DIRTBAGS AND EATERS STAR IN THE FINAL ACT OF 2010 WITH NO MARGIN FOR ERRORS

Last weekend a gentleman you probably don’t know worked 12 innings in a loss by his beloved Irvine Anteaters and I don’t use the word "gentleman" lightly. Mark Roberts is the sports voice of UCI, and this time of the year he broadcasts the games of what some call “the new sheriff in the Big West.” Unlike many in his profession he is uncommonly fair to opponents, so much so that one of his signature sayings (when analyzing an opponent) is, ”Make no mistake…” as he reminds his rabid partisans of the other team’s talent.

Back to last Saturday. Mark was the last broadcaster on America’s college baseball airwaves (it was 10:45 p.m.) announcing a 12 inning 15-12 Big West Conference baseball loss to UC Riverside. Roberts very likely was ready to sooth the tonsils with an adult beverage when a surprise party with about 150 attendees saluted his birthday (actual year undisclosed, but his hair-dresser does a great job.) That "make no mistake" line resonated with me thinking about this weekend - Long Beach can win if they make no mistakes. The team has made 67 scorebook errors and a countless number of mental errors. The pitchers have had a tendency to dig moderate-to-deep holes early on, forcing a lot of late inning prayers in the direction of the scoreboard. It happened on Tuesday in the 9-8 survival moment over Pepperdine when the Bags fell behind 5-0 after two and a half innings, then rallied behind Hoime, Jones and TJ. Mike Gillespie’s lovable marsupials from UCI lost contact with son-in-law Chad Kreuter’s hapless Trojans early and USC won that Tuesday tilt 8-1. The weekend pitching plan for the Eaters does not include injured Golden Spikes nominee Daniel Bibona and his 9-2 record …the other three guys are pretty good though, Bergman, Brock and Pettis…LB will use Drew Gagnon Friday and Thompson Sunday and “we’ll just see” on Saturday.

GRAD WEEK DUSTING—…one of the Tuesday stars was little-used Tre Dennis, who had a two-run double and scored a run before he took his walk Wednesday as an LBSU graduate…which reminds me, please decline any handshakes with President Alexander, he will have squeezed 9200 sweaty-palmed new alumni by game time…on Tuesday, Weathers had Devin Lohman swinging a bat in the Blair Field tunnel (“he’s ready to do his Kirk Gibson thing”)…Anteaters are hungry for a post-season position, but make no mistake the Niners believe that if you've got lemons - it’s time to start selling Mike’s hard lemonade…back to the Niner names in the news, but absent in recent box scores, pro scouts will select both Lohman and Thompson some time after their draft show begins on June 7th… Fullerton has already won the Big West and Irvine will get the second conference invite and be sent somewhere the Titans won’t. Possibilities are at UCLA, if the Bruins decide to ante up the dollars needed to host, but the Anteaters would probably prefer to go where nobody knows their name (or has a scouting report)…Other than sending a handful of his freshmen and sophomores to play in summer leagues, new Head Coach Troy Buckley is ready to pack this year away…off-topic word is that former ladies hoop assistant Jason Flowers will be the new head coach at Northridge…. Fox College Sports has the national title game for Long Beach State. Oh yes, vs. Drexel. Oh yes, on June 4th. The Sport—what kind of fan are you?—it is PAINTBALL!!.. Sunday marks the final game for five seniors, including three who have spent four years with the program: reliever Markovitz, hitter Tinoco (.329 career) and iron-man Mittelstaedt, 189 games as a Dirtbag, seventh-most in program history…Houston Bob made a sixty-minute visit Tuesday and then took the BP corporate jet back to some kind of oil spill in the Gulf…the other BWC cellar dweller possibility is UCSB, who travels to Pacific this weekend. Neither team will finish first, but one or both could finish, well, you know where…The puzzling part of the Beach baseball story is that all of this is happening when the Dirtbag alums are so successful in major league baseball…Cesar Ramos and Jeremy Reed recently went to the show and worth repeating, the combination of Jason Giambi and Troy Tulowitzki combined for five RBIs in Colorado’s 11-7 win Sunday at Kansas City and last night the old Bags totaled three RBIs in an 8-2 win over Arizona—DR. DAN

BEACH BRAWL AT BLAIR WITH BUTANE, BLANKETS AND STUGGLING BASEBALL TEAMS

It is hard to put a handle on what’s happening with Long Beach State baseball. Is it redemption week? After all tonight’s starter Branden Pinder will be on the mound trying to rid his taste buds of Saturday’s nasty Northridge outing (knocked out in the second inning). Is it the battle of the Beaches? I mean there is a Malibu sea view at Pepperdine and with the series tied at one game a piece and both squads have identical 29 loss seasons to date. Or is it welcome back Houston Bob night in honor of the all star Dirtbag booster who has been taking his BP, as in British Petroleum, hacks down on that oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? You figure it out.

The last time Houston Bob worked on an underwater cement job he planted a mouthy Fullerton fan in a drainage ditch. Not sure that they have a fix for that deepwater drill rig but I do know that Weathers-Buckley, or is it Buckley-Weathers, need somebody to eat some innings after a number of his Tuesday children were used up on the weekend. Ironically Pinder is also set to work on Senior Sunday but the judge and jury on the return of Jake Thompson is still out, hence the front end of the weekend rotation is on hold. Normally a model baseball citizen, Jake did open his last start with a “purpose pitch” against Fullerton and broke a “team rule” but bad guys on the Mean Streets and Wall Street have done less penalty time than Thompson. For the Waves it will be lefty Aaron Gates who will get the start and both teams will be breaking out some lightly used reserves to get a snap shot of what will send them back to NCAA heaven in twenty eleven.

REST OF THE DUST—The Bags finish their season hosting UC Irvine…and right now Ditka is excited that the Beach has a 20-18 lead over the marsupials in the Black and Blue rivalry series for the 2009-2010 season…four points are on the line this weekend so the sur4fboard ain’t exactly safe…Sunday marks the final game for five seniors, including three who have spent four years with the program, Jason Markovitz has worked out of the bullpen for four years, compiling a 3.11 ERA and a 5-3 record over 68 appearances, while Tinoco has hit .329 over his career and Mittelstaedt has played in 189 games as a Dirtbag, seventh-most in program history…Pepperdine enters their final week of play with nearly an identical record as Long Beach State, sitting at 21-29. Zach Vinzej leads the team with a .313 batting average, and the team overall is only hitting .278, but is balanced somewhat by a 4.87 season ERA. Last weekend, the Waves took one out of three games from San Diego, winning on Friday behind their latest all star Matt Bywater…looking ahead next year’s turn around will depend on those returnees but also some talented recruits, Austin Boyle (El Modena High School), Jeff Yamaguchi of Lakewood, Matt Balliet of Mission Viejo, Jonathan Maciel out of Esperanza and Tony Amezcua from Bellflower…of course the MLB draft may interfere as it did last year when super prospect Jon Singleton from Millikan took the cash call…Other than sending a handful of his freshmen and sophomores to play in summer leagues (expect Drew Gagnon to go to the prestigious Cape Cod wood bat league) new Head Coach Troy Buckley is ready to pack this year away. Nothing can stop the end-of-season slide that has the Dirtbags with a losing record and quite possibly their first last place finish since Coach John Gonsalves pre-Dirtbag teams of 1986, 1987 and 1988. The other cellar dweller possibility is UCSB who travels to Pacific this weekend. Neither team will finish first but one or both could finish, well, you know where…The puzzling part of the Beach baseball story is that all of this is happening when the Dirtbag alums are so successful in major league baseball. On Sunday the combination of Jason Giambi and Troy Tulowitzki combined for five RBIs in Colorado’s 11-7 win at Kansas City. A pretty nice Niner connection and certainly pleasing to Rockies scout and LBSU Hall of Fame Coach Dave Snow—DR. DAN

BIG WEST TITLE DRAMA ALL DONE, DIRTBAGS JUST TRY TO PLAY THE GAME

The seasons may have gone sour but at Long Beach State the parties are almost always sweet. This weekend the featured 49ers are the men of volleyball who are hosting the USA Men's Volleyball Teams in the Pyramid Friday for two intra-squad exhibition matches in preparation for the upcoming World League and the Pan American Cup. Juniors take the court at 5:30 p.m., the London-bound US Olympians follow at around 7:30 p.m. and then the post match social.

On Saturday the hard core 49er faithful move downtown to the Law Offices of Keesal, Young and Logan for the third-annual Black and Gold Gala which salutes the 2010 LBSU team with a 6 p.m. reception then dinner, and program. You can expect many of the national team participants to be around, old timers Tom Hoff, David Lee, Scott Touzinsky, Tyler Hildebrand, Paul Lotman, Robert Tarr, Dustin Watten and new guys Antwain Aguillard and Dean Bittner.

Last weekend the giant gala called Jewels of the Night raised thousands for needed athletic funding but up against a horrific budget deficit the times have never been more difficult. The only light in this sporting tunnel, insiders say, is that President Alexander may impose a new student fee in June (effective in 2011) with proceeds spread across the campus, not just for sports.

Back to the present, the twin cash cows of men’s basketball and baseball struggled this year both on the playing surface and in the box office. A very modest crowd count this past weekend for the Fullerton series hurt almost as much as the series sweep by the Titans. With a week off for final exams, the Dirtbags resume baseball at Northridge Friday to Sunday in their next to the last weekend of the season.

At least softball finished with a pleasant taste in their mouth sweeping UC Riverside to finish the 2010 campaign dead even at 23-23. Senior Sunday sent off six good players but the cast and crew remaining likely will be picked on top next season. Big West pitcher of the year in her freshman season Brooke Turner did win 13 games in her junior season and crafty off-speed specialist Taylor Petty picked up 10 in her sophomore campaign. Returning offense should be led by Bree Stephan (.321) and Casey Burba (.333) with Caitlin DeBaun (20 RBIs) and Nalani St. Germain (8 home runs) mixing with a great incoming recruiting class.

Track and field is finished until a couple of 49ers compete in the NCAA regionals May 27th in Austin, Texas. During last weekend’s Big West championships the Niner men finished second behind Northridge and the women were seventh. Both squads came in ahead of UC Irvine, helpful in deciding the winner of their Black and Blue Trophy rivalry. In a neck and neck point race, the winner will come down to the baseball series in two weeks.

Bonus Bag bull--all day games this weekend because the Matadors don't have lights...the Dirtbags return home for four games over the final week of the season, hosting Pepperdine for a third game with the Waves before closing out the season with the Black and Blue rivalry series against UC Irvine May 28-30...the Sunday deal will be the final game for five Long Beach State seniors, with transfers Tre Dennis and David Brown joining three four-year members of the Dirtbag program in Jason Markovitz, Steve Tinoco and TJ Mittelstaedt and the last hurrah for head coach Mike Weathers, who is retiring following that game after 18 years with the program, the last nine as the skipper for the Dirtbags...finals are over this week and it works...Brennan Metzger, Long Beach State's sophomore outfielder earned first-team Academic All-District honors, recognizing his success on the field as well as his 3.79 GPA, becoming the first Dirtbag to receive the honor since Shane Peterson in 2008. The team as a whole was also recognized by the NCAA, earning a Public Recognition award with an APR in the Top 10 percent for all of college baseball, the only team in the Big West so honored...Back to the recent times Coach in waiting Troy Buckley kept his team waiting for almost 30 minutes post-game on Sunday giving his first “State of the Dirtbag” address. It is likely injured shortstop Devin Lohman will be cleared for the CSUN weekend but fastball pitcher Jake Thompson may be suspended for throwing behind a CSUF hitter with his first pitch Saturday...he was not listed as a starter this weekend...Jake has indicated that he will sign and go pro anyhow but it would be an odd ending to a season on the sink. –DR. DAN

THE CIRCUS IS IN TOWN: RELAXED DIRTBAGS READY TO SPOIL THE ELEPHANT WALK

As the 49er faithful roll toward this baseball weekend with Fullerton State, everybody has a mixture of anxiety, uncertainty and optimism. The anxiety has been earned by a season of sputtering, no win streak longer than three games and perplexing losses. Last Friday and Saturday the Beach twice got late inning sand kicked in their faces before a 10-5 Mother’s Day present on Sunday. The win streak improved to two on Wednesday when the Niner youth moment (22-23) stopped the Trojans early and late with a 9-1 spanking using freshmen battery mates Nate Underwood and catcher Joel Thys…Nate for the W and Thys threw out a base stealer in the third…meanwhile the mid-weeker for Fullerton (31-14) produced a 10-7 W over woeful Pepperdine It was Tuffy’s 12th come-from-behind win of the season and their 13th in their last 14.

With the surprise retirement decision by Coach Weathers, and their post-season chances all but erased, this weekend with the Titans and in two weeks with Irvine, the Dirtbags can play spoiler at least in terms of where their neighbors are ranked and who hosts a regional. And the new secret victory plan--on Sunday Mike said it is the proper combination of your hits, their walks and their errors. Sunday ten LB hits, seven Stanford walks and an error led to the W. Ditto on Wednesday when SC gave up 4 walks, committed 4 errors and the Beach won with 11 hits. Let the games begin.

NOTES ON MY NAPKIN--Away from baseball places and back to people, the Pyramid will host their 16th Annual 49er Jewels of the Night Saturday in support of the over 300 student athletes at the Beach. With hundreds of auction items, food from top local restaurants and live entertainment, your C note goes a long way…On the softball side, Kim Sowder’s Sweethearts of Swat will not get an NCAA invite but they did their own spoiler thing last weekend winning a series at Fullerton. Unlike baseball where most of the top talent takes a hike to the minor leagues in June, softball will keep the nucleus of a team that has pitching depth and promising offensive players. The Dirtbags meanwhile will likely lose junior shortstop Devin Lohman, third baseman Joey Terdoslavich, pitcher Jake Thompson and OF Jonathan Jones…softball paced last weekend by frosh Bree Stephan (5-for-11 and a home run) closes the season hosting UCR… CSUF baseball had four important series and went 4-7 against TCU, Arizona, ASU and UCI…more reasons why the F hat fans are properly jealous of their rich cousins at LBSU…corporate sponsor Tim Richmond Plastering threw a mega party last weekend where nobody got plastered but everybody attending could plaster…except those three gals from accounting…in the Principality of Park Estates Marcia and Bill Scharfen raised a ton of cash at their annual pool-side fund raiser…more LB good deeds this weekend a leukemia awareness event Saturday and salute to services Sunday…Tennis’s Jacki Alawi's named the Big West Freshman of the Year--LB has had four of the last six awardees...in that Sparks exhibition the referee was former LBSU player Tamara Inoue, a high schools and college teammate of VB all world--Tayyiba Haneef…another ex Niner, Reta Sula is the new basketball head coach at Wilson HS…schedule chatter now has LB BB men playing at Michigan State…the Dust recently got a difficult question on baseball scoring so we passed it on to our retired Virginia squire, and ex PT genius, Gordie Verrell…”how little can a starting pitcher work and still get a loss? Gordie says, “Say our ace right-hander throws his first pitch and the guy hits it into the seats. While watching the guy circle the bases our ace develops a stomach ache -- like he knows he's headed back to the bush leagues -- and, if the trainer doesn’t have any PeptoBismal 'cause the writers drank it all, he has to come out of the game, losing, 1-0. His team might end up losing 10-0 or even 10-9 -- but if his team never ties the score (to get him off the hook) it's a big ol' L and, tomorrow, it's off to Peoria.” Closing quote, over and out.—DR. DAN

STADIUM DUST--SLIGHTLY REVISED---THE NINER NEWS AIN’T TOO GOOD IN 2010--DON’T TASE ME BRO, I JUST WRITE THIS STUFF

They called the finishing golf holes at Quail Hollow the green mile, a tribute to the closing challenge that PGA players face before they collect a trophy. After a struggling weekend on the Central Coast Dirtbag baseball coach Mike Weathers and his inconsistent Beach boys are coming up on a college baseball green gauntlet of their own: Stanford, Fullerton and UC Irvine.

Peeking first at this weekend, the visitors will be those silver spoon kids from Stanford. The Cardinal suffered themselves this weekend getting swept at Washington and now are playing five more games in seven days. On Monday the Cards beat Santa Clara 8-3 then tripped San Jose State on Tuesday 10-7. LB’s midweeker was Wednesday at Pepperdine, a 4-0 loss. The high water marks for LBSU against Stanford were the 1998 and 2004 regionals. The budget basement boys from Palo Verde Avenue were sent to posh Palo Alto and beat the hosts 5-1 enroute to the CWS in ’98 behind Most Outstanding Player Termell Sledge. In ‘04 the star for the homeboys was some guy named Troy Tulowitzki who sparkled when LBSU beat St. Johns in the first game, sent Stanford to the loser’s bracket in game two (7-4) and then knocked out the Cardinal 8-4 in the regional final. With a logjam trailing PAC 10 runaway leader Arizona State, the Beach could at least be a Stanford spoiler again.

If the LB baseball word of the day was struggle then the tennis word of the day was “unprecedented” as in it is really difficult to win an unprecedented seventh consecutive tourney title. The drama in the desert for the Big West Women’s tennis championship involved more shaking than James Bond’s martini maker. The villain was UCI coach Mike Edles a journeyman coach with stops at Hawaii, Boise State, Hayward, Chapman, and Bakersfield. With his ace Stephanie Hammel coming off of a recent injury Edles played her at #3 to protect his numbers 4, 5, and 6 seeded players. It worked and although Hammel lost 6-1, 6-1 on Saturday, and did not finish on Sunday, this tactic allowed Edles to push stronger players down his ladder to face less experienced opponents. It worked over the protest of UCSB in the semi finals and again in the final winning at #5 and #6 and beating LBSU for the tourney title. Next year the Beach will go into the championship with their best recruit in years Klaudia Malenovska. She was NCAA ineligible this season but will join a team that has everyone (including seven freshmen and sophomores) back for the payback.

MIXED DUST--Beyond baseball this weekend includes softball, which was swept at UCSB, trying Fullerton in Titan-land this weekend (the Saturday game on TV), and track in their BWC championships at Northridge. Last event important to the LB sporting crowd is the state budget mess. President F. King Alexander wrote the campus, “Our current financial situation is unchanged because the Governor and legislature have yet to take any action. However, the next milestone in the state's budgeting process is the Governor's May Revise Budget, which is due to be published no later than May 14.” We now learn no student athletic fee budget boost until the 2011-2012 academic year…In a season where the big bottom line is not so fine, at least the legacy line is better. Former forty-niners do match up once in a while and last week it was Brittany Hochevar and her partner beating Misty-May Treanor and her partner in an AVP volleyball event and Evan Longoria homering his Rays over Seattle starter and fellow Dirtbag alum Jason Vargas in Seattle…now these regional projections from the College Baseball Blog—at Cal State Fullerton , California, New Mexico State, Wright State; at UCLA, San Diego, UC Irvine and Illinois State …Finally the “Where Are They” winner is Senator and former Dirtbag Danny Espinosa. Espy was drafted in the third round by the Washington Nationals in 2008 and is the Harrisburg (PA) Senators starting shortstop. Espy leads his team in average, on-base and slugging percentages and is rated by Baseball America as the fifth best shortstop in the Nationals organization. He also provided our Closing Quote. When asked what he misses the most moving to Pennsylvania from Long Beach? “Mexican food”. –DR. DAN

THE NINER NEWS AIN’T TOO GOOD IN 2010--DON’T TASE ME BRO, I JUST WRITE WHAT IS

They called the finishing golf holes at Quail Hollow the green mile, a tribute to the closing challenge that PGA players face before they collect a trophy. After a struggling weekend on the Central Coast Dirtbag baseball coach Mike Weathers and his inconsistent Beach boys are coming up on a college baseball green gauntlet of their own: Stanford, Fullerton and UC Irvine.

Peeking first at this weekend, the visitors will be those silver spoon kids from Stanford. The Cardinal suffered themselves this weekend getting swept at Washington and now must play five more games in seven days. First are Monday and Tuesday tests against Santa Clara and San Jose State before rolling into Blair for the Friday to Sunday session.

The high water marks for LBSU against Stanford were the 1998 and 2004 regionals. The budget basement boys from Palo Verde Avenue were sent to posh Palo Alto and beat the hosts 5-1 enroute to the CWS in ’98 behind Most Outstanding Player Termell Sledge. In ‘04 the star for the homeboys was some guy named Troy Tulowitzki who sparkled when LBSU beat St. Johns in the first game, sent Stanford to the loser’s bracket in game two (7-4) and then knocked out the Cardinal 8-4 in the regional final.

If the baseball word of the day was struggle then the tennis word of the day was unprecedented as in it is really difficult to win an unprecedented seventh consecutive tourney title. The drama in the desert for the Big West Women’s tennis championship involved more shaking than James Bond’s martini maker. The villain was UCI coach Mike Edles a journeyman coach with stops at Hawaii, Boise State, Hayward, Chapman, and Bakersfield.

With his ace Stephanie Hammel coming off of a recent injury Edles played her at #3 to protect his numbers 4, 5, and 6 seeded players. It worked and although Hammel lost 6-1, 6-1 on Saturday, and did not finish on Sunday, this tactic allowed Edles to push stronger players down his ladder to face less experienced opponents. It worked over the protest of UCSB in the semi finals and again in the final winning at #5 and #6 and beating LBSU for the tourney title. .

Next year the Beach will go into the championship with their best recruit in years Klaudia Malenovska. She was NCAA ineligible this season but will join a team that has everyone (including seven freshmen and sophomores) back for the payback.

Beyond baseball this weekend includes softball, which was swept at UCSB, trying Fullerton in Titan-land this weekend, and track in their BWC championships at Northridge.

Last event important to the LB sporting crowd is the state budget mess. President F. King Alexander wrote the campus, “Our current financial situation is unchanged because the Governor and legislature have yet to take any action. However, the next milestone in the state's budgeting process is the Governor's May Revise Budget, which is due to be published no later than May 14.” Translated, no student athletic fee increase until at least then and possibly not until early fall.

Finally the “Where Are They” winner is Senator and former Dirtbag Danny Espinosa. Espy was drafted in the third round by the Washington Nationals in 2008 and is the Harrisburg (PA) Senators starting shortstop. Espy leads his team in average, on-base and slugging percentages and is rated by Baseball America as the fifth best shortstop in the Nationals organization. He also provided our Closing Quote. When asked what he misses the most moving to Pennsylvania from Long Beach? “Mexican food”. –DR. DAN