Note to the young Niners. The other team this weekend does have as Big V on their caps but please don’t confuse them with the “V” as in Vanderbilt. After dropping two games to Belmont (but taking the middle game against Ohio in Nashville last weekend) Valparaiso, the cold weather kids from Northwest Indiana (“Periods of snow and windy, Low 24F, Winds ESE at 20 to 30 mph. 1 to 3 inches of snow expected), returns to a warmer diamond this weekend for their three-game series at beautiful Blair (sunny and almost 70).

As you know, Long Beach State enters the series with a 2-3 record and gets a small breather from the Nations’ toughest schedule. For the curious, Valparaiso, founded in 1859, calls itself “a selective, independent Lutheran institution of 3000 students about an hour’s drive from Chicago.” Oh yes, and they do know baseball. Valpo finished 2012 with a 35-25 record overall, a 22-8 mark in the Horizon League, and took first place in both the regular season and League Tournament. Result, their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 44 years.

The Valpo skipper is Tracy Woodson, the 16th head coach in Valparaiso history, and in his seventh season at the helm of the Crusaders he has a 156-184, getting better these days. Old timers will recall Woodson as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers 1988 World Champion team. He also managed in the minors through the AAA level. This weekend Valpo will send out three decent righties, Senior Kyle Wormington (0-1, 2.70) will take the ball in the series opener opposed by the Dirtbags’ Shane Carle (RHP, 0-1, 1.80). Junior Cole Webb (RHP, 1-0, 0.00) will answer the bell for Valpo in the Saturday game vs. Landon Hunt and Chris DeBoo (RHP, 0-1, 10.80) will face Jon Maciel who started last Friday and got a save Wednesday in the 5-4 Niner win. For historians, LBSU finished 2012 28-27, 15-9 BWC and went in to the final weekend two games behind champion Cal State Fullerton. LB lost to the Titans in a winner-take-all tilt in the final game of the season.

LOOKING BACK DUST–In case you double-booked yourself for that skipping-school-or work deal on Wednesday, we can report the Niners wrapped up the game one win 5-4 but a couple Arizona freshmen Kevin Newman and Ryan Koziol had two hits apiece and the pitching staff wiggled its way out of jams all game long as the 10th-ranked Wildcats beat the Beach 3-1. 

Arizona is now back in Tucson for an 18 game home stand starting with our old Big West foe, San Jose State. Long Beach State which held on 5-4 earlier in the day could have used some timely hitting for a sweep. The Dirtbags left 13 runners on base in the game, going a combined 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. They threatened all the way through the eighth inning, when leaving the bases loaded for the second time in three innings took the wind from their sails. The lone LB run came thanks to an error. Cat Right fielder Joseph Maggi dropped a fly ball near the foul line to allow leadoff hitter Josh Guerra to reach second base. A sacrifice bunt advanced Guerra to third, and Juan Avila’s grounder to short drove in what was the tying run. Alas the Wildcats regained the lead in the second and Kyle Millison (1-1) took the loss for his three earned runs on six hits over five innings of work.

The closing was fine, since reliever David Hill tossed a pair of scoreless innings with a strikeout and one hit allowed and Josh Frye also added two scoreless frames with a pair of strikeouts…Eagle eyed readers reminded us that the first Beach trip to the CWS came in the 1989 West Regional in Tucson when Dave Snows scrappers upset a Wildcat team that boasted future major leaguers Scott Erickson, Trevor Hoffman and JT Snow. Arizona went 3-2 in the regional, but the two losses were to LBSU by scores of 10-6 and 10-3, eliminating the Wildcats from the postseason. Among the ’89 stars was slugging first baseman Don Barbara whose dad Yogi, set up the bar several times for the 49er fandom that traveled to the desert. In Omaha, the lads did a fine job of handicapping horse races at the track across from the hotel but did the two and BBQ…and now elsewhere in the Big West this weekend, UC Riverside at Sacramento State; San Francisco at UC Santa Barbara; Utah at UC Davis; Cal State Fullerton at TCU; Northridge at USC; Seattle at Cal Poly and UNLV at Pacific.—DR. DAN