11.
The
No. 12-ranked Dirtbags (36-19) will be headed
back to Palo Alto for the fourth straight
year and fifth time over LBSU's last six
playoff appearances, when they open up NCAA
Regional play with third-seeded St. John's
(36-21) on Friday June 5 at 2 p.m. Top-ranked,
top-seeded and No. 5 national seeded Stanford
(44-12) hosts fourth-seeded UNLV at 6 p.m.
"I
like our chances, this is a good team and
we have accomplished a lot. These guys are
looking forward to the post-season,"
said Head Coach Mike Weathers, whose team
lost two games in the Super Regional last
year, after reaching the NCAA Regional finals
in 2002. "Though we would rather host,
it's a positive that a lot of our fans and
familes can follow us up North."
"I
think it would be different if we played
poorly in the last seven, but we didn't
play that bad. We just had some bad breaks"
said Weathers. "It was not how bad
we played, it was just that the losses set
us up in this position. (The losing streak)
is not that big of a concern."
|
