FROM THE BACK OF THE PACK: MATS AND BAGS REV UP FOR A BWC TROPHY DASH
Steve Rousey has been a fan favorite in 49er-ville for fifteen years. It started back in 1993 when he tutored the pitchers for Coach Dave Snow. Those teams claimed two Big West titles, made three regional appearances and the College World Series semis behind NCAA Pitcher of the Year Daniel Choi and a staff that was first nationally in saves (21) and second in strikeouts (528.) Choi dropped off the map (at least the North American version) for life back home in Korea but Rousey soldiered on to Northridge under Mike Batesole who, after two years left the job for him and went to some place called Fresno State.
Steve was popular in his LBSU days and it is not unreasonable to suggest, that coming into Blair with a woeful record of 131-239 has added to the warm fuzzies from 49er fans. So this weekend will his red and black just relax and enjoy the distant roar of the Grand Prix engines? Not so fast my friend. LBSU is among six teams with but four losses in conference and everybody else has more than that. The early leader is the CWS-hungry marsupials from UC Irvine, 8-1 but in that all important loss column think what another Niner seven game win steak would do. CSUN has a series win over UCSB and took a Friday game from Fullerton. The Beach pitching rotation got tweaked again. Tonight is reliable Adam Wilk (4-1, 3.02) up against Ryan Juarez (4-2, 5.48), Saturday CSUN starts Justen Gorski (1-2, 3.05) to test LB rookie Andrew Gagnon (2-4, 4.97) and on Sunday CSUN has Billy Ott (1-2, 7.07) against Jake Thompson (2-5, 5.74). Last weekend Jake was sick (a bunch of meds and a trip to the ER.). On Tuesday CSUN used six pitchers who allowed only seven hits in a win over lowly CS Bakersfield (8-24) by a score of 3-1. Meanwhile at the U with a View (Pepperdine) 21-14, Weathers and staff used six of their own, gave up 11 hits but got a 5-4 W. The key ingredient was perfect defense that broke the Waves and ended LB’s five game losing streak. The kind of medicine the Dirtbag machine needs for the stretch drive.
LEFT TURN DUST—The next three weekends are not exactly high octane foes, Northridge 15-20, Pacific 13-18 and UC Davis 6-25…series wins if not a sweep or two seem mandatory…two special events coming up, tomorrow will be a 20-year reunion celebration for the 1989 Dirtbag team, and Sunday's game is Dirtbags Breast Cancer Awareness day…for the TIVO/VCR crowd you can tape the Sweethearts of Swat when softball hosts a double header tomorrow and baseball Tuesday at SDSU…more speed, The D Bags run a lot but the best I the BWS is CSUN’s Jeff Pruitt 19 stolen bases in 20 attempts...Long Beach State is 11th in the nation in stolen bases with 73, and is 11th in the country in sacrifice bunts with 38…the LB stolen base record is 123 (1980)…impressive also is that of the top three hitters, Steve Tinoco (.343), Brian Metzger (.340) and Jonathan Jones (.330) Tinoco and Jones have perfect fielding percentages…ironically former Long Beach State pitcher Jered Weaver was supposed to help fellow teammate Nick Adenhart move in with him last Sunday...if you go by a Wells Fargo branch you can join me in a small donation to Benefit Fund for ex-Titan Jon Wilhite, it is account #3980643658…from the chat rooms, Maxpreps selected the best ever baseball player from each state and Alaskan Chad Bentz (LBSU 2000-01) made the list…Chad was the second pitcher, after Jim Abbott, to play in the Majors after being born without one of his hands…those coin collecting Niner athletes in the stands turned in an impressive $2,109 most of it headed to the Miller Children’s hospital…expect concession prices to drop this summer since the Armada got a judgment in their favor from a lawsuit versus Jose Canseco for an amount of $258,750…collecting, hummm…Closing Quote from the City of Long Beach Director of Golf Bob Livingstone who’s favorite definition of the sport is “An ineffectual endeavor attempting to get an insignificant pellet into an obscure hole with entirely inadequate weapons.” DR. DAN
Steve was popular in his LBSU days and it is not unreasonable to suggest, that coming into Blair with a woeful record of 131-239 has added to the warm fuzzies from 49er fans. So this weekend will his red and black just relax and enjoy the distant roar of the Grand Prix engines? Not so fast my friend. LBSU is among six teams with but four losses in conference and everybody else has more than that. The early leader is the CWS-hungry marsupials from UC Irvine, 8-1 but in that all important loss column think what another Niner seven game win steak would do. CSUN has a series win over UCSB and took a Friday game from Fullerton. The Beach pitching rotation got tweaked again. Tonight is reliable Adam Wilk (4-1, 3.02) up against Ryan Juarez (4-2, 5.48), Saturday CSUN starts Justen Gorski (1-2, 3.05) to test LB rookie Andrew Gagnon (2-4, 4.97) and on Sunday CSUN has Billy Ott (1-2, 7.07) against Jake Thompson (2-5, 5.74). Last weekend Jake was sick (a bunch of meds and a trip to the ER.). On Tuesday CSUN used six pitchers who allowed only seven hits in a win over lowly CS Bakersfield (8-24) by a score of 3-1. Meanwhile at the U with a View (Pepperdine) 21-14, Weathers and staff used six of their own, gave up 11 hits but got a 5-4 W. The key ingredient was perfect defense that broke the Waves and ended LB’s five game losing streak. The kind of medicine the Dirtbag machine needs for the stretch drive.
LEFT TURN DUST—The next three weekends are not exactly high octane foes, Northridge 15-20, Pacific 13-18 and UC Davis 6-25…series wins if not a sweep or two seem mandatory…two special events coming up, tomorrow will be a 20-year reunion celebration for the 1989 Dirtbag team, and Sunday's game is Dirtbags Breast Cancer Awareness day…for the TIVO/VCR crowd you can tape the Sweethearts of Swat when softball hosts a double header tomorrow and baseball Tuesday at SDSU…more speed, The D Bags run a lot but the best I the BWS is CSUN’s Jeff Pruitt 19 stolen bases in 20 attempts...Long Beach State is 11th in the nation in stolen bases with 73, and is 11th in the country in sacrifice bunts with 38…the LB stolen base record is 123 (1980)…impressive also is that of the top three hitters, Steve Tinoco (.343), Brian Metzger (.340) and Jonathan Jones (.330) Tinoco and Jones have perfect fielding percentages…ironically former Long Beach State pitcher Jered Weaver was supposed to help fellow teammate Nick Adenhart move in with him last Sunday...if you go by a Wells Fargo branch you can join me in a small donation to Benefit Fund for ex-Titan Jon Wilhite, it is account #3980643658…from the chat rooms, Maxpreps selected the best ever baseball player from each state and Alaskan Chad Bentz (LBSU 2000-01) made the list…Chad was the second pitcher, after Jim Abbott, to play in the Majors after being born without one of his hands…those coin collecting Niner athletes in the stands turned in an impressive $2,109 most of it headed to the Miller Children’s hospital…expect concession prices to drop this summer since the Armada got a judgment in their favor from a lawsuit versus Jose Canseco for an amount of $258,750…collecting, hummm…Closing Quote from the City of Long Beach Director of Golf Bob Livingstone who’s favorite definition of the sport is “An ineffectual endeavor attempting to get an insignificant pellet into an obscure hole with entirely inadequate weapons.” DR. DAN
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