The562’s coverage of Dirtbags Baseball for the 2025 season is sponsored by P2S, Inc. Visit p2sinc.com to learn more.
It all looked very bleak for the Long Beach State Dirtbags in March when they last 12 of 16 games mostly due to an inexperienced roster learning to play their roles. But when coach TJ Bruce chose to shake things up with a big change, he wasn’t talking about the games, he was talking about practice.
The Dirtbags rarely get two consecutive days off during the season, but Bruce allowed his team to take a break and restart mentally last Monday and Tuesday.
“I’m super aware of the type of program we run in terms of mental awareness and mental fatigue,” Bruce said. “We had to regroup and the guys can do their own thing to figure out things of their own.”
The time away paid immediate dividends as the Dirtbags came back to Bohl Diamond at Blair Field over the weekend where they took two of three games against UC Santa Barbara in their first Big West Conference series victory.
“LIke Ken Ravizza said, ‘As much as you work on checking in, you’ve got to work just as hard on checking out,’” said Bruce.
“There’s not a magic pill to dig yourself out of a hole, but what you can do is be really good at what you can control,” Bruce said. “All weekend our preparation and energy was really good. That’s really what we’re relying on, the basic foundation of the mental game and the foundation of Dirtbags baseball.”
As for the coaching staff taking some days off, Bruce admitted, “I’m not really good at checking out. We do a hard debrief on the program and staff. It’s never just about one person, it’s always about the program and always about the community.”
In the series opener on Friday night, third baseman Dylan Lina hit two home runs in the Dirtbags 9-6 win. The LBSU veterans on the roster also stepped up as senior first baseman Connor Charpiot had three hits while senior Kyle Ashworth drove in two runs on a pair of hits.
“You saw more leaders getting together more and holding each other accountable, and that bleeds into the rest of the team,” Bruce said. “This weekend that was a huge deal.”
Meanwhile on the mound, ace Kellan Montgomery pitched into the sixth inning while scattering six hits and two earned runs. He stuck out five and walked three in his fifth win in seven starts. Reliever Albert Roblez was the last of four arms to come out of the bullpen and he struck out four in 1.2 scoreless innings.
After a disappointing 9-0 loss on Saturday, the Dirtbags bounced back to take the series with a 5-4 win on Sunday. LBSU was able to take another early lead while pitcher Owen Geiss was impressive in his seven innings. The sophomore struck out four and only walked one while UCSB could only muster four hits before its rally fell short in the late innings.
Ashworth was the catalyst in the leadoff spot again with two hits, a walk, an RBI and a run scored. Shortstop Armando Briseno drove in two runs and six different Dirtbags scored runs. LBSU led 5-0 in the fourth inning before UCSB scored four runs in the last five innings. Roblez picked up his first save of the season.
LBSU (10-16, 4-8 Big West) travels to the University of Hawai’i (20-6, 8-4) for a three-game set beginning Friday night.
