May 30, 2011
Fullerton, Calif. - Cal State Fullerton (1) will host Stanford (2), Kansas State (3) and Illinois (4) in this weekend's NCAA college baseball Regional to be held at Goodwin Field from June 3-6, 2011.
The winner of the double-elimination, four-team Fullerton Regional will face the winner of the Chapel Hill (North Carolina) Regional in a best-of-three Super Regional, June 10-12. The Chapel Hill Regional features host and No. 3 National Seed North Carolina (1), FIU (2), James Madison (3) and Maine (4).
Virginia (49-9), Florida (45-16), South Carolina (45-14), Florida State (42-17), Vanderbilt (47-10), Texas (43-15) and Rice (41-19) will join North Carolina (45-14) as National Seeds.
Cal State Fullerton is hosting a regional for the tenth time since the turn of the century and are participating in the postseason for the 33rd time in 37 years at the Div. I level. Its 20 consecutive postseason appearances ranks third among active participants behind Miami (39 consecutive) and Florida State (33 consecutive).
The Titans finished the regular season with a 40-15 overall record and enter the postseason with the Big West Conference automatic bid after winning the league title by three games over UC Irvine.
Irvine (39-16) was the only other Big West school to advance to the postseason. They are a No. 3 seed at the Los Angeles (UCLA) Regional and will open the tournament with No. 2 seeded Fresno State (40-14).
Illinois and Cal State Fullerton have met up just four times in their history dating back to 1990. All four of the games were played in Fullerton with the Titans going 3-1 giants the Fighting Illini. In 1990, Illinois was No. 11 in the country and defeated the Titans, 10-4. In 1992, the two squared off for a non-conference series with the Titans sweeping all three games.
Illinois (28-25) is the automatic bid out of the Big 10 Conference. They shared the regular season conference title with Michigan State.
The Titans will square off with the Fighting Illini in the 8 p.m. game on June 3.
The Titans and Cardinal have a long, storied history, and for just the second time since 1986, and just the eighth time overall, the Titans did not face the Cardinal in the regular season. Stanford is one of few schools to have accumulated a winning record against the Titans, holding a 53-42 advantage in the all-time series. Fullerton is 28-19 all time against Stanford at home and is 4-10 all-time against the Cardinal in the postseason. Most recently, Fullerton eliminated the Cardinal from last year's Fullerton Regional with a 6-5 win on June 5, 2010. Stanford eliminated Fullerton with a pair of Super Regional wins at Goodwin Field in 2008, then the Titans swept the Cardinal in a regular season series in 2009 at Goodwin Field.
Stanford (32-20) finished in 5th place in the Pac-10 Conference and is one of six teams from their league qualifying for the postseason.
Cal State Fullerton and Kansas State have never met at the Div. I level. The Wildcats are making their third straight postseason appearance after finishing the season with an overall record of 36-23. They are one of six teams from the Big 12 to qualify.
The Fullerton Regional will be one of two Regionals nationally televised by ESPNU. The Gainesville (Florida) Regional will be the other. Justin Kutcher will be providing the play-by-play for the Fullerton Regional with former major leaguer Morgan Ensberg providing the analysis.
For Fullerton Regional ticket information, please read the following release: Link
To purchase tickets for the 2011 Fullerton Regional, click here.
2011 FULLERTON REGIONAL SCHEDULE:
FRIDAY, JUNE 3&\#8232;
Game 1 - No. 2 Stanford vs. No. 3 Kansas State, 4:00 p.m.&\#8232;
Game 2 - No. 1 Cal State Fullerton vs. No. 4 Illinois, 8:00 p.m.*
SATURDAY, JUNE 4&\#8232;
Game 3 - Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 4:00 p.m.
&\#8232;Game 4 - Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 8:00 p.m.*
SUNDAY, JUNE 5&\#8232;
Game 5 - Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4, 4:00 p.m.
&\#8232;Game 6 - Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 4, 8:00 p.m.*
MONDAY, JUNE 6
&\#8232;Game 7 - If necessary: Repeat of Game 6 Teams, 8:00 p.m.
*or 50 minutes after completion of previous game. Game times are subject to change.