HEAD ON A SWIVEL BEACH BOYS AND GIRLS IN REFLECTION AND ACTION

Today’s reading of your Diamond Dust is part looking back and part looking forward.

For the looking back set your time machine to Thanksgiving Day, 1887. In Chicago a groups of pals were hanging out in the gymnasium of the Farragut Boat Club listening to the Harvard-Yale football game. Adult beverages consumed, historians say that , “a man picked up a stray boxing glove and threw it at someone, who hit it with a pole and someone shouted, "Let's play ball!"

The boxing glove was then tied in a fashion to resemble a ball, the lads chalked a small diamond on the gym floor and broke off a broom handle to serve as a bat and a smaller version of baseball was born. Fast forward to the present and 113 years later the cry “Play Ball” is in danger of being replaced by “Illegal Pitch.”

Oddly the Niner name most associated with those damning words is from one of the storied families in Southern California softball, The Turner girls. Brooke Turner, younger sister of all star Michelle Turner, entered her junior season at LBSU among the 49er career leaders in strikeouts, shutouts, wins and complete games. A prep All American, Brooke came on fast as a freshman and was the Big West pitcher of the Year. Almost similar results in her sophomore season and then this season, like the bottom dropping out of her rise ball, the T in Turner spells Trouble.

Two recent exhibits make the point and both led to Long Beach losses. Turner took the hill on March 30 against San Diego State and the Aztecs ran her from the game in the first when illegal pitches (called crow hopping or leaping) gave SDSU a 4-0 lead and then the game. Same thing last weekend when the Beach played BWC leader Cal Poly and Turner was chased in the first when more “illegals” gave SLO a 4-0 lead and the game. 113 years later softball ain’t what it used to be.

Enough of the looking back I prefer the looking forward and this weekend you can motor a pleasant two hours along the 10 Freeway to the Big West tennis championships at Indian Wells. The top seed and six time defending champs form LBSU start Friday morning against the survivor of a UCR-Fullerton play-in and then get the lowest seed left on Saturday and, if successful, go for the hardware at 9 a.m. on Sunday.



Fans attend for free and when a team gets four points match over and time for brunch. See Coach Jennifer Hilt Costello’s mom Sally (who has a second home in Cathedral City) for advice and menus. This year’s team stars three freshmen who got better as the year went along and won the regular season title going away. The NCAA regionals are May 14-15.

Next up on the futures list is Dirtbag baseball who won the series over UCSB and had a miracle comeback ninth inning with 2 outs 2 strikes down win at SDSU. As the SID says, "Down two runs with two outs in the ninth, Kirk Singer extended the game with a single and Joey Terdoslavich doubled to tie the score, forcing Long Beach State's first extra-inning game of the year. Jordan Casas then started the tenth inning with a solo home run, sparking a three-run inning to lead the Dirtbags past San Diego State 11-8." LB must keep do the same this weekend at Cal Poly to keep post-season hopes alive. Last ball add, softball goes road tripping this weekend at UCSB also with must win pressure.

Last add futures is Beach men’s basketball where there are three signed, sealed and almost delivered new Niners. They are hometown hotshot Shelton Boykin, a 6-5 small forward from LB Poly, 6-9 Houston power forward Nick Shepherd, and the most intriguing of the bunch, 6-4 shooting phenon Jacob Thomas out of Columbia Heights, MN, a flash back from Coach Dan Monson’s Big Ten tour at Minnesota. Next on Dan’s wish list, a JUCO post player to add some muscle underneath.—DR. DAN

STADIUM DUST: THE DOCTOR IS TAKING DOSES OF CIPRO, KEFLEX AND REALITY FOR MY DIRTBAG WEEKEND

When I first landed in Long Beach one of the old dinosaurs roaming the campus told me after an excruciating loss, “son you will find that being a 49er builds character!” That building process goes on today, 35 years later. Just when you thought it was safe to quit wearing your emotions on your sleeve, upside down on the season (16-17) and losers of the last two BWC series to UCR and UC Davis, the Dirtbags went on to the hallowed grounds of Jackie Robinson stadium and just spanked UCLA 16-4.

So at the moment there is no magic number to either make or miss the post-season. The Beach boys are in a pack behind CSUF and UCI but the Big West generally has enough street cred to get a third team in the tourney so once again we have another must win weekend. Now that’ll build character.

The Niner mound rotation will be the usual suspects--the firm of Gagnon, Thompson and Pinder facing SB’s holy trio of Mario Hollands, (among BW leaders in ERA, K's, BAA; Nick Capito (ERA went from 3.70 to 5.40 after Saturday 17-3 beat down by Fullerton); and Jesse Meaux (who leads team with five victories and most vowels). Back to Tuesday this same character building bunch who allowed four homers in one inning last weekend at Riverside, hit six on Tuesday. One of the big blasts was a huge shot by Joey T which trimmed the eucalyptus trees in left field and scattered those hawks who feed on the westside squirrels. And this against a Bruin team who were just a couple of days away from being ranked number one in the land? Go figure.

BEST OF THE GAZZ DUST--At this time of the year the sporting faithful of Long Beach State would really prefer to be scouting post-season opponents or imaging how new recruits would make future Niner dreams come true. I don’t like injecting a dose of reality but I get that uneasy feeling that historically thrifty LBSU athletics will have to make some tough budget calls sometime soon, surely before the summer is over…When I arrived on campus in 1975 I was told that good coaching, the sixty mile circle of talent around CSULB and the low cost of education could defeat both visiting opponents and in-house budgeteers. Thirty five years later I fear that formula may have run its course. The good coaching is still there but big bucks programs from across the nation are picking the ripest fruit in the SoCal vineyards and now the low cost of higher education is under siege from Sacramento and, in some cases, from the 49er student body. Last year’s student vote to give general support to the athletics department was unsuccessful…Back in 2007, the students did tax themselves for a new wellness and recreation center, and the fee of $232 a year, begins this fall. I guess that free sunshine and green grass isn’t enough…but let’s put a few bones on the budget skeleton. This year a full ride scholarship with dorms is $16,470. Except for basketball, athletics provides per scholarship funds about $9,000 per year with the balance needed to match the competition coming from team fund raising…Last add Sacto, in 2000 tuition and fees were about $1700 with academic year room and board about $10,000. In 2010 that number will be woefully short of the actual costs. One final factoid, on a side note all CSUs have these mandatory furlough days. Men’s basketball coach Dan Monson jested he would be taking those when the team made road trips to Texas, Kentucky and North Carolina….Long Beach softball, 20-20 and 4-4, plays SLO Saturday-Sunday and the Big West women’s water polo tournament is underway at the campus pool…this is Autism weekend around the land and tomorrow limited edition Troy Tulowitzki tee shirts will be given to LB’s early birds…around the BWC it is UCI at Davis, CSUN at UOP, Cal State Buck Owens at UCR and SLO at the F word...

web site stuff… Kirk Singer was inserted into the lineup at second base in the team's final game at UC Davis, and played there for all four games this week…Singer hit .471, going 8-for-17 with two doubles and a home run, his second of the season…he was a perfect 5-for-5,on Friday at UCR and then capped off the Saturday night win with a tape-measure home run…the Bags starting rotation has anchored the weekends since the start of the season…all three have averaged over six innings per start, and combined have an ERA under 4.00…UC Santa Barbara had the first weekend of Big West play off, and has played .500 baseball since then, coming into the series with Long Beach State at 3-3 in conference play...last year the Gauchos moved their games to neutral-site play at Fullerton's Goodwin Field after fires in Santa Barbara forced the series out of the Central Coast …our closing quote is from Oregon State coach Pat Casey "I'm ultimately responsible for the way we play, and the way we played wasn't indicative of a champion. That's on me." –-DR. DAN

REALITY, CIPRO, KEFLEX, AND OTHER DOSES FOR 49ER HEALTH AND WEALTH

At this time of the year the sporting faithful of Long Beach State would really prefer to be scouting post-season opponents or imaging how new recruits would make future Niner dreams come true. I don’t like injecting a dose of reality but I get that uneasy feeling that historically thrifty LBSU athletics will have to make some tough budget calls sometime soon, surely before the summer is over.

When I arrived on campus in 1975 I was told that good coaching, the sixty mile circle of talent around CSULB and the low cost of education could defeat both visiting opponents and in-house budgeteers. Thirty five years later I fear that formula may have run it’s course. The good coaching is still there but big bucks programs from across the nation are picking the ripest fruit in the SoCal vineyards and now the low cost of higher education is under siege from Sacramento and, in some cases, from the 49er student body. Last year, with the economy in a tail spin, a student vote to give general support to the athletics department was unsuccessful.

Back in 2007, the student body did tax themselves for a new wellness and recreation center, and the fee of $232 a year, begins this fall. I guess that free sunshine and green grass isn’t enough for today’s students but let’s put a few bones on the athletic skeleton. This year a full ride scholarship with dorms is $16,470. Except for basketball, athletics provides per scholarship funds about $9,000 per year with the balance needed to match the competition coming from a coach’s fund raising.

Last add Sacto, in 2000 tuition and fees were about $1700 with academic year room and board about $10,000. In 2010 that number will be woefully short of the actual costs. One final factoid, on a side note all CSUs have these mandatory furlough days. Men’s basketball coach Dan Monson jested he would be taking those when the team made road trips to Texas, Kentucky and North Carolina.

SCHEDULE DUSTING--Long Beach State softball, 20-20 and 4-4, returns to their campus field this weekend when it plays host to Cal Poly with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday and a single game at the same time on Sunday. Those games will be played about the same time that the Big West women’s water polo tournament is underway at the campus pool, Friday through Sunday. The event is a six team shootout and you can take in seven games for a $25 all-session pass.

Baseball is back at Blair for a Friday to Sunday visit from the UCSB lads plus a fund and friend raiser for area Autism programs. On Saturday limited edition Troy Tulowitzki tee shirts will be given to LB’s early birds.


The last laps for Long Beach men’s volleyball are in the books along with a 2010 record of 12-17. Interim head coach Andy Read: “the staff will decompress a little and take stock of what we did right and what we did wrong, There were a lot of tight games but there were matches where if we won that game one instead of losing 30-28, we would have come out fine.”

Our closing quote is from a prominent baseball coach who, when his team was struggling, fell on the sword himself. "I'm ultimately responsible for the way we play, and the way we played wasn't indicative of a champion. That's on me." In their losing streak his team squandered numerous opportunities to win games by not executing fundamentals. And the guy who finger-pointed himself, Oregon State baseball coach Pat Casey. –-DR. DAN

LIONS AND NINERS ARE AT THEIR LEVEL BEST TRYING TO KICK START A STREAK AND BONUS STUFF

As we launch another sporting week where the City of Long Beach celebrates really fast left and sometimes U turns, your home town University seems to make one step forward and then one step back. Tonight’s college baseball game features a pair of NCAA 500 teams, (not exactly Fortune 500 this season) LBSU at 14-14 and LMU at 15-15.

Baseball, carrying a resume and RPI that could have had post-season written on it, lost two of three at woeful UC Davis. A step backward but still lots of innings to be played. Men’s volleyball, on the bubble to qualify for the MPSF post season, dropped heart breakers to UC Irvine and UCLA. Softball won a double header on Saturday but took that step back on Sunday losing in extras. Tennis, with a lineup still shuffled due to injury, beat CSUN but fell to St. Mary’s. As noted above, baseball and softball are mired in the middle of the Big West pack. Conference wise, both Mike Weather’s Dirtbags and Kim Sowder’s Sweethearts of Swat go into the weekend in a three way tie for fourth. Tonight the Niners will lead off with newcomer Nate Underwood (1-4, 4.20) vs. Lion Xavier Esquivel (0-1, 5.52). Underwood is the latest of the prospects arrived at Blair via Troy Buckley’s NorCal pitching pipeline. An excellent student and versatile baseball player, Nate prepped at San Jose’s Valley Christian and made all conference as a utility player and six honor rolls as a student.

BEACH BINGO DUST—Tonight is sort of a revenge thing as the Bags snatched defeat from the jaws of victory on March 16…this weekend puts the Beach back on the long, and Sig-Alerted slow road to Riverside for a three-game set against the hit happy Highlanders… 6 p.m. starts on Friday and Saturday. And 2 p.m. on Sunday…the bright spot last weekend was the Pitcher of the Week work by Brandon Pinder, the third Dirtbag honored this season, he allowed only three hits and no runs in his first career complete game, also the first shutout of the year, Pinder faced only three batters over the minimum and retired the last 15 batters without allowing a hit…Beck Family Special, the Saturday night USC-LBSU volleyball showdown will serve up some extras starting at 5:30 when the 1990 NCAA runner-up team reunion in the Ukleja Hall of Honor and post game the boosters, and the alums still functioning by that time, will enjoy a season’s end after party

More family facts, expect Jason Gill’s folks to be back at Blair tonight, they were wildly popular when son Chris was a Dirtbag and then their approval rating fell when Jason became a Titan and now a Lion…After UCI finally picked a new basketball coach last week I am sure that some of the marsupial maniacs, well they are Anteaters, scratched their head over the background of Russ Turner. His resume begins at little known Hampden-Sydney College where Russ was a two-time All-American (1991 & 1992), set the school's career scoring record of 2,272 points and made Phi Beta Kappa. On a personal note, H-S is a big name in my family because my late father Tim Barber was a graduate and an uncle or two were professors. I welcomed the new coach with the suggestion that he had my support in all but two games a year…my Fullerton crack of the week—yes they made it back into the top 25 (#22) but their 12 losses are the most of any team in the poll. Irvine dropped out but now has their yard named, Cicerone Field, for the former chancellor who steered big bucks to athletics. Memo to FKA: Think Legacy…tomorrow is the NCAA national signing day but insiders don’t expect the Beach coaches to offer their list to the media until it is all confirmed…in the football mad South where I spend some time the occasion is celebrated like the opening of a free food tent at Dollywood…numbers of note: team hitting is up to .296 with the leaders’ Lohman (.393), Singer (.385), Tinoco (.371), Metzger (.343) and Joey T (.336)…most important number is 3-3…with no post-season BWC tourney the Bags now sit at 3-3 and need to win the rest of the series to play ball in June

So what’s in your GPS this weekend? Well is the first of two home volleyball matches against teams you love to play, hard to beat Pepperdine followed on Saturday night by easier to beat USC. Meanwhile on Friday and Saturday, like the senior citizens in those track-side condos, a bevy of Beach athletes head out of town. Baseball has that three game set at UC Riverside and softball busses to Davis for three games Saturday and Sunday.

Fortunately women’s tennis has locked up the regular season championship and has only non-conference work left, at Pepperdine Friday then home to their posh digs Saturday to play LMU. Last add travelers, women’s golf, the 2009 BWC champion swings up to the San Luis Obispo Country Club Sunday and Monday for the 2010 Conference Championship.

EAR PLUIGGED DUST— Considering the bonus circulation of our Grand Prix edition of the Gazette, we offer a word of warning for first timers. Persons sensitive to excessive alliteration usually should refrain from reading Diamond Dust, but we hope you make it a happy habit.

Last add, the Big West wet set will gather next weekend, April 23 - April 25 at the Long Beach State pool for the 2010 women’s water polo championship. Tucked almost secretly in the middle of the campus, the pool should be hopping with fans and friends and lots of Speedos as all six teams in the BWC make the tourney. No easy parking but action on top of and under the water.—DR. DAN

CLIPBOARDS AND COACHES AND LIFE WITH THE HARDLY HAPPY WEB WIZARDS

Forty Niner Fans, especially the inter-net based and biased, like to change coaches like a kid with breakfast cereals. Today we take a short survey of the LBSU skippers and offer our unscientific mid-term report.

If you start with the best current season record you begin with the determined and talented women’s tennis leader Jennifer Hilt Costello. Last weekend her team clinched their third straight Big West regular-season championship with road wins at Cal Poly and Santa Barbara and improved to 7-0 in Big West play. Jenny was bloodied but unbowed in her fight for NCAA eligibility of an extremely talented freshman. Insiders say Klaudia Malenovska can beat anybody on the Niner courts, coaches, players and maybe even generous benefactor Terry Rhodes. The net queens will be home on Sunday against St. Mary’s. BTW, the team won the LBSU GPA award with a 3.51 in the fall and 3.31 in the spring. Smart swingers.

Next up is Andy Read, the interim head coach of men’s volleyball. Andy was drafted to hold down the store while Alan Knipe is globe-trotting with USA volleyball. As a career assistant, Andy is more like a Robin to Batman, a Poncho to the Cisco Kid, or Jimmy Olson to Superman but he gets a high grade for involving his whole roster and winning eight of matches in the really tough MPSF.

Kim Sowder of women’s softball is a legacy, a connect to the Niner College World Series teams and a trainee for years under successful Pete Manarino. In the highly competitive recruiting wars for softball, all the BCS schools are pouring big money into the sport, Kim gets her share and has a break even season going now last year The 49ers finished the campaign with a 40-17 record and were ranked 22nd, and Sowder was tabbed the co-Big West Coach of the Year.

Mike Weathers is one of those coaches that needs to ignore the net, where the fickle fans second guess every steal, swing, and pitch. Over the weekend Mike got win number 301 and the Dirtbags won their fifth series of the year. He and his team are at UC Davis for the weekend tied for third in the Big West pennant chase. One of the sub plots in the UOP series was the presence, in different dugouts, of two of Mike’s former assistants, (and possible successors) Don Barbara in his orange Tiger stripes and Troy Buckley in the Niner black and gold. Mr. Offense and Mr. Defense, gotta believe if you had a full load of scholarships that these two guys could deliver the hardware.

On the inside, the basketball franchise has great coaches with recruiting whizzes Dan Monson and Jody Wynn, both of whom got byes in the recent conference tournament. President Alexander and AD Vic Cegles both love their hoops and shower the programs with whatever they can. As sports psych guy Don Peters likes to remind us, it is now all about getting to the next level.

Finally what can you say about the lion of LBSU, Brian Gimmillaro. With 25 seasons, BG joined still another Hall of Fame, the AVCA, to add to his three National Championships, eight Final Fours, 13 NCAA Regionals and 23 NCAA Tournaments. The only cloud on the horizon is the recent fascination with his sport by the big bucks BCS football factories. Recruiting is tough but when the athlete comes to the Beach the training is superb.

Now that covers the big seven of the LBSU coaches. Left are the five track teams, two water polos, two golfs and one soccer rounding out the sporting buffet of the Beach. These coaches have lowered expectations but unlike the Big Seven they get less second guessing and coach critiquing.

Name Drop—A former Rand McNally exec, Nancy Yoho, is President of the CSULB Alumni association, and a geography grad back when a lot of the new countries weren’t even on her maps. She took in the Saturday baseball game and noted that more than 34,000 grads are members of the Association at the friendly lifetime fee of just $49.—DR. DAN

NO FEAR AND NO LOATHING AS UPDATE--DIRTBAGS (0-1) STILL RELISH BWC RACE

Pacific skipper Ed Sprague--Stockton bred, Stanford raised and MLB famous--pondered the beginning week of the Big West season and offered this observation. “We still have to go out and do it because nobody is going to fear us and nobody is going to be surprised by us." I say ditto for the roller-coaster riding Dirtbags, come Monday nobody will fear and nobody will be surprised. Update- with two outs and two strikes in the ninth, Andrew Gagnon, on the bench but still sort of fresh from a mere 112 pitches (UOP’s Pointer threw 123 in his 8), could only sit and watch as the Tigers wriggled off their leash getting to reliever David Brown and win the game 2-1. Now back to the Dust already in progress.

We say all this because one of the great spring pairings is youth and baseball. Last weekend the short memories of the LBSU youth were served and on Sunday the Niners (11-12, 0-1) moved from a lowly RIP epitaph to an almost glossy RPI. Given up for dead after melting down in losses to Hawaii and Oregon State on Wednesday and Friday, the Beach won twice on Saturday afternoon and emerged with a lofty RPI of #31 based on key victories and a terrific strength of schedule. It was LBSU’s fourth series win in five tries this season, vics over Arizona, UNLV, Wichita State and OSU. Ironically Pacific (17-7, 1-0) are winners of all five of their weekend series. The Tigers are an interesting mix of good hitting (.346) and opportunistic defense. With a combined ten double plays in their San Jose finale, the Tiger D was spectacular combining with SJSU to tie a 21 year old NCAA record. Pacific hitters are organized by legendary and original Dirtbag Don Barbara who took the team from offensively toothless free swingers on top of the Big West. The Tigers combined to hit .a best ever .322 in 2009 and are already at .346 this season but a fat team ERA of 5.01 puts some interesting salsa on the chips. The pitching plan continues with UOP lefty David Rouse (5-0, 4.07) vs. Jake Thompson (3-0, 3.69) and either Hummel or Carnevale for the Tigers versus LB’s improving Branden Pinder (2-3, 4.15).

HIDDEN EGG DUST--The rotation of Gagnon, Thompson and Pinder have eight of the team’s 11 wins but the offense (.286), fielding (.967) and base running (23 of 45 stolen) has been erratic…Where are theys, you can’t call him Mr. Misty May but now you can call him Matt Treanor, Texas Ranger. Making more moves than Misty on Dancing with the Stars, Matt has gone from Florida to Detroit to Milwaukee and now to catching-poor Texas…we are not sure if he will go pro or go Dirtbag but Jake Stassi out of Yuba City is a fantastic left-hander, 9-1 with 93 strikeouts in 2009…but his older brother Max took pro over college…turnstile tales…La Tech Minnesota drew 30.056 fans to the new Target Field in Minneapolis…at Oregon State, LB picked up 28 hits and 15 runs in their two wins…LB marketers have scheduled special upcoming games for various good causes: Autism Awareness Weekend April 23-25, 500 free Troy Tulowitzki tee-shirts on April 24, Breast Cancer Awareness weekend May 7-9 and Leukemia Awareness day on May 15…perspective on Andrew Gagnon’s Friday night loss…it was a nine-run fifth that gave Oregon State the cushion in that 16-4 beat down…that came after an hour plus rain delay when OSU led just 3-1… the Tigers are riding a five-game win streak and Coach Sprague is two wins shy of 150 and, he hopes, has solved team discipline issues that hurt them in recent years…the Bags have beaten UOP 14 straight dating to 2005 and 32 of 33 games going back to 2000…it may be game time before the Beach knows if shortstop Devin Lohman has recovered sufficiently from his groin pull…Mark Singer is a good sub and the Weatherman is shuffling Juan Avila, Jonathan Jones, Tre Dennis, and T.J. Mittelstaedt in a lineup anchored by Steve Tinoco (.381 with 16 RBIs) and Joey Terdoslavich (.310 and 21 RBIs)…still puzzled by a rash of illegal pitch calls, softball also opens their conference schedule this weekend playing the Lady Tigers of Pacific on campus in a Friday double header with a single 2 p.m. game on Saturday…the rest of the baseball BWC this weekend features Cal Poly at Riverside; Davis at Fullerton; Irvine at Northridge; and UCSB at Sac State—DR. DAN

NO FEAR AND NO LOATHING AS THE DIRTBAGS (0-0) RELISH THE BIG WEST RACE

Pacific skipper Ed Sprague--Stockton bred, Stanford raised and MLB famous--pondered the beginning week of the Big West season and offered this observation. “We still have to go out and do it because nobody is going to fear us and nobody is going to be surprised by us." I say ditto for the roller-coaster riding Dirtbags, come Monday nobody will fear and nobody will be surprised.

We say all this because one of the great spring pairings is youth and baseball. Last weekend the short memories of the LBSU youth were served and on Sunday the Niners (11-11, 0-0) moved from a lowly RIP epitaph to an almost glossy RPI. Given up for dead after melting down in losses to Hawaii and Oregon State on Wednesday and Friday, the Beach won twice on Saturday afternoon and emerged with a lofty RPI of #31 based on key victories and a terrific strength of schedule. It was LBSU’s fourth series win in five tries this season, vics over Arizona, UNLV, Wichita State and OSU. Ironically Pacific (16-7, 0-0) are winners of all five of their weekend series. The Tigers are an interesting mix of good hitting (.346) and opportunistic defense. With a combined ten double plays in their San Jose finale, the Tiger D was spectacular combining with SJSU to tie a 21 year old NCAA record. Pacific hitters are organized by legendary and original Dirtbag Don Barbara who took the team from offensively toothless free swingers on top of the Big West. The Tigers combined to hit .a best ever .322 in 2009 and are already at .346 this season but a fat team ERA of 5.01 puts some interesting salsa on the chips. The pitching plan is UOP’s Marcus Pointer (5-0, 3.92) vs. Andrew Gagnon (3-3, 3.13); lefty David Rouse (5-0, 4.07) vs. Jake Thompson (3-0, 3.69) and either Hummel or Carnevale for the Tigers versus improving Branden Pinder (2-3, 4.15).

HIDDEN EGG DUST--The rotation of Gagnon, Thompson and Pinder have eight of the team’s 11 wins but the offense (.286), fielding (.967) and base running (23 of 45 stolen) has been erratic…Where are theys, you can’t call him Mr. Misty May but now you can call him Matt Treanor, Texas Ranger. Making more moves than Misty on Dancing with the Stars, Matt has gone from Florida to Detroit to Milwaukee and now to catching-poor Texas…we are not sure if he will go pro or go Dirtbag but Jake Stassi out of Yuba City is a fantastic left-hander who went Jake went 9-1 on the mound with 93 strikeouts in 2009…but his older brother Max went pro ball instead of college…turnstile tales…La Tech Minnesota drew 30.056 fans to the new Target Field in Minneapolis…national crowd counts have LBSU as the 41st best home draw with an average of 1,208 for their first dozen dates…at Oregon State, LB picked up 28 hits and 15 runs in their two wins…LB marketers have scheduled special upcoming games for various good causes: Autism Awareness Weekend April 23-25, 500 free Troy Tulowitzki tee-shirts on April 24, Breast Cancer Awareness weekend May 7-9 and Leukemia Awareness day on May 15…perspective on Andrew Gagnon’s Friday night loss…it was a nine-run fifth that gave Oregon State the cushion in that 16-4 beat down…that came after an hour plus rain delay when OSU led just 3-1… the Tigers are riding a four-game win streak and Coach Sprague is three wins shy of 150 and, he hopes, has solved team discipline issues that hurt them in recent years…the Bags have beaten UOP 14 straight dating to 2005 and 32 of 33 games going back to 2000…it may be game time before the Beach knows if shortstop Devin Lohman has recovered sufficiently from his groin pull…Mark Singer is a good sub and the Weatherman is shuffling Juan Avila, Jonathan Jones, Tre Dennis, and T.J. Mittelstaedt in a lineup anchored by Steve Tinoco (.381 with 16 RBIs) and Joey Terdoslavich (.310 and 21 RBIs)…still puzzled by a rash of illegal pitch calls, softball also opens their conference schedule this weekend playing the Lady Tigers of Pacific on campus in a Friday double header with a single 2 p.m. game on Saturday…the rest of the baseball BWC this weekend features Cal Poly at Riverside; Davis at Fullerton; Irvine at Northridge; and UCSB at Sac State—DR. DAN