The Long Beach State baseball team will look to improve upon the big strides it made last season, starting with a three-game series against Virginia Commonwealth University.
Going into 2011 the Long Beach State baseball team looked poised to register its third straight losing season, especially with two-thirds of the its roster being overturned. However, the freshmen-laden team was able to win five of its last seven games to finish at 29-27, giving the Dirtbags a glimmer of hope for the future.
First-year head coach Troy Buckley had the daunting task of returning the Dirtbags program to Big West Conference contention with a roster full of newcomers, and accomplished that in just one year — finishing fourth in conference play. Buckley’s first year on the job included series wins over UC Irvine and Cal Poly, both teams that finished ahead of LBSU in conference standings.
This year, Buckley will look to capitalize on last year’s success with 22 returning players, many of which are in their second season with the program to replace the likes of Andrew Gagnon, Kirk Singer and Mike Marjama, all of who were drafted last June in the 2011Major League Baseball First-year Player Draft.
“Yeah, those [drafted players] were big for us, but we have [returning players] that have gone through the rigors of a full season,” Buckley said. “We had [a majority of the team] last year that didn’t know what to expect and now they’re experienced.”
Coming off of a rough, yet successful season for many of the fresh-faced Dirtbags, they can now put the Pac-12-heavy schedule in their rearview mirror for friendlier foes. LBSU will face Virginia Commonwealth University in a three-game series at home to begin the season on Feb. 17.
According to Baseball America, the most notable opponents LBSU will face are No. 17-ranked Arizona State in a three-game home series, two midweek games against No. 14 UCLA and of course, two highly anticipated three game-sets with Big West-foe No. 25 Cal State Fullerton.
“We’ll have to use the non-conference schedule to figure out who will win permanent jobs,” Buckley said. “We held our own with a lot of unknown [players] last year, but the team has to win and we can win these games. That’s where the experience comes in and that will help us.”
After the opening VCU series at Blair Field the schedule calls for games with Pac-12 powers in USC, Oregon, Cal, and the aforementioned UCLA and Arizona State, with a midweek visit by the Tony Gwynn-led San Diego State Aztecs in between. Last year, the Dirtbags faced eight of the ten then Pac-10 teams.
Leading the way in replacing the drafted ex-Dirtbags will be senior right-handed pitcher Shawn Stuart. Stuart is the strong favorite to claim the prestigious Friday night starter’s role for the Dirtbags, a slot that Anaheim Angels star Jered Weaver once held.
“Shawn wasn’t 100 percent at times last year, but pitched extremely well with what he had,” Buckley said. “I think that his saving grace is knowing that he can still win with his 70 percent. He’s a huge part of this team and he’s slated to go on Friday night and that means a lot at [Long Beach State].”
Stuart battled through the 2011 season with elbow trouble yet placed second on the Dirtbags with 13 games started behind Gagnon to go along with a miniscule 3.19 earned run average.
Candidates to fill the other two weekend rotation slots consist of right-handed pitchers senior Matt Johnson, sophomore Jon Maciel, as well as sophomore southpaw Ryan Strufing.
As for the bullpen, junior Eddie Magallon will return to the closers role after recording 9 saves in 2011. Magallon also led the pitching staff with 23 appearances.
Returning to start at their respective positions in 2012 are senior centerfielder Brennan Metzger, junior infielder Matt Duffy, sophomore second baseman Jeff McNeil, senior catcher Kellen Hoime and sophomore first baseman Ino Patron.
Duffy takes over the shortstop position after a summer spent in the highly touted Cape Cod League. Duffy hit .346, which was good for third in the league. Duffy has also been tabbed as the Dirtbags team captain for the 2012 season.
While offense wasn’t one of the strong suits of last year’s team then-freshman Ino Patron stood out amongst the surplus of newcomers. Patron led the Dirtbags with three home runs to go with 24 runs batted in.
This year’s version of Patron could be freshman outfielder Richard Prigatano, who was ranked as the No. 14 player in the nation in this year’s freshman class by Baseball America. As of right now, Prigatano will start in either left field or right field while hitting in the middle of the order.
“What Prig does is that he stretches out our line-up; he makes people have to pitch to other guys in the middle of the order,” Buckley said. “Overall, we are deeper and we’ll be more offensive-minded without losing that situation hitting we had last year.”
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