Long Beach State to Meet Syracuse in the Tempe Regional

The Long Beach State softball team ended its season winning two of its three games against the Pacific Tigers this weekend, which was enough to win the Big West Conference crown and a berth into the NCAA tournament.

For the second year in a row, the 49ers (28-23) will play in the Tempe regional.  Last year, their visit was cut short as they went 1-3 losing to eventual national Champions Arizona State.  They face the Syracuse Orangemen (40-14) this Friday.  The beach owns an all-time record of 3-0 against the Orange.

After dropping the first game of a doubleheader against pacific last Friday 3-2, the Beach bounced back to win the second game 9-1, and then took the rubber match Saturday 4-2.

Sophomore Sarah Carrasco blasted a three-run homerun en route to the 4-2 victory.  She also scored the first run of the game for the 49ers scoring on Hanna DeGesteano’s RBI single. She finished 2 for 2 with three RBI’s and two runs scored.

The win secured the Beach’s first Big West Conference title since 2008 and its 21^st appearance in the NCAA tournament.  This is the second year in a row, and the
fourth during Kim Sowder’s tenure as head coach.

Host Arizona State will face LIU-Brooklyn (25-33) in the other game on Friday.  Long Beach lost to LIU-Brooklyn 5-2 earlier this year, and is 1-1 all-time taking the first meeting 5-1 in 2010.

Arizona State (46-7) holds the all-time series record of 17-11-1 against the Beach, and eliminated the Beach 8-0 in last year’s winners’ bracket game.