Cal State Fullerton comes to Blair Field this weekend for the first of two series against the Long Beach State Dirtbags, its conference rival.
For fear of jinxing the series, I am declining to make a prediction as to which club will win. But during this season, these two teams have been very evenly matched.
The Dirtbags bullpen currently has an ERA of 3.66, while Fullerton’s is 4.65. Strong relief pitching has also played an important role for the Dirtbags. With Saturday starter Manny McElroy sitting out for the past few weeks, and Sunday starter Omar Arif only averaging about three innings recently, Shane Peterson, Andrew Liebel and Adam Wilk have picked up the slack.
The Titans come in batting .273 as a team, as do the Dirtbags. The Dirtbags have had several strong offensive outings recently from Brandon Godfrey, Danny Espinosa, Robert Perry and Taylor Krick, but their catchers have severely dented the team average.
Brian Capon leads the Dirtbags’ catching staff, batting .200 in nine games, followed by .154 from starting catcher Travis Howell and .069 from Kip Masuda.
These two baseball powerhouse schools stack up evenly, making for intense competition this weekend, and throughout the rest of the season in the Big West Conference.
The rivals have continued their reign in the conference as the two top teams this season, as they typically have in past years.
Although this is not to discount UC Irvine, which broke into the rankings last week at No. 24 with a 19-5 record, or UC Riverside, which is ranked above Long Beach State in conference standings.
However, these two teams have not played nearly as tough a schedule as LBSU has. In fact, no team in the conference, Fullerton included, has played a non-conference schedule as tough as the Dirtbags’.
The Dirtbags have already faced seven top-30 teams, and have taken at least one win from each.
There is no doubt that this Dirtbag club is a talented one. Despite having the lowest record (12-7) out of all the top-30 ranked teams, LBSU is still firmly holding its No. 17 spot. Only one other team has a record lower than the Dirtbags’ in the top-30. Coincidentally, that team is Fullerton.
Long Beach State has proven its strength as a team through an intense non-conference schedule, but the series against their conference rivals will be the Dirtbags’ true test.
