Long Beach State University Athletics
Greatest College Baseball Rivaly Continues This Weekend
5/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 21, 2008
LONG BEACH--All the marbles are on the line this weekend as No. 18-ranked Long Beach State (35-18, 14-7 Big West) and No. 6-ranked CS Fullerton (36-17, 15-6 Big West) play in a three-game series at Blair Field starting on Friday, with the winner of the series receiving the automatic berth and conference title.
The Dirtbags enter the final regular season series a game back in the standings, and would hold tiebreakers over UC Santa Barbara (who are two games back and play at UC Irvine) and CS Fullerton with a series win.
Regional sites will be announced on Sunday at 4 p.m. Pacific, while the full 64-team field will be announced on ESPN at 9:30 a.m. Pacific on Memorial Day.
The two powerhouse programs have won 17 of the last 19 Big West Conference titles, dating back to 1989, as this annual regular season finale has decided seven of the last 10 conference titles.
Both teams enter the final weekend having won 16 of their last 20 and five in a row following midweek victories.
Long Beach State will send Andrew Liebel (8-2, 1.74) in the opener against RHP Jeff Kaplan (10-1, 4.13) on Friday at 6:30 p.m. On Saturday at 6:30 p.m. the Titans will throw RHP Daniel Renken (5-5, 3.82), while on Sunday at 1 p.m. they will have Big West win leader, freshman RHP Cory Arbiso (11-2, 4.15). LBSU has not set their rotation for the rest of the weekend, as they wait on the health of freshman RHP Jake Thompson (2-4, 4.48). The Dirtbags will like employ Thompson, reigning Big West Pitcher of the Week, RHP Brett Lorin (4-3, 2.54) or RHP Vance Worley (6-3, 4.55) in two of their remaining weekend slots.
Sunday Long Beach State will also welcome back former Major Leaguer Rod Gaspar, a member of the 1969 World Series Champions Mets and the team's second Major Leaguer. He will throw out a first pitch.
CS Fullerton ranks third in the Big West in batting (.308), while LBSU is seventh (.290), while on the mound, LBSU has the second-best ERA (3.11) in the Big West and third in the nation, while the Titans have the third-best (4.41), but nearly a run and a half higher. LBSU is fielding at a .965 clip, while the Titans are fielding at .970.
Individually, 1B Shane Peterson has the second best batting average in the league (.401), while OF Komatsu has the sixth-best (.367). Peterson (.609) and Jason Corder (.648) have the two best slugging percentages, while Komatsu is third (.607). Peterson (.513) and Komatsu (.467) are 1-2 in on-base percentage.
On the mound, Andrew Liebel (pronounced LEE-bull) leads the league in ERA (1.74) as a semifinalist for the Clemens Award and Golden Spikes Award, while Cory Arbiso (11 wins) and Jeff Kaplan (10 wins) lead the league in wins for the Titans.
The annual series normally sees record crowds, as 10 of the top-25 crowds all-time have been during the series, while seven of the top-10 series crowds all-time have been Titan-Dirtbag games, with a record 8,035 coming through the turnstiles in 1996 and 7,699 entering Blair Field last year.
