The UCLA baseball team (8-2) was picked to finish second in the Pac-12 Conference’s preseason coaches’ poll. Long Beach State (6-6) was picked to finish third in the Big West conference. Stanford was selected first in the PAC preseason coaches’ poll, earning 5 of 11 possible first-place votes to give them 93 points. UCLA garnered two first-place votes, giving them a total of 90 points. Oregon State, Oregon and Arizona rounded out the top five with Oregon State receiving the remaining three first-place votes.

In the Big West, well see the usual suspect Cal State Fullerton followed by UCI and SLO. UCLA is the two-time defending Pac-12 champions, has reached the postseason in six of the last seven years. The Bruins have also hosted an NCAA Regional the last three years and hosted an NCAA Super Regional in 2010 and 2012. UCLA reached its second College World Series in three years in 2012 after winning five consecutive games in the NCAA Regional and Super Regional rounds. Not so much to report for the Dirtbags.

The Bruins and the Redhawks both used those crooked numbers to win. In the bottom of the third, UCLA opened up a big lead with five runs in the inning. With the bases loaded, Valaika and junior Pat Gallagher drew back-to-back walks to score two runs and give the Bruins a four-run lead. Two batters later, freshman Ty Moore cleared the bases with a triple to right-center to make the game 7-0 in favor of UCLA. LB had a brief lead that would not last, as Seattle (3-9) scored a trio of runs in the fourth inning off of four hits off of Jon Maciel, the last a double from Cash McGuire.

Maciel worked through the fifth with no damage, but gave up a leadoff triple in the sixth inning to Sean Narby. A single by Grant Newton scored one run, and a third hit in the inning brought home Newton after a sacrifice as the Redhawks took a 5-1 lead. The Niners tried a little late run but it wasn’t enough and the final was 8-3, The Tuesday mound choices for both teams will be right handers, David Hill or Ryan Millison for the home boys and highly anticipated Freshman Cody Poteet (out of Bonita High) for UCLA. And then a parade of other arms.

MIXED DUSTING–UCLA has had a batter get hit by a pitch in all 10 of its games and has had at least two batters get by a pitch in nine of its 10 games…14 of the 20 runs that the Bruins scored in the series came with two outs. In the polls the Bruins are flirting with the Top Ten and the best of the Big West is still CSUF, UCI and SLO. The Titans definitely added value to its RPI with a three-game sweep at TCU, and two of three from Oregon where the scribes said they out-Hortoned Horton…freshmen aces Thomas Eshelman and Justin Garza are outstanding… Irvine’s offense has also been lighting it up.

The Anteaters have averaged 7.5 runs per game and are batting354 as a team. Senior Ronnie Shaeffer has led the way with a .486 average, two homers, and 12 RBI. Irvine produced a strong 4-1 week, taking three of four from Cal and a mid-week contest at Loyola Marymount but lost once to Portland last weekend …Jeff Yamaguchi went 2-for-2 with a pair of walks and two runs scored, both coming on Zack Rivera hits, but that pair owned most of the highlights for the Dirtbags on the day as Long Beach State lost to Seattle 8-3 in the final game of the series between the teams. LB struck first scoring in the second inning, as Yamaguchi singled off of Redhawks starter Kyle Doyle, and after stealing second, came around to score on an RBI single by Rivera.

Maciel finished with a career high eight strikeouts in six innings, but allowed nine hits and five runs as the Redhawks capitalized when they had runners on base on Sunday. On the flip side, the Dirtbags struggled against Doyle, who pitched seven innings and only allowed two hits until the seventh inning.

The Beach is traveling to Arizona State this weekend and then makes a Tuesday date with LMU. Last of the diamond notes–the red hot softball bunch led by Junior pitcher EJ-dub, (Erin Jones-Wesley) capped off Long Beach State’s (12-6) perfect weekend at the San Diego Classic I with her first no-hitter of the season as the 49ers run ruled Fresno State, winning 8-0. The 49ers wrapped up play in San Diego undefeated with five momentum building wins in a tough tourney. Even more it was the second straight game in which the 49ers run-ruled a team. Long Beach State returns home to host the LB Invitational Thursday through Sunday with games at Mayfair Park in nearby Lakewood.—DR. DAN