With 14 games remaining, the Long Beach State Dirtbags will arguably be facing the most difficult stretch of the their regular season.
That’s because 10 of the Dirtbags’ remaining 14 games will be against top 25 ranked opponents. Not to mention, six of those contests will be played against two fellow Big West Conference rivals in No. 11 Cal State Fullerton and No. 19 UC Irvine.
According to the NCAA Ratings Index Percentage (RPI), which takes into account a team’s record and strength of schedule, the Dirtbags are ranked 65th with a 5-10 record against top 50 ranked opponents.
And with LBSU (23-19, 8-7 Big West) sitting three games behind first-place Fullerton (30-13, 11-4 Big West) in the Big West standings, there will be little room for error with just nine games left in conference play. After all, its postseason life is at stake.
But before the Dirtbags head back to Big West play, they will be facing a crucial three-game series against the No. 8-ranked Arizona State Sun Devils at Packard Stadium in Tempe, Ariz. First pitch Friday is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
Led by Joey DeMichelle and Matt Newman, the Sun Devils (32-11, 13-5 Pac-10 Conference) have a high-powered offense that leads the Pac-10 in home runs and ranks second in total bases, runs scored and batting average.
ASU also sits in second place in the Pac-10 behind Oregon State, which took two of three games against LBSU at Blair Field in March.
Perfect Game USA Baseball writer Kendall Rogers said LBSU has to step up their level of play if they want to reach the postseason, however, that’s what the Dirtbags have done as of late.
Last Friday, LBSU dropped the opening game of a three-game series against the Cal Poly Mustangs, 10-0, with its No. 1 starting pitcher Andrew Gagnon on the mound. Nonetheless, the Dirtbags stood their ground and won the next two games to take the series as they moved one game behind the Mustangs who sit in third place in the Big West.
The Dirtbags then took a trip down to San Diego on Tuesday for their second game of the season with a struggling San Diego State team. Luckily for LBSU, they were able to outlast the Aztecs, 7-6, in 12 innings.
Dirtbags head coach Troy Buckley stuck to his Tuesday game routine of using multiple pitchers — nine total — to give his regular starters time to recuperate for the weekend. The standout of the group was right-hander Matt Johnson, who threw three innings in relief, allowing just two hits while striking out six. Johnson would pitch the 10th, 11th and 12th innings to give LBSU its third consecutive win.
If one thing is for certain, the Dirtbags are going to have to continue playing at a high level if they hope to have any shot at making the postseason.
The question will be an issue of which LBSU team will show up in the last 14 games of the regular season. Will it be the team that has defeated the likes of Fullerton, Stanford and Rice? Or the team that lost five of its first eight conference games against lower ranked opponents? Time will only tell.
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