Fullerton to Play at Home Again

Cal State Fullerton will play host to an NCAA baseball super regional for the second time in three years while Long Beach State hits the road when the best-of-three series begin Friday with trips to the College World Series on the line.

The Titans (46-13) will play Arizona State (53-12) on Friday at 4 p.m. Both teams won all three games in their regionals at home last weekend. Fullerton defeated Mississippi State to reach Omaha in 2001.

“The only other team I’ve seen this year, either on television or in any sense, that is even remotely close to [Arizona State] is Fullerton,” Nevada Las Vegas Coach Jim Schlossnagle told Baseball America. “And the fact that these two teams have to play each other for the right to go to Omaha is unfair.”

Long Beach (41-18) also won three consecutive games to win its first-ever regional at home. The 49ers will play at Stanford (44-15) beginning with a 7 p.m. game Friday.

Stanford Coach Mark Marquess said the pitching for the 49ers against the red-hot bats of his Cardinal make for a classic matchup. Led by senior catcher Ryan Garko (Anaheim Servite High), Stanford scored 41 runs in winning all of three of its regional games.

“Obviously, their pitching numbers are incredible,” Marquess said. “At this stage on a given weekend, it gets down to who pitches well and who gets a big hit.

“All [four West] teams are very capable of going to the World Series and winning a national championship.”

Other super regionals scheduled for Friday-Sunday are North Carolina (42-21) at South Carolina (42-20) and Baylor (44-21) at Louisiana State (43-19-1). Matchups scheduled for Saturday-Monday are North Carolina State (45-16) at Miami (42-15-1), Southwest Missouri State (38-24) at Ohio State (44-19), Houston (36-28) at Rice (51-10) and Texas (46-18) at Florida State (54-11-1).