2013 Baseball World Series Fullerton Regional Breakdown
#5 Cal State Fullerton, Arizona State, New Mexico, Columbia
The champions of the Big West Conference earn the right to host their own regional by virtue of an automatic bid. Cal State Fullerton (48-8) swept to the conference title. This is the club’s eighth time as a seeded team since super-regional play started in 1999, but it is the first time since 2009 that Cal State Fullerton earned one of the 16 top seeds. Carlos Lopez (.344-4-34, 75 hits) and Michael Lorenzen (.335-7-50) lead Fullerton’s hitting lineup, but it is the team’s pitching that also deserves big applause. Thomas Eshelman (11-2, 1.63) has a positively filthy walk to strikeout ratio. By filthy, I mean he makes other opponents feel helpless at the plate. Eshelman has only two walks but has 71 strikeouts. Justin Garza (11-0, 2.08) is also fairly strong on the mound.
Arizona State (35-20-1) tied for fourth place in the Pac-12 Conference and earned an at-large bid for its 30th trip to the NCAA tournament. Not counting the probation year of 2012, this is the 12th straight trip to postseason play for the Sun Devils, led by Michael Benjamin (.349-8-44) and Kasey Coffman (.335-7-43). Ryan Kellogg has won all 11 of his decisions to go with a 3.26 earned run average. New Mexico (37-20) won the Mountain West Conference championship, largely paced by the bat of D.J. Peterson (.411-18-70) and the speed of Chas Harris (19 stolen bases), Jo Melendez (13 SB) and Mitch Garver (12 SB). Josh Walker has also won all 11 decisions with a 3.91 ERA, and its opening opponent (Arizona State) was one the Lobos lost to by only one run earlier in the year. Columbia (27-19) has a weaker record but a 16-4 Ivy League mark, enough for the conference title. The Lions’ only previous appearances came in 1976 and 2008; Alex Black (.320-7-29) and Jordan Serena (28 SB) lead the offense.
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