Rain Suspends Play for Long Beach State

Rain suspended play in the double-elimination NCAA South I Regional on Saturday, postponing Long Beach State’s game until today.

Fourth-seeded Long Beach will face sixth-seeded North Carolina Greensboro in an elimination game 45 minutes after the conclusion of Louisiana State-South Alabama, which is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. (PDT). Second-seeded South Alabama was leading top-seeded Louisiana State, the tournament host, 8-4, with one out in the top of the seventh inning Saturday when the game was suspended after several rain delays at Alex Box Stadium.

“The big thing right now is to explain to the guys how to deal with rain delays,” Long Beach Coach Dave Snow said. “You can’t do anything about Mother Nature, so I just want them to relax or maybe go to a movie.

“I don’t want them sitting in the hotel thinking about the game and getting anxious. But we also have to pull ourselves together mentally and be ready to play when we can.”

Junior right-hander Rocky Biddle (8-5, 4.65 earned-run average) will start against North Carolina Greensboro, Snow said. The hard-throwing Biddle has struggled in his last five starts, going 1-2 with a 6.59 ERA.

“[The rain delays] probably help us from a pitching standpoint because it gives us another day of rest,” Snow said. “Some guys who pitched [Friday] could probably come back and help us a little [today].”

Long Beach (38-25) defeated Oklahoma, 1-0, Thursday in a tournament opener and lost to South Alabama, 12-4, Friday. The winner of Long Beach-North Carolina Greensboro faces the loser of LSU-South Alabama for the right to play the LSU-South Alabama winner for the regional championship.

The championship game, and a second game if needed, was scheduled to be played today. However, more rain is forecast throughout the day. Regional officials are doubtful that two games will be completed today, meaning the South I Regional title might not be decided until Monday or Tuesday.

Snow has seen worse. He was a young assistant at Cal State Fullerton in 1976, when rain delayed the Titans’ regional at Pullman, Wash., for six days. Fullerton eventually lost the championship to Washington State.

“That was really tough,” Snow said. “Never seen anything like it.”

And he doesn’t want to now, that’s for sure.