Since returning from injury, Long Beach State senior starting pitcher Shawn Stuart has helped anchor a Dirtbags pitching staff that has propelled a surging LBSU squad into a first-place tie atop the Big West Conference with Cal State Fullerton.
In his last three starts, Stuart has pitched 23 innings of three-run baseball to go along with 22 strikeouts in starts against Cal Poly, UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara.
On April 1, Stuart threw his first complete game shutout of his LBSU career, striking out nine Mustangs while surrendering only one hit.
The performance earned Stuart his second Big West Conference Pitcher of the Week award of his LBSU career, as well as a series victory over the Mustangs.
Stuart’s recent strong outings have been garnering a lot of attention from some major players in the baseball world.
“Long Beach State starting pitcher Shawn Stuart [struck out nine] in a [complete game] shutout of Cal Poly in a 4-0 win, taking series,” Perfect Game’s Kendall Rogers said on his twitter account. “Bad series loss for [Cal Poly].”
He has continued to show that the effort was no April fool’s joke with similar performances at Riverside, and at home against UCSB on Sunday.
The six-foot-three-inch Dirtbags pitcher struck out six Highlanders and gave up only two runs over seven innings. He then threw seven innings of four-hit, one-run baseball to secure a series sweep of the Gauchos, all the while improving his record to 4-0 on the season.
The senior now has a microscopic 2.06 ERA with 44 strikeouts in 52 1/3 innings pitched.
“We needed a good start in conference so it was good to help the team [these past two weeks],” Stuart said. “I was just effectively wild.”
Going into the 2012 season, LBSU head coach Troy Buckley looked to Stuart to replace Andrew Gagnon, a 2011 Milwaukee Brewers third-round draft pick, as the Friday night starter for the Dirtbags.
Seven starts into the season, Stuart has answered the call as the right-hander has helped carry LBSU to a 16-17 record, including a 7-2 mark in Big West play.
Overall, Stuart is second out of the three Dirtbags weekend starting pitchers in Innings Pitched, but is only 2 1/3 innings less than leader Matt Anderson even with one less start.
Considering Anderson, Stuart and third starter Ryan Strufing all have ERA’s below 2.80, the Dirtbags boast the best starting rotation in the Big West.
“The best part about being apart of the [starting rotation] is that we push each other,” Stuart said. “We want to do better than the other in a good way.”
He added: “Anderson has gone really far into games and [Strufing] has grown a lot since last year. It’s just really cool to be apart of something like that.”
The injury that cost Stuart a start against Wichita State was reported to be lingering leg tenderness by a Long Beach Athletic Department press release. Luckily for Stuart and the Dirtbags the injury was unrelated to his arm troubles of 2011, but has pushed him back to the third starter behind Anderson and Ryan Strufing.
“Mentally [it was] frustrating because you want to be out there playing,” Stuart said.
Beginning 2011 Stuart was tabbed as the Dirtbags closer before earning a weekend rotation spot midseason.
The Merced College-transfer earned two saves in five appearances out of the bullpen before starting 13 games for the 2011 LBSU squad.
Unfortunately for the Dirtbags, the bigger workload took a toll on Stuart’s elbow before the Turlock-native finished the 2011 season with 70 strikeouts in 74 Innings Pitched and a 3.16 ERA.
With the Dirtbags now tied for first place in the Big West with the Titans, and Stuart hitting his stride, they now have a go-to starter to help them return to conference supremacy.