West Coast War in Long Beach

It doesn’t rain very often in San Diego, but a steady shower Friday was enough to postpone game one of the conference championship series until Saturday. This may have been a blessing in disguise because the Toreros were able to claim back-to-back conference championship series titles in a single day.

We owned the Saturday doubleheader, outscoring our opponent 23-5 on the day. The box scores described the Toreros as a threat from various angles. Matusz did his thing in game one, Romo and Blair dealt game two, the batters box and base paths were owned by Toreros contributing from a number of spots in the lineup, and a slew of nasty relievers and starters never removed their jackets, let alone get the nod to get loose in the pen.

Taking care of business in prompt fashion has its obvious benefits, such as a day to rest Sunday and the peace of mind of owning the conference. But for Luke Roniger and I, it meant we could graduate with the rest of our peers. It was a special moment, but the things that our classmates get excited for don’t seem to bring out the same emotions for us. I sat through the commencement speech at my graduation anticipating the selection show the following morning and daydreamt of dog piling in Omaha.

The next morning we all filed into the Warren Room atop the Jenny Craig Pavilion on campus and watched the selection show projected on a big screen while eating breakfast burritos under the careful watch of TV cameras and reporters.

The anticipation turned to cheers and applause when “San Diego” popped up in the Long Beach Regional. We are all excited to play close to home which allows our fan base to continue to support us and to be grouped with three other quality West Coast programs that appeared on our schedule earlier this season. That’s the way it is over here, regionals are a war with tough teams all the way through from one seeds to four seeds.

Understanding that it is going to be a battle all weekend, we feel comfortable with our opponents and we feel we know what we are getting into. Without looking ahead, we had a great week of training that focused on getting better and putting the best team we’ve had of the season out there every game.

With the weekend approaching, the mood in Torerotown is good and I think our team has worked hard this week to deserve success in Long Beach. With hopes to put some serious miles on the Torero bus, the road to Omaha begins….

Logan Gelbrich

(action photo by Brock Scott)