With the end of the regular season vastly approaching, five teams have reached the 30-win plateau and six teams remain in the hunt for the 2008 Big West Conference title. Leading the pack is No. 8 Cal State Fullerton, who takes a back seat to the conference race this week to host San Diego State in a nonconference three-game series beginning Thursday, May 15 at 7:00 p.m. The Titans, who are looking to capture their seventh crown in 10 years, own a 15-6 conference record and an overall mark of 32-17.
Sitting in second place with a 12-6 league mark, defending champion UC Riverside anxiously awaits its weekend series with UC Santa Barbara. If the Highlanders, who have won five straight conference series, are able to pull off a sweep over the Gauchos, they will enter the final week of play in a tie for first place. This may be a difficult task for UC Riverside as the Highlander-Gaucho battle takes place at UC Santa Barbara's Caesar Uyesaka Stadium, where UCSB is an impressive 20-7. UC Santa Barbara finds themselves fighting its way to the top of the standings with a 10-8 record, tying them for fourth place. Game times are slated for 2:00 p.m. on Friday and 1:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Prior to traveling to the central coast, UC Riverside hosts UNLV and USC at the Riverside Sports Complex. Tuesday evening the Runnin’ Rebels head to the Inland Empire for a clash with the Highlanders starting at 6:00 p.m. The following night the Highlanders entertain the Trojans in a rematch of an earlier contest that ended in a 7-5 USC victory.
The 25th-ranked Long Beach State 49ers went 2-1 last week against UC Santa Barbara to break out of the pack and secure the third-place slot with an 11-7 record. This week Long Beach State has its hands full with a Tuesday-night tilt at San Diego State and a weekend series at Cal Poly. The 49ers have struggled on the road with a 10-12 record, which includes a 1-9 mark over a program-long 10-game road trip midway through the season. While the 49ers hope their road trip blues are a thing of the past, Cal Poly looks to use their home field advantage to propel them to a 10-win season in conference play. The Mustangs, who are 13-9 at Baggett Stadium, are seventh in the league with a 7-11 record. First pitch is tossed at 6:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 1:00 p.m. Sunday.
The Anteaters of UC Irvine have been inching their way up the standings and are currently locked in a three-way tie for fourth (10-8) with UC Santa Barbara and this week's opponent UC Davis. The Aggies welcome No. 9 UC Irvine to Dobbins stadium for a three-game stint starting Friday at 2:30 p.m. While the Anteaters enter the series having won back-to-back conference series, UC Davis suffered a tightly-contested series loss to UC Riverside, 2-1, with all three games being determined by one run. In the short-lived series, UC Irvine holds the all-time advantage, 7-2.
Along with the Big West battle, UC Irvine and UC Davis also face the Pac-10 and West Coast Conference. The Anteaters five-game week begins with the UCLA Bruins visiting Anteater Ballpark Tuesday night. They follow that up with a short ride up the 405 for a Wednesday afternoon showdown with Loyola Marymount. The Aggies, who lost last's week meeting, 13-4, are hosting No. 13 California in the second half of the home-and-home.
The final Big West matchup of the week takes place in Stockton, Calif., with the Pacific Tigers entertaining the Cal State Northridge Matadors, Friday-Sunday. Both teams produced a 2-2 record last week and the Matadors are in search of their first conference series win since sweeping Cal Poly April 4-6. Pacific has yet to post a conference series win this year. Game times are 6:00, 6:00 and 1:00 p.m.