It’s been a big week for the Long Beach State Dirtbags as they nearly swept UCLA, but for the 15-17 Dirtbags, it’s been anything but an uplifting season
Just when you thought the Long Beach State Dirtbags were showing signs of life as they took two of three from the UCLA Bruins, they turn around and lose to Loyola Marymount Tuesday night and the first of three to UC Davis Friday night.
The Dirtbags may be on the verge of silencing their critics but will have to play more like the team of last weekend rather than the team of Tuesday night – the time is now if any major move is going to be made. With the exception of two games versus San Diego, from this point on it is all Big West as conference play gets into the thick of things.
CSULB will play the second of a 6-game stretch of Big West opponents Saturday at UC Davis. Despite the 15-17 overall record, the Dirtbags are 2-2 in conference play and are facing an Aggies team that has struggled in the Big West for a 2-7 conference record so far this season. The momentum of back-to-back series wins which includes UCLA and the UC Davis struggles may be the perfect recipe for the Dirtbags to get some sort of chemistry going heading down the stretch.
Lost through the roller coaster of a season and inconsistent play is members of the Long Beach State Dirtbags have made the headlines recently. Junior outfielder Richard Prigatano was named Big West Player of the Week following his second consecutive week with six RBIs, he added another one Friday – raising his season total to 28 for third in the conference.
With a stellar 6-12 weekend against the Bruins and a 3-4 performance Friday night, Prigatano also raised his batting average to .342. Prigatano also leads the team with 13 stolen bases. Between the efforts from Prigatano and the solid pitching from Andrew Rohrbach I may be the first person to eat my words and say this season is not over just yet.
Another Dirtbag who is making headlines is senior Ino Patron. Patron collected his 199th career hit – with CSULB – Tuesday night against Loyola Marymount and with just one more hit Patron will join an elite club of only 11 players to ever notch 200 hits in their Long Beach State baseball career. With five more hits Patron will rank eighth and could very well find himself near the top of that list as the season’s just a couple games over the midway point.
Finally, head coach Troy Buckley hit the century mark last weekend with career wins 100 and 101 to bring his 4-year record with the Dirtbags to 101-97 including a 44-35 record in the Big West.
While at times in the season it seems the Dirtbags are headed for another disappointing year, they find a way to fade those thoughts out with flashes of stellar outings. The season truly isn’t over until the final game reaches the ninth inning and with a new found identity in recent weeks the 2014 season may just be getting started.
Remaining games for Long Beach State @ UC Davis:
Saturday 4/12 – 1p
Sunday 4/13 – 1p
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