Dirtbags Baseball - Long Beach State 49ers

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Friday, April 08, 2005

Dirtbags Take On UC Irvine Anteaters This Weekend

The pre-series release at LongBeachState.com is here in html, and here in pdf. UC Irvine's series outlook is on their main page here.

The Long Beach Press-Telegram has this today:

Dirtbag's bullpen full of aces

Ramos to take the mound vs. UC Irvine tonight.

By Bob Keisser
Staff writer

The Dirtbags' good pitching apparently is contagious.

In their first midweek game in a month Tuesday, head coach Mike Weathers used seven pitchers in a 2-1 win over UCLA, and only one of them is a member of the Big Five.

Weathers got work for Donnie Hume, Cody Evans, Matt Fitts, Steve Hammond, Brett Andrade and Andrew Liebel in addition to one inning (and a win) for closer Neil Jamison.

The Dirtbags thus go into their Big West weekend series at UC Irvine starting tonight flush with arms. They've ascended to No. 13 in the weekly Collegiate Baseball poll and are now 22-10 on the season and 3-0 in the Big west, with 17 wins in their last 21 games.

The team has a season ERA of 2.11. Tonight's starter, Cesar Ramos, has thrown three straight complete games and is 6-3 with a 1.61 ERA. Saturday starter Marco Estrada is 5-0 and 1.83, and Sunday starter Jared Hughes 3-2 and 3.20.

Closer Jamison (3-0, eight saves) and setup man Brian Anderson (3-0) combined have allowed two runs, just one earned, all season.

The Dirtbags will need to pitch well against the Anteaters, whose 14-13 record on the season is misleading. They rank third in the conference in pitching and fourth in hitting, swept then-No. 9 Washington and took two of three from Cal, a team that swept the Dirtbags back in February.

First-year coach Dave Serrano, the long-time former aide to Cal State Fullerton and head coach George Horton, was caught short in arms early in the season when two players were KO'd by injuries. He's been forced to use his All-American closer, Blair Erickson (1.06 ERA, five saves, 28 strikeouts in 17 innings), in spots other than closer.

Tonight's starter Chris Nicoll (4-1, 2.28) is coming off a one run, three-hit win against Fullerton, and Justin Cassell (3-2, 3.88) is coming off a complete game loss against the Titans. Serrano hasn't announced Sunday's starter as of yet, but Steve Schroer, who posted a 1.23 ERA in seven-plus innings of work last week, is a candidate.

The Anteaters are led by senior Jaime Martinez (.346, two home runs, 20 RBI), catcher Mark Wagner (.346) and Matt Anderson. Wagner, who starred at Mayfair, was 7 for 12 last week, while Anderson, a standout at Millikan, was 7 for 16.

posted on 4/08/2005 by Jeff Agnew

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