Long Beach State will meet its Orange County rival, Baseball America No. 10 Cal State Fullerton, beginning on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Blair Field.
The three-game series has an added twist after Dirtbags Head Coach Mike Weathers announced on Tuesday that he will retire following the 2010 season.
“Hopefully, [retirement] doesn’t disrupt us too much,” Weathers said after a team practice on Tuesday. “But, maybe it will inspire us a little bit and we’ll play a little looser.”
The Dirtbags currently sit 6 1/2 games behind the first-place Titans (30-14, 15-3 Big West) in the Big West standings with a 7-8 conference record.
The teams met earlier this year in a nonconference game as LBSU fell, 8-1. The Titans’ Christian Colon and Gary Brown — both on the Golden Spikes watch list — went a combined 5-for-9 with three RBIs.
The Golden Spikes Award is handed to the top amateur baseball player. Former Dirtbag Jered Weaver won the award in 2004.
Last season, the Titans swept the Dirtbags at Goodwin Field. LBSU surrendered 26 runs in that series, while scoring only seven runs of its own.
In 2008, the Dirtbags won the three-game set against the Titans, who were ranked No. 6 nationally at the time. The series marked the last time that the two teams met at Blair Field.
The Dirtbags have lost six of their last 10 games as of Tuesday, while CSUF has posted a 9-1 record over that span. Fullerton holds the all-time series lead with 118 wins to just 77 losses.
The biggest question mark going into the series is the health of LBSU starting shortstop Devin Lohman. The junior injured his hamstring in last Friday’s game against Stanford on a defensive play in the first inning. Lohman had a 16-game hitting streak going into last weekend and is currently leading the Dirtbags with a .415 batting average.
Lohman is listed as day-to-day, but Weathers said he is hopeful the right-handed slugger will be ready for Friday’s series opener.
The battle, however, could rely heavily on starting pitching. LBSU’s starters combined to surrender just 10 runs last weekend against Stanford, but only came away with one victory. The trio of Drew Gagnon, Jake Thompson and Branden Pinder, helped lift the LBSU staff to a 4.50 earned run average, which ranks third in the Big West.
The Titans’ staff, led by Daniel Renken (8-2), has a conference-leading 3.90 ERA as well as a dominant closer in Nick Ramirez.
After last Sunday’s win, Weathers summed up what the Dirtbags will have to do if they have any hopes of making it to an NCAA Regional.
Weathers said, “[After USC], now we’re back in conference where we pretty much have to win out.”
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