Long Beach State Outlasts Pacific to Reach the Finals

LONG BEACH — This one wasn’t as easy as the previous two, but even Long Beach State can’t stop itself these days.

Despite some shaky pitching, Long Beach won its third consecutive Big West Conference tournament game Saturday night, 7-6, eliminating Pacific in front of 1,058 at Blair Field.

The only undefeated team in the double-elimination tournament, Long Beach plays Cal State Fullerton today for the tournament championship--and the Big West’s automatic NCAA tournament berth--at 1 p.m. at Blair Field.

If Fullerton wins, the teams will play again at 5 p.m., or 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game, to decide the title.

Regardless of what happens today, Long Beach (37-22) seemingly has assured itself a place in the NCAA tournament. Long Beach struggled at the end of the regular season, but it won the Big West’s South Division, has a strong Ratings Power Index and the best tournament showing so far.

The baseball selection committee would have some explaining to do for excluding the 49ers now.

It was a strange night for Long Beach starter Rocky Biddle.

In 5 2/3 innings, the hard-throwing junior right-hander struck out 11 but walked nine. Biddle gave up six hits, five earned runs, threw two wild pitches and hit a batter.

Reliever Matt Montgomery (2-2) pitched one inning to pick up the victory. Closer Ara Petrosian worked out of jams in the seventh and eighth, and pitched a perfect ninth to earn his 15th save.

Long Beach, designated the visiting team, showed its mettle in the top of the seventh with the scored tied, 5-5. Toby Sanchez doubled to open the inning and took third on a ground out to first by Keith Cowley.

J.D. Hardcastle replaced Pacific starter Tony Gomes (0-4). Brandon Hyde pinch hit for Chuck Lopez and doubled to center, scoring Sanchez for a 6-5 Long Beach lead. Jaron Madison pinch run for Hyde and scored on Casey Martin’s single to right, giving Long Beach its third two-run lead of the game, 7-5.

Leading, 5-3, in the bottom of the sixth, Biddle ran into trouble. With the bases loaded and two outs, Biddle hit Ryan Annett with a pitch that forced home Joey Camarata and cut the lead to 5-4. That was it for Biddle.

Enter Montgomery, who allowed Shane Rooney to score the tying run on a wild pitch. Montgomery struck out Chris Moreno to end the threat, but Long Beach had squandered its second lead of the game.

The 49ers took their second lead in the top of the second inning. Trailing, 3-2, they tied the game on Paul Day’s run-scoring single and took a 4-3 lead on Izzy Gonzalez’s sacrifice fly, which gave Gonzalez two RBIs.

Gomes gave up eight hits and four earned runs in 6 1/3 innings. He walked four and struck out four. Gomes struck out Toby Sanchez with the bases loaded to end the top of the fourth and keep it 4-3.