On Monday, the NCAA announced the 64 collegiate baseball teams to earn the honor to be a part of the Division I national tournament, which will begin Friday at noon when the Missouri Tigers take on the Ole Miss Rebels. In preview of the regional tournaments that will be held this weekend, throughout the week our resident college baseball fanatic Rosenblogger will examine each individual regional:

Long Beach Regional

1. Long Beach State Dirtbags (37-19) vs 4. Fresno State Bulldogs (37-27)
2. San Diego Toreros (41-15) vs 3. California Golden Bears (33-19-2)

**Winner to take on champion of Tempe Regional.**

The regional in Long Beach will feature four of the ten teams from California, each of whom will be looking this weekend to move one step closer to a trip to Omaha.

The Long Beach State Dirtbags will have a tough road to travel if they want to advance out of regional play. The Dirtbags are led by a dominant pitching staff, that sports a team ERA of 3.14. The workhorse (and you know we love a workhorse) of the staff is starter Andrew Liebel, who has thrown over 100 innings so far in 2008 (8-3, 1.81 ERA). Long Beach also features a quality arm out of the bullpen in closer Bryan Shaw (2-1, 1.29 ERA, 8 SV in 26 appearances). Offensively, the Dirtbags feature a solid lineup anchored by Shane Peterson (.399, 7 HR, 50 RBI, 10 SB) and Jason Corder (.305, 13 HR, 51 RBI).

Fresno State returns to a regional after winning their third consecutive WAC championship. Alan Ahmady (.389, 12 HR, 79 RBI)and Steve Susdorf (.347, 10 HR, 75 RBI) set the pace for the Bulldogs offense, which will need to perform for Fresno to be in contention this weekend.

The Bulldogs are certainly a dangerous number four seed, having been ranked in the Top 25 earlier in the season. Watch out for pitcher Tanner Scheppers (8-2, 2.93 ERA) for the Bulldogs, who has racked up 109 strikeouts in only 70.2 innings so far. The 6-foot-4 righty has not been the Friday starter for Fresno as he is still learning how to pitch after converting from shortstop only a few seasons ago, but don’t be surprised if the future first round draftee gets the ball against Long Beach.

The Cal Golden Bears feature two sluggers in the middle of their order in Josh Satin (.388/18/52) and David Cooper (.363/19/55) that have combined for 37 home runs and over 100 RBI. California has not shown the front-line arms necessary to advance deep in the post season, which is a major concern for Golden Bears’ fans.

In stark contrast, for their opening opposition, San Diego, the story starts and ends on th mound. The Toreros feature several quality arms that currently sport a 3.50 ERA as a team. San Diego features one of the nation’s top pitchers in Brian Matusz (11-2, 1.88 ERA, 131 K in 96 IP), who has been dominant for the Toreros. He will give the Cal hitters difficulties in the opener. A.J. Griffin is another quality option for San Diego late in ball games (1.96 ERA, 13 SV in 27 appearances).

This should be a closely fought regional, with all four teams having a legitimate chance to advance. I think Long Beach will just have too many weapons for the other teams, and the advantage of playing at home will allow them to survive and advance to the super regionals.

Rosenblogger

Also, check out our other regional previews: Ann Arbor, Athens, Baton Rouge, Cary, College Station, Conway, Coral Gables, Fullerton, Houston, Lincoln, Palo Alto, Raleigh, Stillwater, Tallahassee, Tempe

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