Friday-

The first game of the weekend series at Dobbins stadium would be a big test for the Aggies, Friday starter Dayne Quist had struggled in back-to-back starters against the Fresno State Bulldogs and the Cal State Fullerton Titans.

Quist came out of the gate earlier showing that his superior command, that had been lacking in his last two starts, was back. Quist held the Dirtbags scoreless until the top of the 9th inning when he gave up a 2-run-homer to shortstop Devin Lohman. His numbers overall were right back to where they had been in his first 4 starts of the season. In 8 and 1/3 inning the Aggies southpaw only surrendered 5 hits, walking 2, and striking out a total of 7 Dirtbags. Really up until that Lohman home run Quist had looked every bit the Friday starter that the Aggies need him to be. Matthew Lewis came in to finish the game off for the Ags, reportedly hitting the mid-90's MPH on his last pitch of the game. It seems as if Lewis has started to develop as the go to reliever at the back of the bullpen for the Aggies and so far so good.

The Aggie hitters were pretty quiet on Friday but Long Beach State helped them out with 3 errors. In the end none of the Aggies 3 runs were earned against the Dirtbag pitchers but they still got the job done. Scott Lyman lead the way offensively, going 2 for 3 with a walk and scoring 1 of the Aggies runs. David Popkins went 1 for 2 on the day, he also had a walk and scored 1 run for the Ags. Paul Politi scored the 3rd run for the Aggies, the only RBI of the game went to Daniel Cepin that came on a sac fly in the 7th inning.

One of the most important parts of the Friday game was that Dayne Quist kept his pitch count in the double digits, topping out at 96. The Aggies had not played amazingly but they played well enough to get their first conference win. The Aggies had momentum going into Saturday's double-header.

Saturday Game 1-

The 11am time for first pitch of the first game of the double-header kept some of the crowds away but the Aggies were there and ready from the start. Scott Lyman was on the bump for the Aggies and again he was not in the lineup while on the mound. Seth Batty took Lyman's place in the lineup and playing left field while David Popkins slid over to right field for game 1.

As far as the offense in game 1 on Saturday, the production was there throughout the lineup, with Scott Heylman being the only Aggie to not record a hit. Heylman did have 4 assists in the field to continue his stellar defense at second base. David Popkins lead the way for the offense, going 2 for 4 with 2 RBI, and 1 run scored. Paul Politi only had one hit on the day but he made it count. Politi came up with the bases loaded in the 2nd inning and drilled a ball deep into the left center gap to clear the bases, he ended up on second base with a double. Daniel Cepin also chipped in going 2 for 3 on the day with 2 runs scored, 2 RBI, and 2 walks.

The Dirtbags offense did flex it's muscle some in the morning game on Saturday, lead by Joey Terdoslavich, Jonathan Jones, and Devin Lohman. Terdoslavich went 3 for 4 with 3 RBI, and 1 run scored. Jones was 2 for 5 with a very important hit in the 9th inning that brought the game close enough that Rex Peters felt it necessary to bring in Matthew Lewis. Lohman, who had the home run against Quist on Friday, went 1 for 4 with 2 runs scored in game 1 on Saturday.

The biggest disappointment of the game for the Dirtbags had to be the poor outing for Jake Thompson. There were multiple scouts on hand for the morning game and reportedly it was to see Thompson. Unfortunately for the young Dirtbag righty his day did not go well at all. He ended up leaving the game after 1 and 1/3 innings and only facing 11 batters. Thompson walked 3, allowed 3 hits, and 6 runs that were all earned.

After the first game of the double header the Aggies had locked up their first conference series win on the season but had a big challenge in front of them with a Dirtbag offense that was clearly working on all cylinders and a missing Aggie from the normal starting three, Anthony Kupbens.

Saturday Game 2-

With Anthony Kupbens sidelined with tendinitis the Aggies turned to Freshman CJ Blom to start the second game of the double header. This time last year Blom was a senior attending Napa High School, on Saturday it was clear that the young lefty had the trust of Rex Peters to be put out there for his first career start as an Aggie.

For those of you unfamiliar with Blom, he is a 6 foot 4, 230 pound southpaw that hails from Napa, California. He actually played center on his high school football team and won a lineman of the year award for the San Joaquin Section. Before he made the start Saturday afternoon Blom had a 3.52 ERA, a 1 and 0 record in 6 appearances. He pitched a total of 7 and 2/3 innings while striking out 13, walking 5 and giving up 3 earned runs.

Blom's numbers Saturday weren't amazing but there are a lot of good things to take away from the game but first we'll cover the bad. He went 3 and 2/3 innings, gave up 9 hits and 6 earned runs. Blom left the game without walking a single Dirtbag, but only struck out 2. The lack of allowing any walks along with only being a freshman and facing a potent Dirtbag offense make Blom's start much more impressive than the overall numbers would suggest.

The story of the afternoon game was Branden Pinder and his great performance toeing the rubber for the visiting Long Beach State Dirtbags. Pinder came into the Series with a 3.64 ERA and a 2 and 3 record in 7 starts on the year. He had pitched 42 innings and only struck out 24 batters while allowing a batting average against of .307. The performance of Pinder was clearly fueled by the Aggies falling behind early and helping him out often but still his numbers were very impressive. Pinder checked in with the complete game shutout against the Aggies. He only allowed 3 hits and walked 1, which was actually Justin Schafer who was the first hitter Pinder faced on the day. The Sophomore righty for the Dirtbags only struck out 3 but it also only took him 101 pitches to complete his shutout of the Aggies.

Offensively there isn't much to talk about for the Aggies, Eric Johnson, Paul Politi, and Scott Heylman all had hits. Those three along with Joseph Medeiros and the previously mentioned Justin Schafer comprised the totality of the Aggies base runners for the last game of the weekend series.

The offense for the Dirtbags was in full force to finish off the series. Joey Terdoslavich continued his strong day, finishing game 2 going 3 for 5, scoring 2 runs and knocking in 1. TJ Mittelstaedt went 5 for 5, he also had 2 RBI and 1 run scored. Steve Tinoco went 2 for 3 for the Dirtbags and he also had 3 RBI.

Looking forward-

The Aggies improve to 2-4 in conference play and now have the next 6 games to regroup with 2 games midweek against the University of San Francisco Tuesday and a game against San Jose State on Wednesday. Both of those games will be played at Dobbins stadium, the San Francisco game will be broadcasting on KDVS 90.3 FM 15 minutes before first pitch, which is set for 2:30pm Tuesday.

This weekend the Aggies will be in Bakersfield taking on the Roadrunners of CSBU. The following week the Aggies will play 1 mid week game in Reno to cap off the streak of non-conference games. The 23rd-25th of this month the Aggies will have yet another huge task in front of them with the Anteaters of UC Irvine will be in Davis for a weekend series.