FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
Long Beach, Calif. – Long Beach State baseball has announced its 2011 schedule, which will feature home series against Cal State Fullerton, Arizona, Oregon, Oregon State as well as road trips to Arizona State, Stanford and a tournament played at the San Francisco Giants home ballpark of AT&T Park.
The Dirtbags will continue a number of traditions, including putting together one of the most difficult schedules in the country. One year after putting together the 7th-strongest schedule in the nation, Long Beach State continues to ramp up the difficulty in an attempt to be as tested as possible.
Another tradition will be renewed in 2011, as the Dirtbags will play home-and-home series with Cal State Fullerton for the first time since 2007. The Dirtbags will open the season with the Titans at Blair Field starting on Friday, February 18, and will then head to Goodwin Field for another three-game series as part of Big West play from May 13-15.
The Cal State Fullerton series is the first part of an extended 12-game homestand to open the year for Long Beach State. After playing the Titans, the Dirtbags will have midweek games against LMU, USC and Hawaii as well as a pair of three-game series against Arizona and Oregon.
The first road trip of the year offers an interesting experience, as California hosts a six-team tournament at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Along with the Bears and the Dirtbags, Rice, Mississippi State, San Francisco and UC Santa Barbara are also competing in the tournament.
Long Beach State will then host Oregon State and travel to Stanford before starting Big West play by traveling up to Northern California once more to play Pacific. Home series for Long Beach State on the conference slate include UC Davis, UC Riverside, Cal Poly and Cal State Northridge before finishing the year on the road at UC Irvine.
The team will also take advantage of their bye week in conference play to travel to Arizona State for a three-game series in Tempe. With home-and-home midweek games against USC and UCLA and an opportunity to play Cal in the San Francisco tournament, the Dirtbags could play as many as eight teams in the Pac-10, as well as two teams that reached the 2010 College World Series in UCLA and Arizona State.
Long Beach State 2011 Schedule
