The Aggies had a week off from conference play after their series against the Long Beach State Dirtbags. The Aggies played 5 games, 2 at home in Dobbins and 3 during a weekend series when they made a trip down to Bakersfield to take on the Roadrunners of CSUB. The Ags came out of the week with a 2-3 record with a win against San Jose State and 1 in Bakersfield. This past weekend the Aggies had their 3rd conference series, this time against pre-season top 10 team UC Irvine. Coming into the weekend the Aggies stood at 16-16 overall and 2-4 in conference play and the visiting Anteaters came in at 21-13 and 5-4 in conference play. By the end of the weekend the Ags fell to 2-7 in conference play and the Anteaters improved to 8-4.

Friday-
Not a lot went right for the Aggies throughout the weekend, Sean Watson would fall into 1 of the few things that did. Watson struggled some by hitting three batters and balking 1 time but given the struggles the Aggies have had with their third starter since Anthony Kupbens' injury. Watson finished his day with 7 and 2/3 innings, allowing 11 hits, 7 runs, only 3 of which were earned but the reason they were unearned was Watson's fault.

Offensively there was pretty much nothing happening for the Aggies, in total they sent 28 batters to the plate throughout the game, for those of you keeping score at home that's one more than the minimum. Daniel Bibona and Kyle Hooper combined to 3 hit the Aggies through 9 innings in only 109 pitches. Bibona struck out 8 batters as he improved to 7-2 on the year.

The Anteaters were in full force offensively by scoring 8 runs on 13 hits. They were lead by Casey Stevenson who went 4 for 5, scoring 2 runs and driving in 3. Brian Hernandez also chipped in going 3 for 5 and drove in 3 runs as well.

Overall the game on Friday was not one the Aggies want to remember offensively and did not set a good tone for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday-
The Aggies hoped to get their offense on track after the sub-par showing on Friday but that was not in the cards on Saturday afternoon. The Aggies started off the game with a single by Daniel Cepin, driven hard in the hole between shortstop and third base. That single by Cepin accounted for the totality of the Aggies offense on Saturday. Christian Bergman pitched a masterful game for the Anteaters, facing the minimum amount of batters after Cepin was caught stealing later in the 1st inning. Bergman held the Aggies scoreless while moving through the rest of the game without allowing another base runner. He struck out 6 and only required 89 pitches to get through the 9 innings.

Unfortunately for the Aggies their Ace was not in the same form as Bergman. Dayne Quist took the mound Saturday after a decent outing in Bakersfield the week before but his numbers against the Anteaters were, to put it bluntly, bad. The southpaw finished the day going 5 plus innings, surrendering 11 hits while walking 2, he also doubled hit hit batter number by plunking two Anteaters on the day, one positive was that he did strike out 4 batters. Given how strong Bergman was pitching it didn't really matter how many runs the Aggies pitchers surrendered but the 13 that Quist and Scott Heinig ended up allowing added an extra string to the loss.

Sunday-
Heading into Sunday the series had already been decided both mathematically and emotionally but the Aggies still hoped to but forward a better offensive showing than they had the previous two games, while they were unable to come away with the win their were definitely positives to take away from the Sunday game. Those positives were mainly the offense showing up and Nathan Slaters performance in relief of Scott Lyman.

The offense came away Sunday with 11 hits, 6 of which were split between Scott Heylman, Eric Johnson, and Paul Politi. Those players also combined for 3 runs sored and 3 RBI. The Anteaters offense was still in full swing on Sunday, scoring 10 runs, 8 against Lyman. They were lead by Brian Hernandez, Jeff Cusick, and normally light hitting DJ Crumlich. Cusick was 2 for 4 with 1 run scored and 4 RBI, Hernandez went 1 for 3 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI, and Crumlich chipped in going 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored and 1 batted in.


A look forward-
It was clear the the Aggies were outmatched by the Anteaters this past weekend, but there are good things to take at least from Sundays game. They are still a young team and there will still be growing pains throughout the rest of the year. The Ags will be at home Tuesday taking on the Golden Bears of Berkeley before heading down to Northridge this weekend for a three game series against the Matadors of CSUN. The Aggies have a tough match up this weekend, while they currently have a 6-9 record while away from Dobbins and the Matadors have a 12-10 home record.

Labels: Baseball, Big West, Irvine, Recap

After last weeks Series against the Cal State Fullerton Titans the Aggies stood at 0-3 in Conference play. The visiting Long Beach State Dirtbags gave the Aggies some trouble but the Aggies had a much better series overall this past weekend, finishing at 2-1 to improve to 2-4 overall in conference play. Due to poor weather forecast for Sunday the weekend series was played with 1 game on Friday and a double header Saturday.

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.

Scott Lyman actually pitched a better game than his numbers suggest and his numbers weren't even that bad. Lyman went 6 and 1/3 innings while giving up 10 hits, 5 runs which were all earned, striking out 4 and only walking 1. He improved to 2-3 on the season as a pitcher, and 2-1 in his last 3 starts. I would say the experiment to not have him hit while he's on the mound has proven to be a success thus far. Lyman had some troubles in the 7th inning and would eventually be pulled for Davis native Scott Heinig. The bullpen struggled a little bit late in the game but Matthew Lewis came on in the 9th to get his second 2 out save in as many days.

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.

Labels: Baseball, Long Beach State, Recap

The Aggies knew that coming into Fullerton they were going to have to fight for everything. The Fullerton Titans had struggled before conference play but there is a reason that they were ranked 4th overall in the nation in Baseball America's pre-season College rankings, the Titans are a perennial powerhouse in the world of college baseball. They have produced a long line of major league talent including among others: Aaron Rowand, Kurt Suzuki, Phil Nevin, and Mark Kotsay. The Titans currently have some more potential major league talent in the pipeline with Christian Colon and Gary Brown. The Aggies knew that the Titans could be even better offensively than the opponents from last week, the Fresno State Bulldogs, and Friday night the Titans started the series off with a bang.

Thursday-

Double digit runs is not very common in baseball, even less common is putting up 20 in one game which is exactly what the Titans did Friday night. Dayne Quist looked a lot like he did last week against Fresno State, very hittable. His ending stat line is pretty ugly, one of the most telling stats was that he had his shortest appearance of the season at 5 innings while still throwing a lot of pitches, 109 to be exact. Quist, as the Friday starter, if often called upon to go deep into games to set the tone for the weekend and anytime he exits the game early it is a fairly clear marker to see how he's done. Quist also gave up 10 earned runs and 11 total. The worst ratio in my opinion for the Thursday start was that he walked 6 while only striking out 1, when you're that hittable and unable to get any outs yourself it's going to be a really bad day. That was the one thing Quist had in Fresno, so this outing was that much worse. I am still confident that the young southpaw will bounce back but back-to-back weak showings is never a good thing. Unfortunately for Quist his bullpen wasn't able to help him out at all.

Tim Busbin very likely had his worst outing of his pitching career during his only appearance for the weekend in Fullerton. Busbin went 1/3 of an inning on 37 pitches while giving up 9 runs, all of which were earned. Busbin gave up 3 hits and walked 6 and struck out 0. At that point the game was beyond reach, Scott Chew made his second appearance on the year and went 2 and 2/3 innings while pitching pretty well but "junk time" has possibly never been more fitting then his time in the game Thursday night.

Daniel Cepin and Paul Politi had the best nights for the Aggies at the plate but hardly any hitters played a full 9 innings and compared to the Titans hitters no one in the Aggies lineup did anything notable. The Titans were lead by exactly who we thought they would be, Christian Colon and Gary Brown. Colon and Brown were a combined 8 for 11 with 6 runs scored and 6 RBI, so a very impressive night for the top two hitters for Fullerton.

Friday-

The Aggies had 24 hours to regroup but when they took to Goodwin Field Friday night it was a very similar outcome. The Ags did have more bats come alive Friday, with Scott Heylman, Scott Lyman and Justin Schafer leading the way with a combined 7 for 11 from the plate with 4 runs, and 2 RBI but it still wasn't nearly enough to keep up with the Titans.

The Titans put the game away quickly, scoring 6 runs in each of the first two innings. They were once again lead by Colon and Brown, going 3 for 5 and 3 for 4 respectively. Brown also scored 4 runs Friday night while also knocking in another.

The Aggies once again had a weak performance from their starter, Anthony Kupbens this time. Kupbens stat line comes across as pretty ugly, 4 and 2/3 innings and he threw 115 pitches which gives a indication of the trouble to come. The lefty gave up 15 hits, walked 4 and allowed 16 Titans to cross the plate, all of which were earned. Sean Watson had one of his worst outings on the year in relief of Kupbens, going 2 and 1/3 innings while allowing 10 hits and 7 runs to score. It took the Aggies 186 pitches to get through 7 innings of baseball.

Saturday-

The fact that the Aggies came out to the field on Saturday and actually put up a fight is impressive, but unlike in Fresno last week they were unable to come away with the W. The game on Saturday was a pitchers duel, with Kyle Mertins and Scott Lyman facing off.

Lyman had another strong performance, which makes it back to back good outings from the struggling Sunday starter. His stat line doesn't look great but Lyman did a good job battling and keeping his team close throughout the game. The young righty went 7 innings, gave up 9 hits and walked 4 while only striking out 2 but he kept his team withing striking distance, which is a feat after how much offense the Titans put together the prior two games. It looks as though Lyman has turned a corner with the new tactic from Rex Peters, on days that he pitches Lyman no longer is in the lineup. The question will be if the Aggies offense continues to struggle on days that Lyman starts, will Peters be able to hold one of his best hitters out of the lineup.

David Popkins was the only Aggie hitter to have a strong day, going 2 for 4 with 2 RBI. The Titans top two hitters were pretty quiet also, Colon went 1 for 5 and Brown went 0 for 2 with a walk. After the output the Titans had on Thursday and Friday it is understandable that they didn't have much left in the tank, but they still had enough to get the W. The Titans broke the 2-2 tie in the 8th inning when Billy Marcoe went yard over the center field fence off of Scott Lyman. The Aggies had a chance to sneak away from Goodwin field with a win but instead they start conference play off with the 3 game sweep.

Upcoming week-

The Aggies game against the Wolfpack of Nevada, which was scheduled for Monday, has been postponed so the next time they take the field will be back in Davis at Dobbins Stadium this Friday the 9th where they will host Long Beach State for a weekend series. The Aggies have a little more pressure now that they will be starting their second week of conference play still looking for win number 1. I would imagine that we will see a strong bounce back from Quist and Kupbens as well as hopefully the offense as a whole. Kupbens has been one of the more quiet starters early on this year with Quist dominating his first 4 starts and Lyman has the flashy tools but Kupbens still is a capable starter and I will be looking at him in depth later this week. The Aggies next 5 games are at home in Davis and that chance to regroup is exactly what they need after weak showings in Fresno and Fullerton.

Labels: Baseball, Christian Colon, Kupbens, Quist, Recap, Scott Lyman

Labels: Baseball, Quist

The Aggies came into Fresno having played very good baseball as of late. After three games against the Bulldogs the Aggies now know that they have a lot of things to work on before they start conference play on April 1st in Fullerton. Overall it was a very tough weekend of baseball for UC Davis. I actually had the honor of being on site at Pete Beiden Field to call the evening game for KDVS alongside sports director Ben Taylor.

The Aggies came into Fresno Friday night with a good chance at coming away with a win. The reason for that was the Ags were throwing their ace Dayne Quist. Friday night was the first time all season Quist looked human on the mound. Before facing the Bulldogs Quist had 4 wins in 4 starts along with a 1.83 ERA while only allowing opponents to hit .167 against him. Friday was a very different story for the young southpaw. He looked very hittable against the potent offense of the Fresno State Bulldogs. The Aggie ace lasted 6 innings, which is his shortest appearance on the season, and he gave up 8 runs on 11 hits. I'll be looking at Quist more in depth later this week but Friday night presented a laundry list of things that he needs to improve on to get back to his dominant ways.

The Aggies offense didn't do much to help out their pitcher, being held to just 2 runs on 6 hits. Even worse, two of the Aggies top batters went with out a hit on the night. Scott Lyman and Eric Johnson both had very rough nights as they went a combined 0 for 8 with 2 strikeouts and left 7 runners on base. The other hitter in the heart of the lineup for the Aggies, clean up hitter David Popkins, preformed decently going 1 for 3 with a walk and a run scored. Scott Kalush also had a nice night at the plate, going 1 for 2 with a walk and a run batted in. As far as the bullpen went, Scott Chew got some game time for the first time this season and looked decent. Chew could work out to be a nice southpaw coming out of the pen.

Overall Friday night was a good example of how the Aggies don't want to play once they hit the conference schedule. The pitching was sub-par for pretty much the entire night and the hitting left a lot to be desired. What made it even worse was just how good the Bulldogs looked in those two facets of the game.

From the outset it was clear that this Bulldogs team could mash, scoring 3 runs against Quist in the first inning. The offense continued in the second inning behind the bat of Junior second baseman Danny Muno, who finished the night 2 for 3 with a walk, 1 RBI and 2 runs scored. To start the bottom of the second, Muno drilled a no-doubter home run to right field. Quist held the Bulldogs scoreless for a couple innings but in the 5th the Bulldogs broke the game wide open with 4 runs. Quist was outpitched by fellow lefty Josh Poytress, who went 7 innings for Fresno. The 7 innings was a career high, and he held the Aggies to just 5 hits while walking 4. After the 5th inning of this game you could tell the the Aggies had been morally defeated.

The Saturday night game also had a 6:05 first pitch time but had a very different feel to the start of the game. Anthony Kupbens pitched very well through 6 innings but the term hit the wall seems to fit for how the game ended for the young lefty. He had a very nice slow loopy curve working off and on throughout the game that, when combined with his 84-85mph fastball, was very effective. His command was iffy from the get-go walking 5 and leaving the game with multiple runners on base that the bullpen had to deal with. Writing about this game is especially hard because of how it ended.

As I said before, I was on site for KDVS calling the game. To watch the Aggie pitching completely fall apart at the end of the game was difficult to say the least. The Aggies tried to hold off the Bulldog offense but the combination of strong Fresno State hitters and the struggles in the UC Davis bullpen gave the feeling that, even though the Aggies had led big early, the momentum was no longer in their favor. The Aggies allowed 6 runs in the last 3 innings to finish with a disappointing 7-6 loss. That will be a point of high concern going forward in my opinion. The starters won't be able to go 9 innings every game so they're going to have to get some help from the other pitchers on the roster.

Labels: Baseball, Recap

Hey guys, my name is Trevor and like Brett said on the message board, I'm going to be the new Baseball beat writer.

Before I jump into things I figured I would share a little bit about myself. I'm currently attending UCD as a History major. While I study History in school, my passion from a young age has been Baseball so I'm excited to step in and write about the hometown team. I'm actually one of the few local students that actually sticks around to go to college. I graduated from Davis High class of '04 and then spent sometime at Sac City until starting at UCD this past fall. Also, I post on the board under foolintherain. But enough about me, I wanted to start off my period here at AST with a run down of some of the players on the squad this year, and I figured the starting rotation would be a good place to begin. While Dayne Quist has been extremely impressive thus far this year I figured I'd start with the more interesting player in my mind, Scott Lyman.

The Sophomore RHP/OF has performed extremely well from the plate but has struggled thus far from the mound. Lyman is the only member of the Aggies' weekend starting rotation that is also a normal member of the everyday lineup; David Popkins has appeared in 4 games while also leading the Aggies with a .475 average but he has only appeared in relief. Some people have started to question what can be done to right Lyman's ship as his record stands at 0-2 while his earned run average is at 8.66 though 17.2 innings. While those numbers look really bad, he also has 17 strike outs in that span so on some level there is clearly something going right.

Lyman is just a sophomore but already has an overpowering arsenal of pitches. He has a strong fastball with a nice sink to it, a sharp curve he can break off and he also throws a change up, but not as often as the other two. The problem so far this season has been his lack of command of those pitches.

In his first start of the season against the Utah Utes, Lyman started off well but was removed after only 3 innings when his hamstring acted up. That week was a decent showing of his potential before the injury. The next week against BYU he got hit much harder, while making it through 3.1 innings he gave up nine hits and seven runs that were all earned. While Lyman's day on the mound was not great he did K 6 Cougars so he clearly had some stuff going right that day. His start against the Hornets was another case of taking the good and the bad. In 5.1 innings he gave up 7 hits and 5 earned runs but he did strike out 6 Sac State hitters.

Lyman is a very talented pitcher and has shown that early on this year, but there is pretty clearly something wrong. It might just be that he needs time to work on his command but Rex Peters and the rest of the coaching staff has shown they are willing to try to help Lyman be the best pitcher he can. His start against the San Jose State Spartans marked the first time that Lyman did not take his normal spot in the lineup while he was also pitching.

Not having him hit while he's pitching is just one of many steps that I think the team could take in order to get him back on track. One suggestion from our very own Brett Rodriguez was that Lyman pitch on Friday instead of Sunday. This would give Lyman the best chance at being a successful pitcher but it could hamper his hitting and playing outfield later in the weekend. After pitching on Friday he might not be able to play outfield the next two days, and hurting the chances of success for your best hitter is not a smart idea when the offense is going the way it is early this season. He could potentially play DH after pitching but then one of the Aggies' other best hitters so far this year, David Popkins, would be out of his lineup spot. So pitching on Friday may not be the best option.

All of this could be for nothing; maybe all Lyman needs is time, but doing nothing isn't a very realistic option either. The coaching staff has taken some steps and Lyman will be one of the more interesting situations to keep an eye on as the season progresses. In my opinion one thing is for sure, Scott Lyman has the potential to be an amazing Aggie. On the mound and at the plate he has the tools and the skill set to be an amazing player.

In the coming weeks I'm hoping to bring more in depth looks like this for other players on the roster as well as keeping up with how the team is doing this season in general.

Labels: Baseball, Scott Lyman