[2] Long Beach State (LBSU) has competed since 1969 in the NCAA Division I Big West Conference (BWC), known at the time as the Pacific Coast Athletic Association.

Before becoming a founding member of the PCAA, LBSU participated in the Division II California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) from 1957 to 1969, and before that spent three years as an independent team.

The Long Beach State baseball team gained national prominence in 1989, with the hiring of Dave Snow as head coach.

[3][4][5] Since 1993 the Dirtbags have played their home games exclusively at Blair Field, a semi-professional baseball facility located less than 2 miles (3.2 km) from campus and owned by the city of Long Beach.

Helming a program with only 14 players on the roster, no athletic scholarships, and a shoestring budget,[8] the team was forced to hold practices on the public field at Whaley Park adjacent to campus.

[8] They were paced by utility man Carl Evans,[9] who would later become Long Beach State's first All-Conference player (after the school's admission to the CCAA).

By the time the 49ers won their second CCAA title in 1969, Wuesthoff was already the most successful coach in Long Beach State's short sports history.

[13] In addition, chronic underfunding of the program forced Gonsalves to split time between his coaching responsibilities and fund raising in order to meet his team's basic operating requirements.

Even the demise of the SCBA and the renewal of PCAA competition (now known as the Big West) in 1985 couldn't change the fortunes of the hard luck 49ers, as they placed seventh in the conference in '85 and eighth in each of the next three years.

[17] Dave Snow was hired as head coach in 1989 after a successful four-year run at Loyola Marymount, where he had led the Lions to two WCC titles and their first ever CWS appearance.

After capturing the Big West Title and earning a top 10 ranking in all the major polls, the Dirtbags swept through their regional with four straight wins.

"[22] Lefty Mike Gallo turned in a particularly memorable postseason performance, shutting out Big West tournament host Cal State Fullerton in a dominant complete game outing.

[25] The two Cal States proceeded to dominate Southern California baseball: during Snow's 13-year tenure, the Dirtbags and the Titans won 12 of 13 Big West Championships (1 shared) and combined for 22 NCAA tournament appearances and 10 College World Series berths.

In Weathers's first year after taking the reins from Snow, the Dirtbags didn't skip a beat as they cruised to a 39–21 overall record and an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

[30][31][32] Another example of prospect development was Evan Longoria, who (being widely regarded as too scrawny to compete for a Division 1 program) received no scholarship offers at all out of high school.

[33] Undeterred, Longoria enrolled at Rio Hondo Community College and played for one season, after which he was finally offered a scholarship at Long Beach State.

[33] Longoria would spend the next two seasons as the starting third baseman for the Dirtbags, and by the end of his junior year at LBSU, diligent hard work and expert instruction had transformed him into an imposing physical specimen who was described by various media outlets as the "top position player" and "best pure hitter" available in the 2006 draft.

Perhaps predictably, the rivalry between the Dirtbags and the Cal State Fullerton Titans continued as heated as ever under Weathers; the annual season-ending series between the two teams more often than not decided the conference championship.

"[38] Weathers left LBSU with the second-most conference championships and postseason appearances to his name, as well as the second-highest winning percentage in school history (all behind his predecessor and mentor Dave Snow).

A former professional player himself, Buckley first joined the Dirtbags' program as an assistant 2001, Dave Snow's final year as head coach.

[40][41] Buckley then spend two seasons serving as pitching coordinator for the Pittsburgh Pirates minor league system, before returning to LBSU in 2010 to take the position of associate head coach under Mike Weathers.

(Cal Poly's 7-game winning streak to close the season allowed the Mustangs to finish 2nd in the Big West ahead of Long Beach.)

After another middling season in 2013, the Dirtbags broke their 7-year postseason drought in 2014 by posting a 32–24 record and finishing 2nd in the Big West behind Cal Poly, good for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.

On the backs of a pitching squad that ranked 8th in the nation in ERA and an offense that ranked 184th in runs scored,[46] the Dirtbags finished the regular season with a 37–17–1 record, including a dominant 20–4 campaign in the Big West that netted the program's first conference title since 2008 and earned Buckley the honor of being named Big West coach of the year.

There they faced none other than the Fullerton Titans, marking the first time in history that the heated rivals had played each other with a trip to the College World Series on the line.

At season end the Dirtbags' record stood at 42–20–1, marking the most wins by the program in 20 years, since the 1998 team that reached the College World Series semifinal.

On June 9, 2019, LBSU athletic director Andy Fee announced the hiring of St. Mary's Eric Valenzuela as head coach.

[62] As a result, nearly all of the Dirtbags' out of conference slate was eliminated, the lone exception being a three-game road series in April against fellow California school Pacific.

Three weeks after the close of the season, Valenzuela made the surprise announcement that he would be leaving Long Beach State to return to St. Mary's to take over the newly vacant head coaching position.

The term was instead adopted as something to be proud of, referring to the team's scrappy playing style (which left the aggressive players' white uniforms covered in dirt – a "dirtbag") and success against higher profile programs.