College World Series : CS Long Beach Will Open Against Texas

Cal State Long Beach, which swept through the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. West I Regional, will play Texas on Saturday in a first-round game of the 44th College World Series in Omaha, Neb.

Long Beach is seeded seventh in the eight-team double-elimination tournament that begins Friday at Rosenblatt Stadium with top-seeded Florida State (52-16) playing No. 8 North Carolina (41-16-1) and No. 4 Wichita State (63-15) meeting No. 5 Arkansas (50-14).

Miami (48-16), which is No. 3, meets No. 6 Louisiana State (52-15) Saturday after the game between Long Beach (50-13) and No. 2 Texas (51-17).

“The seeding doesn’t surprise me,� Long Beach Coach Dave Snow said. “We don’t have the identity some of those teams do and a lot of them were seeded higher in regionals.�

Snow could not help feeling some heartache last weekend, even as he watched his team win the regional at Tucson, Ariz.

Snow coached at Loyola Marymount for four seasons before taking the Long Beach job last June and he was in the bleachers at Sancet Field for all four games Loyola played in the regional, including the Lions’ 13-4 loss to Arizona Sunday night. That precluded what would have been an emotional match-up between Long Beach and Loyola in the final.

“Playing in the same regional with Loyola is nice in one sense because I get to see these (Loyola) kids perform in what may be, for the some of the seniors, their last competition,� Snow said on Saturday. “The negative side is that only one team comes out of here.�

Loyola dug itself a hole last Friday when the Lions lost their first game to Oklahoma, 5-2. Loyola took a 2-0 lead into the eighth inning, then committed three of its six errors, allowing the Sooners to score all of their runs.

The Lions defeated Eastern Kentucky, 9-3, on Saturday behind sophomore shortstop Darrel Deak’s three hits, including a three-run home run.

On Sunday afternoon, Loyola avenged its defeat to Oklahoma with a come-from-behind 6-5 victory in 11 innings. The Lions, however, fell behind 8-0 to Arizona on Sunday night and never recovered.