Dirtbags Baseball - Long Beach State 49ers

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Friday, March 25, 2005

What A Night!

Here's the links on the Dirtbags' series opening 3-2 victory over the No. 1 ranked Cal. State Fullerton Titans last night:

LongBeachState.com Story
Long Beach Press-Telegram
Daily Breeze
Orange Co. Register
L. A. Times
Fullerton website
Box Score

Cesar Ramos pitched another gem for the win, throwing 108 pitches in the complete game victory. Cesar, now 5-3 with a 1.70 ERA, struck out 8 while walking 2 and allowing only 2 hits...the last quite a feat against a team with a team batting average now standing at .345. This is the second week in a row Cesar has triumphed over a preseason 1st team All-American. Last week it was Mike Pelfrey of Wichita State, and this Ricky Romero of the Titans. Cesar has now tied Abe Alvarez for the most wins in Long Beach State history by a left handed pitchers (23).

But the big surprise of the evening was the return to the lineup of ss Troy Tulowitzki, who was not expected to be activated until April 1 against UC Riverside. In fact the starting lineup included Danny Mocny at 3rd base, and Sean Boatright in center field, in addition to Tulo, putting the team at full strength for the first time since the 1st game of the season on January 28 against Arizona State. Apparently, Tulo's return came as something of a surprise to Coach Mike Weathers. This is from the Press-Telegram article:

Dirtbags head coach Mike Weathers didn't come to Blair expecting Tulowitzki to play.

"I drew up five lineups and he wasn't in any of them," Weathers said. "He hit off the tee well yesterday and was good in the cage today, and he wanted to play. All I said was, 'Don't kid me."

"You could tell he gave us a lift. Everything was a different situation. If you had been here in the dugout, you would have seen how the team fed off his presence."

This team performed remarkably well with so much of it's offensive talent on the sidelines with injuries, going 16-9 against the 6th toughest schedule in Division I, and sitting at 27th in RPI. Now everyone, including the 'Bags preseason 1st team All-American shortstop, is back and well positioned to make a heck of a run as they finish up their non-conference schedule.

But first, mark down game 1 as a win over the Titans. Tonight, let's get game 2!

posted on 3/25/2005 by Jeff Agnew

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