THE BEACH COUNTS ON CORDER AND LIEBEL IN A MUST WIN SHUTDOWN OF SANTA BARBARA
The ever changing Dirtbag baseball experience has some constants and last night the remarkable Andrew Liebel (the family doesn’t like Damian Devil, Count Dirtbagula or similar monsters of the night who eat opposing batters) was constant again. And quick. And a friend to fans and infielders. A mere 2 hours and twelve minutes after he began, Liebel had put the 30-win and very game Gauchos down 3-0 and helped the Beach boys up their record to 29-17 and now all alone in third place in the Big West standings… A week ago, Liebel worked a crisp 2:35 at Davis while Jason Corder belted his 12th homer of the season. Corder hit his 13th last night--a crusher that hungover golfers at Big Rec’s number 14 likely found this morning. Granted the hit parade was only slightly longer than Tuesday’s three-hit vic over Fresno, five knocks including the Big Fly from the 6-2, 205 Cal transfer; but Liebel won a first-class pitcher's duel with Santa Barbara starter Mike Ford who also allowed only five hits. The difference was two fold, a lot of glove love from the Dirtbag double pay guys (three twin killings) and the one bad pitch Ford gave up to Corder in the third. UCSB fell to 30-18 overall, 9-7 BW and is joined in a fourth place tie with Davis and UCI.
The scoring summary is short and sweet, at least for the homeboys who feel a sense of urgency in these final days of the 2008 campaign. The Dirtbags jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first when Jonathan Jones, nearly decapitated Ford with a single through the box. Tinoco blew a bunt but Corder's infield grounder advanced Jones to second setting up cleanup hitter Shane Peterson for his 44th RBI when he singled opposite field. In the third with two outs, Tinoco singled and unlike the timid USC coach Mike Gillespie SB skipper, Bob Brontsema of the Gauchos pitched to Corder and he sent the Rawlings orb deep into the night. Corder's shot broke a tie with Gaucho left fielder Mike Zuanich for the Big West lead. The rest of the night belonged to Liebel and the defense. ”Andrew works so fast,” Weathers would comment post-game ”that our defense really gets into a rhythm.” In the fourth, Liebel got his three outs on just four pitches but the web gems on defense (three double plays, a 5-4-3, and two 6-4-3s) combined with the amazing arm of Travis Howell (he has nailed 17 of 34 would be stealers) to break the Gaucho heart.
BIG BANG DUST--Liebel faced only three batters over the minimum and recorded his second consecutive complete game shutout…write that down pro scouts…SB’s Mario Hollands (6-2, 2.97) battles Dirtbag Vance Worley (5-3, 4.40) a bit up and down of late…his first win was over Wichita State but he pitched well against Rice…effective at USC then a CG 10-3 win over UCLA, problems at Cal and UCR, another CG in a 5-1 vic over UCI but troubled in 3.2 at UOP and effective until the seventh at Davis …Liebel threw 73 pitches over the first five but only 36 over the final four innings…”we had him down for about 15 more pitches, but I was glad to see him finish.” Weathers noted…the game time did not please any of the blue and greys and the guys in white shirts…the white shirts, the concessionaires, that hope fireworks and Mother’s Day will up the sales totals…more Corder time, he is the eighth LBSU player to hit 20 or more home runs in his career…the tin man, Steve Tinoco, had two of the Dirtbags five hits…Ford (5-4) went all eight innings for the Gauchos, striking out eight… LB, 18-5 at home this season, travel to SDSU (not Frat Row we hope) Tuesday for a six p.m. first pitch and then head up the Central Coast to Cal Poly next weekend…new on the golf front is an Eastern guy, William Poutre, formerly the top guy at the University of Hartford…he was selected as the America East Conference Coach of the Year in 2006 and 2007…his 2007 recruit class included the No. 51 and No. 115 recruits in the Golfweek World Junior Rankings….the tennis team threw out the first pitch last night, but the No. 37-ranked Niners lost to No. 28-ranked Denver in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at UCLA….on the campus diamond Long Beach earned its 18th trip to the NCAA Regionals Friday with a 5-0 win over Pacific in game two of a DH…despite healing from a groin pull, Brooke Turner added to her win record…she and team mates will TV huddle with ESPNU Sunday at 7 p.m. for their destination...around the rest of the Large West the favorites all advanced, Fullerton played tag with SLO but ended up on top 6-4, Irvine dumped Pacific 9-1, and Riverside came back to beat UC Davis 7-6—DR. DAN.
The scoring summary is short and sweet, at least for the homeboys who feel a sense of urgency in these final days of the 2008 campaign. The Dirtbags jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first when Jonathan Jones, nearly decapitated Ford with a single through the box. Tinoco blew a bunt but Corder's infield grounder advanced Jones to second setting up cleanup hitter Shane Peterson for his 44th RBI when he singled opposite field. In the third with two outs, Tinoco singled and unlike the timid USC coach Mike Gillespie SB skipper, Bob Brontsema of the Gauchos pitched to Corder and he sent the Rawlings orb deep into the night. Corder's shot broke a tie with Gaucho left fielder Mike Zuanich for the Big West lead. The rest of the night belonged to Liebel and the defense. ”Andrew works so fast,” Weathers would comment post-game ”that our defense really gets into a rhythm.” In the fourth, Liebel got his three outs on just four pitches but the web gems on defense (three double plays, a 5-4-3, and two 6-4-3s) combined with the amazing arm of Travis Howell (he has nailed 17 of 34 would be stealers) to break the Gaucho heart.
BIG BANG DUST--Liebel faced only three batters over the minimum and recorded his second consecutive complete game shutout…write that down pro scouts…SB’s Mario Hollands (6-2, 2.97) battles Dirtbag Vance Worley (5-3, 4.40) a bit up and down of late…his first win was over Wichita State but he pitched well against Rice…effective at USC then a CG 10-3 win over UCLA, problems at Cal and UCR, another CG in a 5-1 vic over UCI but troubled in 3.2 at UOP and effective until the seventh at Davis …Liebel threw 73 pitches over the first five but only 36 over the final four innings…”we had him down for about 15 more pitches, but I was glad to see him finish.” Weathers noted…the game time did not please any of the blue and greys and the guys in white shirts…the white shirts, the concessionaires, that hope fireworks and Mother’s Day will up the sales totals…more Corder time, he is the eighth LBSU player to hit 20 or more home runs in his career…the tin man, Steve Tinoco, had two of the Dirtbags five hits…Ford (5-4) went all eight innings for the Gauchos, striking out eight… LB, 18-5 at home this season, travel to SDSU (not Frat Row we hope) Tuesday for a six p.m. first pitch and then head up the Central Coast to Cal Poly next weekend…new on the golf front is an Eastern guy, William Poutre, formerly the top guy at the University of Hartford…he was selected as the America East Conference Coach of the Year in 2006 and 2007…his 2007 recruit class included the No. 51 and No. 115 recruits in the Golfweek World Junior Rankings….the tennis team threw out the first pitch last night, but the No. 37-ranked Niners lost to No. 28-ranked Denver in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at UCLA….on the campus diamond Long Beach earned its 18th trip to the NCAA Regionals Friday with a 5-0 win over Pacific in game two of a DH…despite healing from a groin pull, Brooke Turner added to her win record…she and team mates will TV huddle with ESPNU Sunday at 7 p.m. for their destination...around the rest of the Large West the favorites all advanced, Fullerton played tag with SLO but ended up on top 6-4, Irvine dumped Pacific 9-1, and Riverside came back to beat UC Davis 7-6—DR. DAN.
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