NCAA COLLEGE BASEBALL REGIONALS : Long Beach State Moving Closer to Rematch With USC : West: 49ers lead Pepperdine in elimination game. Winner will play Trojans for the regional championship.

They knew each other quite well before the last two nights, but fate--skillfully manipulated by the NCAA, of course--made them even more familiar.

About 24 hours after first defeating its Southland neighbor, Long Beach again was getting the best of Pepperdine in the West Regional. Long Beach led the Waves, 7-4, in the eighth in a losers’ bracket game Saturday night at Beiden Field for the right to play USC for the regional championship.

Either second-seeded Long Beach or Pepperdine meets top-seeded USC (44-18) at noon today for the second time in as many days, but this time the right to advance to the College World Series is at stake. USC rallied for a 6-5 victory over Long Beach on Saturday afternoon, putting Long Beach into the losers’ bracket.

USC, 3-0 in the regional, will win the championship of the double-elimination regional with a victory. A victory by Long Beach or Pepperdine would force another game at about 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

Pepperdine advanced to play Long Beach by eliminating Middle Tennessee State, 18-17, in 12 innings before Saturday’s final game. Pepperdine and Middle Tennessee combined for 43 hits and 12 errors.

Once again, Long Beach put together a big inning to take control early. Long Beach scored four runs in the second with the hot-hitting Will Skett providing the key hit.

Kirk Pierce opened the inning with a double and Pepperdine starter Greg Gregory walked Jason Knupfer. Nic Frank’s perfect bunt was fielded by third baseman Jason Cohen, but he had no chance to make a play. So Long Beach had the bases loaded and none out.

Enter Skett, who had a career-high eight runs batted in during the victory Friday over Pepperdine. Skett hit a bases-clearing double to the gap in right-center and later scored on an RBI single by Tim Falsken.

Long Beach batted around and scored at least four runs in an inning for the fourth time during the regional. The quick start was exactly what 49er starter Luke Fitzpatrick needed.

Including Saturday’s game, Fitzpatrick has started only seven games this season. But he looked as if he had been in the rotation all season.

Conversely, Gregory struggled. He last pitched April 29 because of an injury to his ribs and it showed. He was wild and was yanked after only two innings.

Jason LeBlanc relieved Gregory, but was wild too. LeBlanc started the Waves’ earlier game, giving up nine hits and eight earned runs in only 2 2/3 innings. The 49ers scored their sixth run in the third on a passed ball that enabled Pierce to score from third.

Just as in the last meeting, Long Beach seized the momentum early.

Fitzpatrick opened with a quick, perfect first inning and then his teammates went to work at the plate. Skett led off with a single.

Skett took second on a wild pitch by Gregory and with one out went to third on a single by Liefer, who has also been torrid at the plate. Skett scored on a groundout by Jason Minici.

Gregory then walked Casey Martin and the 49ers’ chances for a big inning looked good because designated hitter Jason Hodges was up next. Hodges, too, has been productive recently, but Gregory struck him out to end the inning.