12:00pm | Santa Barbara baseball has languished outside of the Big West trophy room, and frankly, they seldom get the attention of the top dogs—Fullerton, Irvine, Long Beach and even Riverside. This year under new skipper Andrew Checketts the Gauchos (17-14, 4-2) are trying to fix that image.

The best of the UCSBs is probably a lanky (Six-foot-six) freshman left-hander Andrew Vasquez who is simply the best pitcher in a pitching rich conference.  He leads all Big West pitchers with a 1.10 ERA and a .174 batting average against. From the not-so-hot-bed of Rancho Cucamonga his 62 strikeouts are second only to teammate Matt Vedo’s 67. Vasquez has pitched into the sixth inning in all but one of his starts and has struck out at least six hitters in every one of his outings. He has not allowed more than two earned runs in any of his starts and has allowed just six earned runs in his 49.0 innings pitched this year.

Now clearly offensively playing in a hitter friendly field in Goleta yields better numbers than the wide open spaces of Blair. Freshman Greg Mahle has been a huge part of the Gauchos this year as he has a team-high 22 RBI (second in the Big West) and a lofty .386 batting average. Sophomore Brandon Trinkwon is another hitting star with a .391 batting average, .573 slugging percentage and a .511 on-base percentage. As a team the Gauchos’ offense is first in the Big West in runs scored, home runs, RBI, slugging percentage and on-base percentage.

The Beach (13-17, 4-2) of course is not ready to let the Blue and Gold pass them and they have a two conference series wins (SLO and UCR) and their pitching has lived up to tradition.  The hitters have been on a roller coaster but the offense has been opportunistic.  Overall LB holds a 88-74 margin and both teams won their mid week work.  The Beach was down in SD and this time the 49ers’ Jeff McNeill led the contest with a triple to center field and the team never looked back and won easily with an nine run outburst.  UCSB beat SLO 6-5 and both teams are 4-2 in league. Last season, the Dirtbags lost two of three in Santa Barbara, but won the final game behind a pair of home runs from Ino Patron. The Dirtbags won the last series played in Blair back in 2010, and lead the all-time series 88-74.

Prix Dusting:

Yes the roar you hear is the LB Grand Prix making right turns downtown…under head coach Troy Buckley, the Dirtbags lowered their team ERA from 4.67 to 3.45, and the starting pitchers are again impressing in 2012. Long Beach State has league leaders in many of the top pitching categories. All three starters rank in the Top 10 in ERA, with Stuart leading the way at 2.18 in 5th place. Stuart and Strufing rank 4th and 6th in opponent batting average at .196 and .234, and Matt Anderson is tenth in innings pitched at 48.2 and ninth in strikeouts with 36. The trio all come into this weekend with an ERA under 2.80…taking one for the team is still the specialty of Senior Brennan Metzger who passed Jeff Jones for the second-most HBP in school history (48 in his career)…
The pitching plan this weekend features Niner righty Matt Anderson 2-1, 2.77 ERA against the Gaucho ace Vazquez  5-2, 1.10 ERA tonight (Friday), in the 5:30 Saturday contest LB lefty Ryan Strufing 4-2, 2.70 ERA tackles UCSB RHP Austin Pettibone, 5-2, 5.09 ERA with the Sunday 1 p.m. test featuring Dirtbag senior RHP Shawn Stuart, 3-0, 2.18 ERA against their other lefty,  Zack Edgington, 1-2, 2.89 ERA…the rest of the BWC has Pacific at UC Davis; Cal Poly at Cal State Northridge; Cal State Bakersfield at UC Riverside; and Cal State Fullerton at UC Irvine…the Dirtbag lineup is likely C-Kellen Hoime .222, (platoons with Royce Murai); 1B-Jeff Yamaguchi .220 Started 15 games at 1B; 2B-Jeff McNeil .245 Leads team with 8 sacrifices; 3B-Juan Avila .267 has 27 hits with six doubles in 2012; SS-Matt Duffy .271 riding a 13-game hitting streak; LF-Johnny Bekakis .284 third on the team in hitting; CF-Brennan Metzger .296 ; RF-Richard Prigatano .276 now 2nd in hitting and DH-Ino Patron .330 Leads the team in AVG and OBP; the Bull pen workers are Kyle Friedrichs 0-2 1.37 Leads team with three saves; Jon Maciel 1-1 1.88 ERA third in the bullpen; Josh Frye 1-2 4.76 13 K and 3 walks and versatile Jake Stassi… The next two Big West weekends are back at Blair facing the taunts (usually something clever like “state school”) from the UCs, Santa Barbara and Irvine…
 
The Niners offense has been cooking, the 9-4 romp over SDSU and that 8-2 Sunday shutdown at UCR. Stuart tied Steve Whitaker for the fourth-longest consecutive scoreless innings streak in Long Beach State history, reaching 27 2/3 innings before allowing a pair of runs in the seventh inning against the Highlanders. Stuart is now 3-0 on the year, and has an ERA of 2.18…gotta quit now, I need the creative writing juices to finish my tax return.