If you're a fan of Long Beach State Dirtbags baseball, you've come to the right place.

The Long Beach State 49ers, better known as the Dirtbags, finished the 2005 season ranked as one of the top 25 teams in NCAA Division I baseball. The 'Bags were ranked 16th by Sports Weekly/ESPN, 18th by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, and 19th by Baseball America. The Beach went 37-22 overall, and 14-7 in the Big West Conference (good for 2nd place in the Conference), earning a #1 seed in the 1st round of post-season play. For the 3rd season in a row, their bid to host a post-season round was granted, as the Beach welcomed the 2005 Long Beach Regional. The Dirtbags hosted a Regional in 2003, and a Super-Regional in 2004. Unfortunately, they failed to advance to the Super-Regional last season, as the University of Southern California took that honor.

2006 looks bright. Though the Beach lose 8 players to the draft, including 2 weekend starters (Cesar Ramos and Marco Estrada) and the team's setup man and closer (Brian Anderson and Neil Jamison), pitching looks to be a strength again. Junior Jared Hughes, picked as the 18th best prospect in the elite Cape Cod League this summer, will likely anchor the staff as the Friday night starter. Sophomore Donnie Hume, who showed promise in 2 week night starts, is likely to vie for a weekend starting slot. My bet is senior Brett Andrade and sophomore Matt Fitts will compete for the setup and closing roles (not necessarily in that order). Sophomore Andrew Liebel is likely to see more playing time, and redshirt freshman Josh Tamba should see his debut on the mound. Add to these hurlers a nice crop of incoming recruits, including highly ranked prospect RHP Vance Worley (drafted in the 20th round, but slipped on signablity), two other drafted pitchers (RHP Kyle Bredenkamp - 37th round - and RHP Andre Lamontagne - 45th round)

Why the Dirtbags nickname...find out here.

Dirtbags Baseball began as a weblog, or blog. I continue to post current news and commentary to the blog regularly. The blog is interactive...please feel free to put your two cents worth in by clicking the "comments" link at the end of any blog post. The blog can be accessed by clicking here, or by clicking either of the "blog" links near the top of this page. Some features, such as stats on former Dirtbags in professional baseball, a photo gallery, etc., are published on other pages rather than on the blog. Look for links to these other pages at the top of the left column and/or the top of this column.

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