Sanchez Is Back on His Game in a Major Way

The road back wasn’t an especially hard trip for Toby Sanchez, but it took way too long to travel. Or at least it seemed that way to Sanchez, whose opinion is the only one that really matters.

Too many months away from baseball made Sanchez a little nuts and very rusty. And even when he returned home, his trip wasn’t complete.

It seems so now.

Sanchez, Long Beach State’s first baseman, is driving baseballs all over Big West Conference ballparks and enjoying team life again. A former Mater Dei High and Rancho Santiago College standout, Sanchez couldn’t be happier, or playing better.

“This has been a long time coming and it feels great,” said Sanchez, a junior who is among the conference leaders in several offensive categories.

“It took me some time to get going again and, yeah, I had some questions to deal with, but my teammates and coaches stuck by me. That’s what makes all of this so meaningful.”

Sanchez, 21, arrived at Long Beach with impressive skills and a slightly damaged psyche. He transferred from Arizona State, where he said his experience was horrible.

“I didn’t fit in at all with my teammates,” Sanchez said. “I didn’t have any family there, so I was basically looking at the guys on the team as my brothers. But they never really gave me a chance to show my true colors. I guess I was pretty much the odd man out.”

Long Beach has restored Sanchez’s faith in the team concept.

“Individual success is wonderful but only when it feeds into the whole team concept,” Sanchez said. “It wouldn’t matter to me if I was on a 4-44 team and I was having a lot of individual success. What’s always made the game fun for me is when the team is doing well and all your teammates are there cheering you on and encouraging you.”

When it comes to hitting, Sanchez sets the 49ers’ pace. He leads the team--and is second in the Big West--with a .406 batting average. He’s third in the conference in on-base percentage at .509.

Sanchez tops the team with 10 home runs and 45 runs batted in, and he’s tied for first with 18 doubles. No Long Beach player has won the so-called triple crown (leading the team in average, homers and RBIs) during Coach Dave Snow’s nine-year tenure.

“That’s not the type of thing I spend time thinking about, but it does say something about him because we’ve had some pretty good hitters go through the program,” Snow said. “For him to be [in position] to do this obviously speaks highly of him.”

Even more so considering Sanchez (6 feet 1, 220 pounds) was sort of a mess at the plate earlier in the season. He struggled to find his stroke and the team, not coincidentally, struggled to score runs and win games.

“No doubt about it, we all had high expectations from the beginning,” Sanchez said. “But we bought into Coach Snow’s way to play ball and we didn’t panic. All we needed was time to get to know each other. I think everything that’s happened since has proved that.”

Long Beach got hot when the conference season started and hasn’t slowed down. The 49ers (34-19, 22-5 in the conference) have clinched at least a share of the Big West’s South Division title, and Sanchez has been Mr. Consistency.

Sanchez’s slow start shouldn’t have surprised anyone, including Sanchez, because he didn’t play last season after transferring from Arizona State. Eighteen months away from Division I baseball definitely took a toll on Sanchez.

“I just wasn’t comfortable in the [batters] box,” Sanchez said. “It was tough because I wasn’t doing what I expected of myself. But Coach Snow really stuck by me and gave me a chance to work through my problems.”

Snow said he never thought of doing otherwise.

“It’s real hard not to stay with a guy who has the offensive potential that Toby has,” Snow said. “He’s been really consistent as far as making hard contact the whole season. He did go through some struggles early in the year, but our whole team did. He’s done a real good job.”

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Ready for anything: The Big West baseball tournament begins Thursday at Blair Field and Titan Stadium, and Sanchez believes the 49ers are well prepared to make a strong run at the title.

“Nothing will shock us at this point,” Sanchez said. “We’ve learned how to win tough games and we know we can count on each other.

“We’ve come out on the positive end of close games and the bottom end of close games. We’ve had that variety that makes teams tough.”

49er Notes

The softball team (43-18-1, 23-9 in the Big West) has clinched the conference championship for the second consecutive season.

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Coming Attractions

Here’s a look at key upcoming games for Long Beach State:

* Baseball against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 7:05 tonight and 1:05 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, at Blair Field.