COLLEGE BASEBALL / GARY KLEIN : CS Long Beach Sweeps, Closes on Fullerton

Cal State Long Beach spent the first part of the season beating ranked teams and losing to average ones.

Lately, the 49ers have beaten just about everybody, positioning themselves for a run at their second consecutive Big West Conference championship.

Long Beach began the week with a 25-15 overall record and ranked No. 16 by Baseball America.

Ninth-ranked Cal State Fullerton, last season’s College World Series runner-up, was the overwhelming favorite to win the Big West title. And the Titans did nothing to diminish their status by getting off to a 14-1 start in conference play.

Long Beach, however, swept three games from San Jose State two weeks ago, then swept Fullerton last weekend at Fullerton.

Fullerton still leads the conference standings at 14-4 (.778), but Long Beach is 11-4 (.733).

“I told our players, ‘You go into that series with a great chance to come out of it as nobody, or as somebody,’ ” Long Beach Coach Dave Snow said. “Today, we’re somebody.”

Pitcher Daniel Choi improved his record to 11-1 and lowered his earned-run average to 2.41 with a victory over Fullerton. The 49ers also have gotten strong performances from Mike Fontana, who is 6-3 with a 3.34 ERA, and reliever Gabe Gonzalez, who has eight saves and 1.98 ERA in 27 1/3 innings.

Long Beach has series remaining with UC Santa Barbara and Nevada. Fullerton concludes its conference schedule May 7-9 against San Jose State.

“We’re in solid position at this point,” Snow said.

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Trivia time: Which university has produced the most players for U.S. Olympic baseball teams?

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Bedeviling ballclub: Sixth-ranked Arizona State has finally begun to assert itself, as most coaches in the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division predicted the Sun Devils would before the season.

Arizona State swept USC last weekend and moved into first place with a 13-8 record.

Tenth-ranked UCLA swept Stanford and improved to 10-8 going into this weekend’s series at Arizona State.

Eleventh-ranked Arizona (13-11) is at Stanford (6-12) this weekend. USC (12-12), ranked 21st, is at California (9-12).

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Hurricane watch: The University of Miami baseball program bills itself as “The Crowd Pleaser,” a tag that resulted from the success enjoyed during Ron Fraser’s 30 years as coach.

Fraser, however, retired after last season as the second-winningest coach in Division I history. He compiled a record of 1,271-438-9 (.747) and guided the Hurricanes to national championships in 1982 and 1985. Only Rod Dedeaux, whose USC teams were 1,332-571-11 (.699) and won 10 national championships, won more games on the Division I level.

Fans at Mark Light Stadium have not been cheering as much this season. Miami, under first-year Coach Brad Kelley, began the week at 25-14. The Hurricanes dropped out of Baseball America’s top 25 for the first time since Feb. 12, 1990.

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Southland Sooners: Oklahoma Coach Larry Cochell left Cal State Fullerton for Oklahoma a few years ago, but he still maintains strong ties to California.

Oklahoma began the week 25-13 with a 36-player roster that includes 18 Californians--13 from Southland high schools or junior colleges. On several occasions, Oklahoma’s starting lineup has been made up entirely of California-bred players.

Pitcher Steve Connelly, a freshman right-hander from Long Beach, is 5-2 with two victories over 18th-ranked Oklahoma State and another against second-ranked Texas.

Connelly has been backed by a lineup that includes catcher Darby Carmichael of Fullerton, first baseman Mike Smedes of Laguna Hills, second baseman Ricky Gutierrez of Long Beach, third baseman Mike Berry of Rolling Hills, shortstop Rich Hills of Yorba Linda and outfielders Chip Glass of Santa Rosa, Jerry Whittaker of Long Beach and Darvin Traylor of Riverside.

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Pomp and circumstance: Pepperdine’s West Coast Conference series against San Francisco will begin Saturday rather than Friday because Pepperdine infielder David Lovell, catcher Scott Vollmer and pitchers Steve Duda and Adam Housley are graduating.

Once again, the 20th-ranked Waves are at the head of the class in the West Coast Conference with a 14-4 record.

One of the biggest Pepperdine surprises has been pitcher Mauricio Estavil, who red-shirted his freshman year in 1991 and did not pitch an inning last season as the Waves rode an experienced pitching staff to the national championship.

Estavil, a left-handed reliever, is 5-0 with a 1.93 ERA and four saves for a team that has a 2.83 staff ERA.

“There were times during the last two years that I thought I would never throw again,” said Estavil, who graduated from Culver City High. “I made some mechanical adjustments this year and just went out and threw the ball. I mean, it wasn’t like I was going to lose any innings.”

Trivia answer: Stanford. Pitchers Willie Adams and Rick Helling and outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds played for Team USA in the 1992 Barcelona Games. Infielder Ed Sprague and catcher Doug Robbins played in the 1988 Seoul Games.

College Baseball Notes

Andy Small is batting .338 with 12 homers and 48 runs batted in for Cal State Northridge. The Matadors, third in the Western Athletic Conference Western Division at 8-7, play at division-leading Fresno State this weekend. . . . USC catcher Casey Burrill is batting .434 and has an 11-game hitting streak. Third baseman Aaron Boone, who committed 18 errors in USC’s first 21 games, has made only three in the last 21.

Pepperdine senior Steve Duda is 7-3 with a 2.10 earned-run average. Duda has 39 victories in his college career, one short of the West Coast Conference record set by Rich Troedson of Santa Clara from 1969-72. . . . Jesse Ibarra of Loyola Marymount hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the 12th inning, giving the Lions a 7-4 West Coast Conference victory over the University of San Diego. Ibarra, a sophomore from El Monte, also struck out nine in 4 2/3 innings of relief to gain the victory.

Rich Haar of UC Santa Barbara went eight for 16 with four home runs and nine RBIs in four games last week. . . . UCLA catcher Matt Schwenke ended an 0-for-25 streak against Stanford by hitting a two-run homer off Andrew Lorraine in the bottom of the ninth inning to give UCLA a victory.