49ers start tourney tonight

By Eric Boyum, Special to the On-line Forty-Niner

May 14,1998

The Long Beach State baseball team will take on the No. 4 seeded Hornets from Sacramento State to begin the start of the Big West Tournament tonight at Blair Field.

The 49ers (33-20-1, 23-7) find themselves going into the tournament needing to win at least two games to reach the 35 win mark. The 49ers will move to Cal State Fullerton's Titan Field on Friday where they will play the winner of Thursday's day game between Pacific and Nevada.

If the 49ers win these two games, then they would advance to Sunday's championship game and have two games in which to capture the tournament championship.

As part a doubleheader at Titan Field on Thursday, the No. 1 seeded Fullerton (42-13, 25-5) playing the No. 6 seeded UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (11-18).

The team to face the 49ers first, Sacramento State, is winless in three games against The Beach this year.

Pacific (12-17), who lost a half-game lead over Sacramento State (13-17) in the North division by losing three in a row to Nevada last weekend, finds itself with the difficult assignment of having to play Nevada again Thursday.

If Pacific defeats the Wolf Pack, the winner of Sacramento State and the 49ers would not have to face the high-powered offense of Nevada. Nevada, the No. 2 seed and champions North division, won two of three games from the 49ers and tallied 40 runs in just three games against the 49er pitching staff in an April series.

The outcome of the tournament is perhaps most crucial for Long Beach State and Nevada. Both teams are considered on the bubble by the NCAA Regional tournament committee, and it is almost certain that Cal State Fullerton will receive an at-large bid regardless of their performance this weekend.

The winner of the double-elimination tournament receives an automatic bid into the NCAA Regionals. Nevada (30-20, 17-10) appears to need to win the tournament to qualify with the automatic bid. For Long Beach, the picture is clearer.

If Long Beach wins two games in the tournament, they should receive an at-large bid into the NCAA Regionals. Two more wins would give them a total of 35 wins.