Long Beach Wins, Leaving Titans to Sit and Wait

Cal State Long Beach ended any hopes Cal State Fullerton had of backing into the Big West Conference baseball championship Thursday with a 5-4 victory over UC Santa Barbara.

The victory earned the 49ers (33-13, 18-5 in conference) only their second outright conference title in 22 years and, more importantly, the Big West’s automatic bid to the NCAA regionals.

Fullerton (37-15, 17-7), which finished second, will have to wait until Monday at noon, when regional pairings are released, to find out if it has earned an at-large bid.

The Titans would have been champions had Santa Barbara won two of its final three games with Long Beach. But the 49ers took a big step toward the title Tuesday with a 12-4 victory.

The third game of the series, which would have been played as part of a doubleheader Thursday, was rendered unnecessary by the first game’s result.

The Long Beach-UCSB series, originally scheduled May 1-3, was postponed because of rioting in Long Beach.

A two-out triple down the first-base line by right-handed batter Mitch Kaylor drove in pinch-runner Johnny Mancha from first in the bottom of the eighth inning with what proved to be the winning run. The hit gave the 49ers a 5-2 lead.

Santa Barbara scored twice in the ninth. But with no one on and two outs, reliever John Graves recorded his 13th save when he got shortstop Danny Lane to fly to right.

Michael McLain (7-4) gave up four hits over 6 1/3 innings for the victory.