May 5, 2008

LONG BEACH--Long Beach State Baseball (27-17, 9-6 Big West) will host Fresno State (28-23) on Tuesday at an earlier than scheduled 6 p.m. start time, as they hit the home stretch of the season playing eight of their final 12 games at home, beginning with four this week. LBSU lost the earlier meeting at Fresno State, 7-6 ending the team's 10-game road trip and going 1-9 on one of their longest road trips in school history.

RHP Brett Lorin (2-3, 2.96) is slated to start for The Beach, while the Bulldogs have not announced a starter. Lorin will be making his fifth start of the year as he had four shutout innings two weeks ago against Pacific and did not pitch last weekend in the series against UC Davis, which LBSU lost two of three.

The Bulldogs, after splitting with New Mexico State last weekend, remain in first place in the Mountain West Conference (16-8). Fresno comes in having lost six of their last eight. The Bulldogs are just 8-14 away from Fresno, and are led by 1B Alan Ahmady's .376 average and 60 RBIs, and 2B Erik Wetzel's .372 average and 67 runs. The team posts a 4.72 ERA and a .296 batting average.

Shane Peterson is making a run at Player of the Year honors, as he ranks fourth in the Big West in batting, at .377, is second in slugging percentage (.599) to teammate Jason Corder (.681), first in on-base percentage (.490) and walks (34), sixth in RBIs (43), seventh in doubles (13) and fourth in homers (7). On the mound, the Dirtbags counter with a 3.32 ERA, the second-best ERA in the conference.

Corder's 12 home runs is the most for an LBSU player since Jaeme Leal's school-record 24 in 1999. It is tied for the 10th-best single season total in school-history. Corder is batting .340 overall with a team-best 47 RBIs.

Rylan Sandoval got his first starts at third base over the past two weekends and is hitting .317, while 2B Jason Tweedy has returned after missing 18 games (hand) to bat .329.

There is a log jam in the Big West Conference as three weeks remain in the regular season, as CS Fullerton leads the pack with a 13-5 record, followed by UC Riverside (10-5), who are 1.5 games back. Three teams are 9-6, including LBSU, UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara, who the Dirtbags play this weekend. UC Irvine is 8-7.

The Dirtbags are 17-5 at home this season, and 10-12 away from Blair Field. LBSU will play eight of their final 12 at home, facing UCSB this weekend, playing at Cal Poly in two weekends and finishing with the Titans at Blair Field. LBSU is just 4-7 in weekday games this season, going 4-2 at home.

Friday's opener is at 6:30 p.m., followed by a 6 p.m. game on Saturday and Sunday finale at 1 p.m. against the surprising second place Gauchos.

According to Boydsworld.com, which closely predicts the final RPI determined to announce the 64-team NCAA Regional field, the Dirtbags have an RPI of No. 39. Among opponents, Rice is No. 5, the Titans are No. 13, UCI is No. 20, California is No. 22, Wichita State is No. 27 and San Diego is No. 29. The Dirtbags are 6-6 against those six teams.

Prior to the weekend, Rivals.com and Baseball America projected regional fields, with the Dirtbags headed to Stanford, along with Eastern Michigan and Santa Clara in Rivals predictions and to Oregon State along with Oklahoma and Canisius in Baseball America's projection.

A number of anniversaries have occurred during the season, with the City of Long Beach celebrating another one on Saturday, May 10 when the team's second game of a three-game series with UC Santa Barbara, was moved back to accommodate a fireworks show following the game. May 10, 1958 was when Blair Field was officially dedicated, as the first game was played on April 11 and the first college game was played on April 15, 50 years ago. The 2008 season is also the 15th Anniversary of the team's 1993 run towards Omaha, featuring Jeff Liefer, all-time saves leader Gabe Gonzalez and Daniel Choi; and the 10th Anniversary of the 1998 College World Series team, which featured the most prolific hitting team in school-history. Thirty-five years ago on March 31, 1973 Ruben Patron pitched a school-record 20 innings in the longest game in school-history.