Titans, 49ers to Open Series Tonight

Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State have had quite a baseball rivalry in recent years, and it’s easy to see why.

The schools have split their last 48 games.

The Titans lead the overall series, 75-38, but each team has won 24 games since Dave Snow became Long Beach’s coach in 1989.

The teams continue the series at 7 tonight at Titan Field with Fullerton (21-11, 10-2) holding a half-game lead over Long Beach (23-12, 11-4) in the Big West Conference race. Third-place Sacramento State is two games behind Fullerton.

“If you look at the statistics,” Snow said, “both teams look close again.” The Titans are batting .324 to .315 for Long Beach. The 49er pitching staff has a 3.65 earned-run average to 3.82 for Fullerton. The Titans, however, have hit 32 home runs to Long Beach’s 19.

Fullerton has lost three of its last four games. The Titans were beaten, 11-2, at Loyola Marymount Tuesday after losing two of three games to Sacramento State last weekend. Long Beach swept its Big West series against New Mexico State last weekend, but lost to Pepperdine, 2-0, on Tuesday.

Adam Johnson (4-1, 3.03 ERA) is scheduled to pitch for Fullerton tonight against Jeff Leuenberger (4-1, 3.76 ERA). Jon Smith (5-2, 3.04) will pitch for the Titans Saturday night against Matt Paz (7-1, 2.88). The Titans’ Matt Sorensen (4-0, 4.09) will go against Jason Berni (3-1, 2.25) at 1 p.m. Sunday.