March 17, 2011
LOS ANGELES, Calif. -
Complete Release in PDF Format 
BRIEFLY
Carrying a 12-6 record after splitting a four-game series at Cal Poly last weekend and shutting out San Diego State on Tuesday, 5-0, LMU (12-6) will open a three-game series with No. 14 UC Irvine (12-1) over the weekend. The Lions will head to Irvine, Calif. for game one on Friday at 6:30 p.m. before returning home for the final two games on Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m.
QUICK PITCHES
• Alex Guthrie earned LMU's third consecutive WCC Player of the Week selection on Monday
• Guthrie was also named CollegeBaseballInsider.com's West Player of the Week
• The average time of game for the Lions this year is 2:38
• LMU is hitting just .083 (1-for-12) with the bases loaded this year, but is allowing just a ..095 mark (2-for-21)
• Alex Gillingham has thrown eight innings in each of his four starts this year
• Seven of Shon Roe's 12 RBI have come with two out
• The Lions are hitting .258 with two out in an inning this year, posting 29 two-out RBI
• LMU has turned a WCC-best 19 double plays this year
• The Lions garnered a WCC-best four players on the Preseason All-Conference team
• LMU is 10-6 against ranked-opponents under Head Coach Jason Gill
• Jonathan Johnson is second in the LMU record book for triples in a career with 16
• Alex Gillingham's complete game on February 19 at UC Riverside was only the second Lion complete game to occur in the month of February since at least 1999 (game records begin in 1999) - Brad Meyers (at San Jose State, 2/24/06)
• The Lions were picked to finish fifth in the WCC according to the coaches' preseason poll
• Twenty-eight of LMU's 31 baseball players on the 2011 roster hail from California
LION TRACKS
The LMU baseball team recorded its first shutout of the season on Tuesday, blanking San Diego State by a count of 5-0 at LMU's Page Stadium. Junior John Lally went six innings before a trio of Lion relievers sealed the shutout victory. The shutout was the first for the Lions since blanking Saint Mary's, 10-0, on May 2, 2010. Lally threw 92 pitches and allowed five hits, walked three and issued a pair of hit-by-pitches, but managed to keep San Diego State off the board offensively en route to claiming the victory to improve to 2-1. Freshman Jacob Smigelski was first out of the Lion bullpen, tossing an inning and two-thirds and allowing one hit and two walks while striking out two. Lefty Matt Florer dealt an inning before Jeremy Burrell recorded the final out for the Lions to finish the game on the hill. Junior Matt Koch hit his second home run of the year in the seventh inning en route to finishing 2-for-4 with the homer, a run scored, three RBI and a double. Koch now owns a team-best 15 RBI. Sophomore Matt Lowenstein continued his torrid pace this year, going 2-for-4 with a run scored, a double and a RBI out of the leadoff spot. The native of Chino Hills, Calif. is now batting .377 through 18 games this year.
GUTHRIE EARNS LMU'S THIRD STRAIGHT P.O.W.
Alex Guthrie ran the total of West Coast Conference Player of the Week selections to three straight for LMU, claiming the honor on March 14. Matt Lowenstein was named WCC Player of the Week on February 28, followed by Bret Dahlson on March 7. For his efforts, Guthrie was also named CollegeBaseballInsider.com's West Player of the Week. Guthrie hit .529 over the week, finishing 9-for-17 with four doubles, four runs scored and eight RBI. The native of Sunnyvale, Calif. slugged .765 and reached at a .529 clip. Guthrie hit safely in each of the four games, extending his hitting streak to eight straight games to that point. LMU's third baseman collected multiple hits in each of the final three games against the Mustangs, including a career-high tying three hits on Saturday in game one, and three more in the series finale. Guthrie posted a pair of doubles in both of the final games, including notching a career-high five RBI on Sunday.
LIONS SWEEP FEBRUARY PLAYER OF THE MONTH HONORS
The LMU baseball team swept the WCC Player of the Month awards for the month of February, as sophomore Matt Lowenstein was named WCC Player of the Month and junior Martin Viramontes took home WCC Pitcher of the Month accolades. The Pitcher of the Month selection is the first for LMU since Lee Roberts was named Pitcher of the Month for his work in April of 2009. The Player of the Month selection is the first for the Lions since 2003 when Jonathan Oller took home the honor for the month of March. The Lions went 7-1 over the course of the month of February. The start marked just the third time that LMU had began a season with a record of 7-1 or better. Lowenstein batted .519 for the month of February. The left-handed hitter collected a team-best nine runs scored, a triple and five RBI while drawing seven walks out of the leadoff spot in all but one game. He reached base at a .611 clip and slugged .593 while stealing a pair of bases. Viramontes went 2-0 with a 1.46 ERA over two starts in the month of February. The right-hander tossed 12.1 innings and allowed just three runs (two earned) while striking out 12. Opponents hit a measly .182 off the native of Fresno, Calif.
KOCH ON THE BENCH AGAIN
For the second straight year, junior Matt Koch was named to the Coleman Company-Johnny Bench Award Watch List, it was announced by The Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission on March 10. Forty-two catchers were nominated for the award by their coaches, but because the award is given annually to the top Division I collegiate catcher, the list will be updated to include other candidates until May 6, 2011. Koch is the only catcher from the WCC currently on the list. The annual award serves to honor those athletes that serve as a team's starting catcher in at least 75% of the games. Nominees that end up playing primarily another position, such as designated hitter, or those that split their time with another catcher in a 50/50 situation will be disqualified from semifinalist selection.
IT'S JUST A NUMBER
LMU perennially squares-off against quality teams not only on the weekends, but also in midweek contests, competing in the baseball-rich landscape of Southern California. With a loss to No. 7 Cal State Fullerton on March 1, LMU is 0-1 this year against ranked-foes. Last season LMU was 1-3 against ranked-opponents, dropping each of the first three games of the season to then-No. 7 UC Irvine before defeating No. 9 Cal State Fullerton on May 18. In 2009, LMU finished 9-2 against ranked opponents. The only two losses came at the hands of UC Irvine (March 31 and April 13). LMU took down then-No. 5 UC Irvine on March 3, swept then-No. 24 Fresno State in a four-game series from March 20-24, beat then-No. 6 Cal State Fullerton on April 7, and finally swept San Diego in conference play from May 1-3. As of this week, two Lion opponents (Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine) are ranked in one of the four major polls.
WHAT'S THE RUSH?
Through 17 games this year, LMU's average time of game is 2:38. LMU's fastest game this year came on February 19 at UC Riverside, as the teams played for an even 2:00 flat - which is the second-fastest game played for LMU since 1999. The Lions then played a pair of games that rank in the top-10 since 1999 against Hawai'i, losing 3-2 on March 4 in 2:14 before defeating the Rainbows, 4-1, on March 6 in 2:01. The longest game this year for the Lions came on February 19 as the Lions and UC Riverside played for 3:26...including a 30-minute rain delay.
TWIN KILLINGS
LMU turned seven double plays against UC Riverside to open the year, including four alone in the first game of the doubleheader on February 19. Through 18 games, LMU has turned 19 double plays total, averaging 1.06 per game. That average puts LMU on pace to turn 58 double plays this year. The LMU record for double plays turned in a season is 72 set in 1990. The four double plays turned in the game at UC Riverside fell one short of the LMU game record of five on May 14, 2008 versus UC Irvine. Overall on the weekend, LMU turned five inning-ending double plays en route to taking three of four games from the Highlanders.
WHAT A RELIEF!
LMU relievers have combined for a 3-2 record and a 1.59 ERA through the first 18 games this season. The bullpen didn't allow an earned run over the first 17 innings this year. LMU's relief crew has amassed 45.1 innings of work, collecting eight saves and striking out 36 hitters while allowing 13 runs (eight earned). Opponents are hitting .188 against the Lion bullpen. Offensively, LMU has hit opposing relievers hard, tagging them with a 2-4 record and a 4.15 ERA over 60.2 innings. The Lions are hitting .269 with 34 runs scored against opponent bullpens.
AN ALL-AROUND CLOSER
Serving as LMU's closer, junior Ryan Hawthorne recorded a pair of saves in the weekend series against UC Riverside to open the year, but perhaps his best game-finishing performance came in the series finale when he contributed the game-winning hit to hand LMU a 2-1 walk-off win and the series victory over the Highlanders. The native of Granada Hills, Calif. now sports a team-best six saves this year, placing tied for fifth in the LMU single-season record books in that category and two shy of entering the all-time books.
Tuesday's baseball game against San Diego State was this week's TEAM LMU Game of the Week. The purpose of TEAM LMU is to bring Lion fans together as one, creating an atmosphere that helps build the Lions into champions, while allowing all to enjoy the benefits of our corporate partners. For more information about TEAM LMU, log on to:
www.LMULions.com/teamlmu
HOME SWEET HOME
Now in its 29th season as the home of Lion baseball in 2011, George C. Page Stadium has established itself as a tough place for opponents. Boasting features such as the Mikos Blue Monster, Pride Park and the Lion's Cage down the line in right field, Page Stadium continues to stake its claim as one of college baseball's most unique ballparks. The Mikos Blue Monster is a replica to Boston's Fenway Park's Green Monster. The Mikos Blue Monster stands 130-feet wide and 37-feet tall. Within the wall is one of only a handful of manual scoreboards in all of college baseball. The board itself isn't small, standing 18-feet tall and 46-feet wide. The Lions, who have posted a 461-344-4 (.572) overall record in the park's 28 seasons, including an 8-2 mark this year, have claimed five conference titles while calling Page Stadium home. The first Page Stadium conference title came in 1986, when the Lions posted a 24-8 record at home. The best record came in 1988, when LMU was 30-5 at home (.857).
ANTEATER ANTICS
The No. 14 UC Irvine baseball team enters the weekend series against the Lions sporting a 12-1 overall record after sweeping Sacramento State in a three-game series last weekend. The Anteaters' lone loss came at the hands of Saint Mary's on March 4, falling 1-0. Tommy Reyes is the team's leading hitter in terms of batting average, batting .440 with 12 runs scored, four doubles and six RBI. UC Irvine is hitting .334 as a team. D.J. Crumlich sports a team-best 24 runs scored with three doubles, two triples and 15 RBI. Drew Hillman and Jordan Leyland have both belted a pair of home runs for UCI, while Jordan Fox is hitting .439 with 14 runs scored, four doubles, a triple and a team-best 19 RBI. Matt Summers, who is slated to get the ball on Friday against the Lions, paces the team with a 2.18 ERA and a team-best 21 strikeouts over a team-high 20.2 innings of work. Andrew Thurman is expected to pitch on Saturday, sporting a 1-0 record and a 3.31 ERA in five appearances and one start so far this year. Right-hander Crosby Slaught will get the nod on Sunday to conclude the series, as he enters with a 3-0 record and a 2.75 ERA. Slaught has punched-out 17 batters over 19.2 innings this year. UC Irvine leads the all-time series against the Lions, 34-31-3. LMU is 0-5 over the last five games against UC Irvine, and 2-8 over the last 10. The Anteaters took the last meeting between the two teams, 19-9, on February 21, 2010 to complete a series sweep over the Lions to open the year. LMU last earned a victory over UC Irvine on March 3, 2009 by a count of 11-3.
INSIDE THE DUGOUT
Sophomore left-hander Matt Florer will be blogging throughout the season to give an insider's perspective on LMU baseball. Check back in regularly to see what Matt has to share, and to see the weekly winner of the "Zoo Crew Member of the Week" award. To read "Inside the Dugout with Matt Florer," please head to:
Inside the Dugout with Matt Florer
NEW INTERACTIVE YEARBOOK AVAILABLE ONLINE
LMU Athletics, in conjunction with zmags.com, is proud to offer fans a new interactive publication viewing experience. All LMU yearbooks in 2010-11 will incorporate zmags' Flash-enabled technology to bring fans clickable content featuring videos and live updated web links. Despite the transition from printed guides to online content, LMU interactive guides will continue to feature player and coach biographies, team histories, and information about Loyola Marymount University and its athletics programs. The publications will work in tandem with LMU's official athletics website, www.LMULions.com, to offer up-to-date statistics and news. Additionally, the publications are easily downloadable and printable, allowing fans to take the documents with them. All historical information is available in a second PDF publication, also on www.LMULions.com. To view the 2011 publications, please visit:
2011 LMU Interactive Yearbook and Record Book
WEEK OF FIRSTS FOR DAHLSON
Freshman Bret Dahlson was named WCC Player of the Week, it was announced by the conference office on March 8. For Dahlson, the selection is the first of his career, while it marked the second in as many weeks for the Lions. Sophomore Matt Lowenstein took home the honor on February 28. Dahlson batted .400 for the week, finishing 6-for-15 with two runs scored, a pair of doubles, a home run and five RBI. The home run, which came on the first pitch of the eighth inning on March 3, was the first of Dahlson's career, and the first of the year for LMU. Dahlson, a native of Yorba Linda, Calif., slugged .733, reached at a .438 clip and stole one base over the course of the week. Dahlson hit safely in four of the five games played, including a pair of hits in each of the first two (at No. 7 Cal State Fullerton on March 1 and versus Hawai'i on March 3). The right-handed hitter also collected three RBI on March 5 against Hawai'i, finishing 1-for-3 with a double. The two hits against Cal State Fullerton marked the first career multiple-hit game for Dahlson, while the three RBI against Hawai'i spelled the first multiple-RBI effort for the freshman.
TO THE POLLS
The Lions were receiving votes in two publications for the week of February 28, getting a nod from the National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association and the USA Today/ESPN Coaches. Prior to this year, LMU last received votes on two occasions in 2009, on May 4 (USA Today/ESPN) and April 13 (NCBWA).
LOWENSTEIN NAMED PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Sophomore Matt Lowenstein was named WCC Player of the Week, the conference office announced on February 28. The selection was Lowenstein's first of his career, and the first for the Lions in 2011. Lowenstein hit safely in all four games last week, batting .667 over the course of the week with eight runs scored, a triple, four walks and five RBI. He collected multiple hits in three of the four games, and multiple RBI in two of the four. In addition to reaching base at a .700 clip and slugging .800, Lowenstein stole one base and collected a sacrifice fly. The native of Chino Hills, Calif. went 3-for-3 with three runs scored and two walks on Tuesday at Long Beach State before finishing 3-for-4 with two runs scored, a walk, a stolen base and two RBI against Nevada on Friday. After a 1-for-4 day with a run scored on Saturday, Lowenstein went 3-for-4 with two runs scored, a triple and three RBI on Sunday to finish the week.
PICKED BEFORE THE PITCH
Four LMU baseball players earned Preseason All-West Coast Conference selections, the conference office announced on February 10. The four selections are more than any other WCC team. A Freshman All-American, and last year's WCC Freshman of the Year, Matt Lowenstein is joined by senior Jonathan Johnson and juniors Martin Viramontes and Ryan Hawthorne on the Preseason All-Conference team. Hawthorne capped the 2010 season by being selected first team All-WCC. The four players highlight a team that is picked to finish fifth in the competitive West Coast Conference.
A BIT OF BACKDRAFT
Two of the three Lion players selected in 2010 MLB Draft are back with the team in 2011. The Tampa Bay Rays selected then-redshirt-sophomore catcher Matt Koch with the 671st overall pick in the 22nd round of the 2010 Major League Baseball draft on June 8, while fellow redshirt-sophomore Martin Viramontes was taken just five rounds later, selected as the 835th overall pick in the 27th round by the New York Yankees. Former Lion Xavier Esquivel also went in the draft, taken by the San Diego Padres with the 1,024th overall pick in the 34th round.
ANOTHER TOUGH SCHEDULE
According to boydsworld.com, the 2011 schedule ranked 19th in the nation in terms of projected Strength of Schedule (SOS) in the preseason, which takes into account the projected results and success of LMU's opponents this season. LMU currently ranks 111th in Strength of Schedule, 51st in Iterative Strength Rating (ISR), which is essentially a measure of the quality of a team's season by combining its winning percentage with the difficulty of its schedule, and 72nd in Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), the official measure of team quality used by the tournament selection committee. This year's slate consists of 55 games, including 28 at home in Page Stadium. The schedule also features 13 games against 2010 NCAA Regional qualifiers, including three games against Super Regional participant Cal State Fullerton. Four of LMU's opponents (Cal State Fullerton, San Diego, UC Irvine and Hawai'i) were listed in one of the major four polls to begin the season, with Fullerton ranked as high as eighth according to Baseball America.
AND THE SURVEY SAYS
For the second straight year, the LMU baseball team was picked to finish fifth overall in the West Coast Conference in 2011. LMU earned 23 total points in the annual preseason coaches' poll conducted by the league's eight head coaches. San Diego garnered six first-place votes and amassed 49 overall points. The coaches selected Pepperdine to finish second in the WCC with 39 points, followed by San Francisco in third with 33 points. Portland, which captured the remaining first place vote, came in fourth with 32 points. LMU and Gonzaga (20 points) were selected fifth and sixth, while Santa Clara (16 points) and Saint Mary's (12 points) rounded out the poll.
GET OFF ON THE RIGHT `PAW'
Since 2001, LMU has been victorious in seven of its 11 games on Opening Day, earning a 4-1 decision over UC Riverside this season after falling to No. 7 UC Irvine on the road last season by a count of 5-1. LMU earned an 8-7 "walk-off" victory in 11 innings over Utah in 2009. The Lions defeated Cal State Northridge, 7-3, in 2001's opener at Page Stadium before defeating UC Santa Barbara on the road to start the 2002 campaign. LMU failed to make it three-straight in 2003, dropping a one-run decision to Cal to open the year. LMU was back to its winning ways in 2004, knocking-off UC Riverside, 5-4, and getting revenge against Cal with a one-run victory in 2005. Starting the 2006 season on the road in Arizona, LMU dropped the first game of the year, 10-5, before rebounding in 2007 with a 9-5 victory over Sac State. Sac State got the best of the Lions in 2008, defeating LMU by a count of 11-7 to open that season in Sacramento.
PCH CHALLENGE
Separated by 19.1 miles of scenic coastline, longtime cross-town adversaries Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine have come together in an effort to boost their decades-long rivalry with the creation of the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) Challenge. The series, which is in its second year, serves as an annual scorecard for the NCAA-sponsored athletic contests between the Lions and Waves, and challenges each institution to rise above the other within the West Coast Conference. LMU and Pepperdine will be represented by over 12 of their intercollegiate athletic teams through both regular and post-season competitions over the course of the academic calendar. Any head-to-head competition, including matches in the postseason and tournaments throughout the year, will be counted toward the scoring and added to the scorecard as they occur. For the sports in which the two teams do not meet head-to-head, the teams will battle for points that will be awarded on the basis of overall finish at their respective postseason championships. Pepperdine currently leads LMU in the 2010-11 standings, 8.5-6.0. To learn more about the PCH Challenge and view the current scorecard, please visit:
PCH Cup Homepage
LOCALLY GROWN
Twenty-eight of LMU's 31 baseball players on the 2011 roster hail from California. Of those 28 players from California, 24 are from cities within 100 miles of the LMU campus. The three out-of-state players are sophomore Zac Fujimoto from Aiea, Hawai'i; freshman Kevin Kennedy from Phoenix, Ariz.; and sophomore Steve Dueñas from Kirkland, Wash.
