The Long Beach State softball team received an at-large bid into the 64-team NCAA Softball tournament on Sunday and will begin play against San Diego State in the Tempe Regional at Arizona State on Friday at 2:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on ESPNU.
The last time the 49ers (37-16) faced the Aztecs (32-19) was on March 3 when SDSU picked up a 3-0 victory their only meeting at the San Diego State Aztecs Invitational.
The Aztecs were able to hand LBSU starting pitcher Erin Jones-Wesley (22-6) one of just six losses on the season when they scored three earned runs on just five hits.
Despite collecting seven hits of their own, the 49ers were unable to register a run off a pair of SDSU pitchers. Megan Denio and Nalani St. Germain led LBSU in the game with two hits each.
LBSU holds a 48-21 advantage in the all-time series between the two teams, however, the 49ers haven’t beaten the Aztecs since Feb. 2009 when they handed SDSU a 3-2 loss.
Meanwhile, the other two teams in the regional — the No. 1-seeded ASU (50-6) and North Dakota State (30-25) will play Friday at 5 p.m. with the winners meeting Saturday at 3 p.m. and the losers scheduled to play 2 hours later in an elimination contest.
Another elimination game will follow at 8 p.m., with the sub-regional winner determined in either a 2:30 p.m. game on Sunday (if a team should go unbeaten) or at 5 p.m.
The 49ers are 11-16 against host Arizona State and 0-1 against North Dakota State. LBSU last faced the Sun Devils on March 20-21 when ASU swept them in a three-game series.
Meanwhile, The Beach hasn’t faced North Dakota State was a 2-0 loss at the San Diego State Aztec Invitational on Feb. 23, 2007.
The ‘Niners will be making its 20th appearance in an NCAA Regional tournament, and the third since Kim Sowder took the reigns as head coach.
The 49ers last appearance came at the Los Angeles Regional at UCLA where LBSU finished with a 1-2 mark.
The 49ers last won a regional tournament in 1993 when they finished 3-1 at the California Regional before advancing to the College World Series with a 2-1 win over the Golden Bears.
LBSU is 23-32 all-time in NCAA Regional tournaments.
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