Hitting a home run outside of the fence is easy. Hitting one inside the park? That’s the best thing Sports Content Coordinator Paul Slater saw last week.
Home runs don’t impress me anymore. Everyone’s doing it. Even New York Giants’ wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. hit a home run during batting practice at Angel Stadium last weekend. I mean c’mon, he’s not an athlete.
Real men don’t take the easy way out. Real men shoot for the stars. Real men hit inside-the-park home runs.
In game two of Long Beach State’s weekend series at Hawaii, junior OF Brooks Stotler hit an inside-the-park home run, driving in three runs to put the Dirtbags up big. Now that’s a headline grab! LBSU would go on to take two out of three from Hawaii in the series.
Stotler SMOKED one to dead center, over the center fielder’s head. And in classic laid-back Hawaiian fashion, the Hawaii center fielder ran into the wall and relaxed on the warning track while Stotler rounded the bases to score. Dirtbags take full advantage of someone offering free stuff…like Owen Wilson in “You, Me, and Dupree.”
When you’re a kid and you brag to your friends, “I hit a home run last game!” they ask, “Well was it over the fence?” As if it’s not impressive enough when it’s just an inside-the-parker. A home run over the fence and an inside-the-park home run are literally worth the same amount, kids. And we wonder why each generation gets worse as time goes on.
Stotler hit LBSU’s first inside-the-park home run since 2013 when Lakewood alumnus Jeff Yamaguchi did it on the road at Pacific. People forget Jeff Yamaguchi is a former Dirtbag and probably the best pure hitter to come out of the city in the last 10 years. Yamaguchi might have a year of eligibility left and the Dirtbags might want to bring him back for the final series of the season at home this weekend against Cal State “Foolerton.”
CSUF already clinched the Big West title and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. So as you might imagine, it’s been really cool seeing my least favorite school of all time go to the “Big Dance” in both basketball and baseball. It might not have been the best year to be a Dirtbag fan as we’ve been hovering right around .500, sitting in fifth place in the conference. But nothing would start the summer off better than a sweep of that team in orange.
GO BEACH!