Back in the dark ages of Dirtbag baseball (this year that would have been around 9:49pm on March 23) fans, friends, players and employees of the franchise were ready to make a deal with the devil.

“Just give us a chance at the end of the season and I promise to never—fill in the blank—cuss, complain, or eat chocolate.” It is finally the end of the season and voila there is a chance but it all starts with this weekend and a visit from the gallant and talented University of the Pacific baseball team. Sarcasm you think you hear, nah, just trying to soften the visitors up a little for a series of little importance to the burghers of Stockton and great importance to the 49ers of Cal State, Long Beach State, CSULB, the Beach, Dirtbags or the preferred nickname of the day.

You see on that dreary day in Kansas there was no yellow brick road for a team that was sitting at 6-4 but now is an entire game above .500 at 25-24 (but a fancy 12-6 in the BWC) and face an opponent who is a modest 12-38. Take care of all the business this weekend and one goes into the final visit with league leading Fullerton with a genuine chance to steal the 2012 Big West title and that lovely envelope inviting you to a post season party hear, there or elsewhere. Many folks (besides myself) have been guilty of peeking at those regional projections.

One that amused part of my posse, Dr. Bill Butler of the University o Miami, was a pairing by PerfectGame.Com that had the Hurricanes and the Dirtbags meeting in Palo Alto. That is dangerous business and I insist that all the focus has to be on pitch by pitch this weekend. Pacific is a hungry Tiger for sure and they just got back perhaps their best hitter Riley Drongesen who returned to the lineup Tuesday in an 8-5 loss to Santa Clara. The catcher/second baseman had started and reached base in 21 straight games from Feb. 24 to Apr. 1. He hit .385 in that stretch (30-for-78) with eight doubles and 13 RBI. He got hit by a pitch on April Fools day at Irvine and missed the next 22 games. In his return Tuesday, Drongesen rapped an RBI single to stretch his hitting streak to 11 and his reached base streak to 22 straight games. UOP also brags about freshmen first sacker Erik Lockwood who has the Big West-leading batting average of .379.

The Bags brag about their freshmen outfielder Richard Prigatano who was the Sunday star last week going 3-for-4 with a solo home run as Long Beach State took the final game of series at UC Davis 4-1. Tonight’s game will feature Tiger freshman RHP Mike Benson with his 3.25 ERA in 80.1 innings pitched against LBSU junior Matt Anderson. Anderson is 4-2 with a 2.87 ERA in 78.1 innings but wasn’t in the groove at Davis when he got a no-decision allowing two earned runs in five innings but that was more of a problem for the offense. Sophomore LHP Ryan Strufing, who is 6-3 with a 3.25 ERA and Shawn Stuart get the other starts.

Stretch Drive Dust

Baseball announced the rest of their 2013 recruiting class, David Hill and Jonathan Serven to go along with a strong seven-member signing class from the fall,–Ryan McNeil, J.C. Cloney, Alex DeGoti, Eric Hutting, Zach Rivera, Shane Carle, and Ryan Millison.

“We are very excited to be adding Jonathan and David to our program,” noted Buckley. “Jonathan is an athletic infielder who has a physical presence coupled with an exciting amount of projection, while David is a competitive right-handed pitcher who possesses above average arm speed and an excellent sense of how to pitch.”

More on Dirtbags in or heading to the show, pitcher Nick Vincent has been called up to the San Diego Padres of San Diego (we love that line) and Joey Terdoslavich had already tried to find a host family at Double-A Mississippi when he got the call that he’d be skipping double A ball and going to the Atlanta suburbs for AAA Gwinnet.

“They basically told me that they thought I was mature enough to handle and it and I can handle failure,” Terdoslavich said. “There’s gonna be some struggle at the beginning, they told me, but they felt I could handle the jump. I’m trying to make them feel like they made the right decision.”

Saturday is the date that LBSU will salute in wood and springs Jered Weaver with his own 49er bobblehead. You must have a ticket for each head and the first 15oo fans can start lining up at 3:30 since it is a 5:30 start.

Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster will be throwing out the ceremonial first pitch on Sunday as part of a greater effort with “Game Day”, a charity event co-sponsored by Long Beach State and Steel Magnolias in support of the Geraldine Stramski Children’s Development Center.

Softball has free video this regional weekend from Tempe and golf went three under today and is right on the cut-line in Athens to make the finals next weekend in Pacific Palisades. And back to bases, Fullerton plays their “Davis” (UC Riverside) this weekend…odd how the lesser lights have figured out the big boys. The others are UC Davis at Cal State Northridge; UC Santa Barbara at Cal Poly; and Bakersfield at UC Irvine…no word yet on Boise, Fresno and other wannabes