Long Beach State roundup: Men's volleyball team selected to NCAA Tournament, baseball and softball teams win

The NCAA selection committee aounced Sunday afteoon that the Long Beach State men’s volleyball team made this year’s NCAA Championships as an at-large entrant, eaing the No. 4 seed in the team’s first NCAA playoff appearance since 2008.

The 49ers are among the six teams to make it and received one of two at-large bids.

There was little doubt that UCLA would get the first, with the final spot coming down to Long Beach State and Stanford. The No. 4-ranked 49ers were certainly ahead of the Cardinal in terms of the selection criteria, but that didn’t mean that head coach Alan Knipe slept easily Saturday night.

“When it’s not in your complete control and you have to wait, it’s not a comfortable feeling,” he said. “We felt pretty good where we fit on the criteria and we certainly felt good about the way we schedule this year with the help of our athletic director Vic Cegles and Mark Edrington.”

The 49ers were ahead of Stanford on overall record (LBSU finished the regular season 24-7 overall) and also played more nonconference matches, facing both Ohio State and Lewis (who met for the MIVA championship) as well as making a cross-country trip to play Pe State.

The 49ers will face fifth-seeded Erskine, the Conference Carolinas champion, at 5 p.m. on May 3 at Pe State.

The wier of that match will face top-seeded BYU in the Final Four on May 5.

- Mike Guardabascio

Baseball

LONG BEACH STATE 10, UC RIVERSIDE 7 >> The Dirtbags (22-16, 6-6 Big West Conference) used an eight-run fourth iing to salvage the final game of their road series after the Highlanders (17-20, 5-4) had final at-bat victories on Friday and Saturday night.

Luke Rasmussen finished 4 for 5, a career high in hits, including three doubles and two RBIs.

A pair of the two-base knocks came during the fourth-iing onslaught as Long Beach went around the order for the first time all year.

Garrett Hampson and Daniel Jackson also knocked in two runs.

After scoring 13 Saturday night, the team’s two-day total of 23 is its most since it had 25 in a pair against Pacific in 2011.

Riverside took the lead with a two-run home run by Aaron Cisneros in the third, before LBSU exploded an iing later.

Taer Brown (5-3) picked up the win after striking out three and walking one over six iings.

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LBSU will host San Diego State in nonconference action Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Softball

LONG BEACH STATE 9, UC SANTA BARBARA 0 (5 INNINGS) >> The 49ers (26-17, 6-6 Big West Conference) got their first run-rule victory of the conference season, having little trouble in the series finale on the road.

Junior Christina Clermont struck out nine of the 17 batters she faced while allowing just two hits en route to her sixth shutout of the year.

Long Beach State took the lead in the second iing when Julia Lombardi hit her third home run of the season.

Long Beach added three more in the third before Darian Tautalafua hit her second grand slam of the season to go up a 9-0. The home run was the 50th in the four-year career for Tautalafua and she also broke the career runs scored record with 132.

Long Beach State will visit Cal State Fullerton on Wednesday, with the doubleheader set to be televised live on Fox Sports Prime Ticket, starting at 3 p.m.