No. 13-Ranked San Diego State to Open Baseball Regional Against Arizona

San Diego State, winner of 21 of its last 24 baseball games and ranked No. 13 in the nation, begins play against No. 15 Arizona at 2 p.m. (PDT) today in the NCAA Central Regional in Austin, Tex.

The winner of the six-team double-elimination tournament, which ends Sunday, will gain a spot in the College World Series, which begins next week in Omaha, Neb.

In other first-round games today, No. 20 Pepperdine (35-19) will play Pan American (41-17) at noon, and No. 4 Texas (49-12) will play Southern Illinois (39-20) at 7:30.

The Aztecs (42-21), who have never qualified for the College World Series, will play an Arizona team that finished second in the Pacific 10 Southern Division and finished 41-18 overall. Arizona won the national championship in 1980.

Texas has been host of the Central Regional six consecutive years and advanced to Omaha all six times. Texas was the series runner-up the last two years after winning the national championship in 1983.

Scott Lawrence (8-2), the hero of the Aztecs’ WAC tournament victory two weeks ago, will pitch today. Lawrence won two games in the WAC tournament, including the 9-2 championship game win over Hawaii.

Mike Erb (9-3) is scheduled to pitch for SDSU Friday. If the Aztecs win today, they will play at night against the winner of the Texas-Southern Illinois game. If SDSU loses, it will play an afternoon game against the loser of the Pepperdine-Pan American game.