College Baseball : All That’s Left Is Second in PCAA for Fullerton, Las Vegas

Fresno State won 32 straight games on its way to becoming the top-ranked college baseball team in the country this week, the first time the Bulldogs have ever earned the top spot. Until they took over, Oklahoma State was the No. 1 team all season.

Fresno has a 49-8 overall record, is unbeaten in 18 games in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. conference and clinched the PCAA title last Saturday with a win over Cal State Fullerton. The Bulldogs’ winning streak was snapped at 32 games Tuesday in a 10-9 nonconference loss to Santa Clara, which also defeated Fresno State, 4-3, Wednesday night.

Second place in the PCAA will be decided this weekend, when Nevada Las Vegas, (13-5) and Fullerton (12-6) end the regular season. Fullerton would seem to have the better scheduling break. UNLV will play host to Fresno in a three-game series and Fullerton will travel to San Jose for its last three.

Regardless of the weekend games, both teams will be in the running for NCAA regional bids. The eight regional tournaments will automatically include the conference winners, but the remaining 21 teams are chosen by the NCAA. The criteria are overall record and strength of schedule. The regionals will be played May 26-31.

Fullerton, ranked No. 7, has been in the top 20 all season. A second-place finish would seemingly assure a bid. UNLV, cracked the top 20 in mid-April, is ranked 20th now, and may need the second place finish to get a bid. The Rebels, however, have their tough schedule going for them. They have played 28 of 57 games against ranked teams.

Loyola Marymount could get the award this season for picking the worst time to slump. Until last weekend, when it lost 3-of-4 games to Santa Clara, Loyola was in first place in the West Coast Athletic Conference. Now, with a 16-4 record, the Lions are looking up at first-place Pepperdine, 17-2-1. Santa Clara is a close third at 14-4-1.

But the title race couldn’t be more exciting--or complicated. It could all be decided this weekend when Pepperdine visits Loyola for a four-game series. Pepperdine has to win two games to clinch the title. Loyola needs to win at least three, possibly four, depending on Santa Clara.

Santa Clara has five conference games to play, four against USF this weekend and a makeup game against St. Mary’s Wednesday.

If Loyola wins three from Pepperdine, and Santa Clara sweeps USF, the championship will be decided by the outcome of the Santa Clara-St. Mary’s game. A win by Santa Clara will give the Broncos the title but a loss will hand it to Loyola. So, to be assured the conference title, Loyola has to sweep Pepperdine this weekend.

If Pepperdine and Santa Clara end up in a tie, the title will go to Pepperdine, which has a 2-1-1 record against Santa Clara this season.

An early-season tie game between Santa Clara and Pepperdine that had to be suspended after eight innings because of darkness will not be completed, conference athletic directors decided Thursday.

Loyola got into trouble by losing four straight conference games while Pepperdine, defending WCAC champion, is on a tear. The Waves have won 13 of 16. Santa Clara has won 15 of its last 20 and has an 8-game winning streak.

Pepperdine has a 16-3 record against Loyola over the the last three years, but Loyola is 28-3 at home this season, where the weekend series will be played. Game times: today at 2:30 p.m., Saturday’s doubleheader, noon, and Sunday at 1 p.m.

Arizona State, 48-9 overall but only 19-8 in the Pacific 10, can nevertheless clinch the Pac-10 Southern Division title this weekend if second-place Stanford (14-10) loses one in its three-game series against third-place California (14-13). ASU is idle until next weekend, when it will close the season with three games at Arizona.

USC (32-18 overall, 12-12 in the conference) has been idle the last 10 days because of final exams but will resume play Friday, starting a three-game series at UCLA (28-23, 10-17). USC has been battling Cal for third place, which could turn out to be important in the regional scheme, since, with all the strong West Coast teams, the NCAA may not invite four teams from the Southern Division, as it did last year.

USC and Cal have split six games this season. Should they tie for third, Cal’s last game at USC may haunt the Trojans, who let it slip away, 7-3.

Fortunately for the Trojans, their ace, Randy Powers, 10-3 with a 4.16 earned-run average, is sound again. He suffered through the last six weeks with a sore arm. He and Darrin Beer, 8-5 with a 3.81 ERA, will have to be on their games the next two weekends.

College Baseball Notes

USC-UCLA game times for this weekend’s three-game series have been changed. The Trojans and Bruins will play tonight at 7 at UCLA; Saturday night at USC at 8:30, and Sunday night at UCLA at 7. Saturday night’s game will be televised live by ESPN. . . . Fresno State’s top ranking is the first for the PCAA since Fullerton was No. 1 in 1984.

USC’s Jim Campanis has a chance at the Pac-10 triple crown. He is second in hitting at .389--behind teammate Bret Barberie’s .396--is leading the conference with 72 runs batted in and is second in home runs with 14, behind Stanford’s Ed Sprague. . . . Fullerton’s Brent Mayne has a 31-game hitting streak. . . . ASU’s Linty Ingram, Fresno’s Rich Crane and Texas’ Eric Stone are tied at 15 victories for the most in the nation. ASU has won 21 straight non-conference games, and has a 29-1 non-conference record,the one loss having been inflicted by Loyola. . . . USC’s Rodney Peete has hit in 23 of 26 games, including 19 straight conference games, and has a 12-game hitting streak. . . . UC Irvine’s Jeff Oberdank set a school record with 89 hits, breaking the old mark of 88 set by Mike Hirano in 1979. UCI has 27-28-1 and 6-12 records and is in sixth place in the PCAA. . . . Pepperdine’s Dennis Burbank is 5-0, with a 1.36 ERA and 3 complete games since replacing ace Craig Stiveson, who has been out with tendinitis.