Big West Softball Title Comes Down to Final Weekend

Files associated with this release:
2009_SoftballRelease_14.pdf

Cal Poly's Anna Cahn looks to lead the Mustangs to their second title in three years.

It'll be a photo finish for the 2009 Big West softball crown as Cal Poly, Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State can all conceivably grab a piece of the conference championship after the weekend’s slate of games.

Cal Poly is the team in the drivers seat as the club owns a one-game lead over CSF and a three-game advantage over LBSU. All that stands in the Mustangs' way and their second league title in three years is  a road series at resurgent UC Riverside. With its magic number at three, Cal Poly needs any combination of Mustang wins and Fullerton losses that equal three to claim the title.

Cal State Fullerton, which is among the hottest teams in the country, will take on Cal Poly’s Central Coast rival UC Santa Barbara over the weekend in its bid to claim the Big West title. CSF needs to win its series against UCSB and hope the Mustangs falter in their series in order to have a shot at the crown. The tiebreaker is also on the Titan side thanks to their series win over Cal Poly during the first conference weekend of the season.

Long Beach State has the longest odds of claiming a piece of the title sitting three games back of the leader, but the 49ers still have hope for second straight Big West title. The schedule has LBSU on the road for its final Big West series, a jaunt to Northern California to take on Pacific. In order to get a piece of the prize, Long Beach State has to sweep Pacific, hope Cal Poly gets swept and that Cal State Fullerton loses a pair in order to create a three-way tie. In that scenario, there would be a tri-champion but the automatic bid would go to Cal Poly since the squad has the best combined record against the other two tied teams.

The final series on the docket sees UC Davis play its final series of the season at home against Cal State Northridge in an important series for the Matadors. CSUN still has a glimmer of hope for and at-large NCAA Tournament bid but will need a positive result this weekend to help its overall profile. UCD will wrap up its second second of DI play this weekend, posting 20+ wins in each of its first two seasons at the highest level of intercollegiate athletics.