Am I sick or what? Has this disease gotten the best of me? Oh hell yeah.

I’m sitting here on a beautiful Sunday evening watching the San Diego-Santa Clara game on TV. The problem?… the score is currently USD 17, SCU 1. Yet, still I watch.

Ahhh, you've gotta love Sunday baseball on TV.

Quick memo to TV execs: Please quit showing Sunday college baseball games. It’s time to get Friday night games to hit the airwaves. In fact, is there a “Bracket Buster” weekend coming up? Let’s see if we can’t get San Diego State to play Missouri and have some network televise the thing. Can you imagine how good of a matchup that will be for college baseball?

Okay, on to the Three Up-Three Down and the Ouch List for today.

What I saw at Blair Field In Long Beach.
UC Riverside – 002 200 000 – 4 4 2
Long Beach St- 020 000 001 – 3 8 3

WP- Paul Applebee (5-2)
LP- Andrew Gagnon (2-3)
Sv- Joseph Kelly (6)

Unlike those Sunday TV games, this one was dominated by good pitching, which is normally typical of Big West baseball.

For starters, the Dirtbags could be back people. They’ve been on an uptick lately, including beating UCR twice already this weekend. But today, their two-game win streak over the Highlanders came to an end, with the ever-impressive Paul Applebee and stud reliever Joe Kelly putting the mental clamps on the ‘Bags.

It's easy to see why Paul Applebee is the Best in the Nation as Sunday pitchers go.

It was a win the Highlanders really needed. After a solid Tuesday win over Pepperdine, it would have ruined the week if they had lost all three games at Blair Field. But leave it to the guy that head coach Doug Smith told me “is really special” when I talked to him at the Palm Springs Tournament – Applebee.

The Sunday starter went 7.0 innings, changed speeds like he was in a bumper car, and scattered six hits in his 106 pitches on the day. He got just enough offense from his mates to improve to 5-2 on the season. Long Beach’s Andrew Gagnon was the tough-luck loser, who actually went pitch-for-pitch with Applebee. And maybe he was even better, giving up just four hits and two earned runs in 8.0 innings of work. Four hits? C’mon, that’s pretty cruel to lose like that.

Uncharacteristically, the Dirtbags committed three costly errors, which helped UCR get two of their runs. Joe Kelly picked up save No. 6 on the season, tied for tops in the Big West, after escaping a 9th inning jam that had Dirtbag runners on the corners when the final out was recorded on a Rylan Sandoval groundout.

UCR improves to 18-8 and 2-4 in Big West play.

The Beach, behind its two victories this weekend, is showing signs of making its way back into the national spotlight. The Dirtbags are now 14-13 and 2-1, as it was their first weekend of conference play.

Long Beach just couldn't catch up with the elusive Highlanders today.

Now on to some national news and notes.

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THREE UP.
Lots of good things to choose from, but here’s what I’ve got at the top.

1- LSU and North Carolina.
- The Tigers won the series at Georgia with today’s 7-5 win. Louis Coleman improved to 7-1 with 8.0 innings of work, striking out nine along the way and Matty Ott picked up his sixth save of the season. Mikie Mahtook’s two-run home run in the 6th was the difference in the game.

With two men on base, Zach Cone strikes out for the final out of the game.

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- The Tar Heels rebounded from last night’s 11th inning letdown to drill the Jackets by a 13-10 count. As good All American leaders are wont to do, Dustin Ackley and Kyle Seager played out of their freakin’ minds, with Ackley going yard twice and Seager slamming four doubles. This was UNC’s first series win in Atlanta since 1998.

2- Ole Miss’ Scott Biddle.
The dude’s been a little hither-and-yon so far this season. Probably the draft pressure after getting selected in the 2nd round by the Yankees last June. Today, the Rebel slinger went the full 9.0, striking out 13 Wildcat batters and giving up just three hits. With that performance the Rebels beat UK 8-0, completing a three-game sweep.

3- TCU.
Beat New Mexico 19-3 to finish the weekend unblemished.
The Horned Frogs pretty much gave the rest of the Mountain West Conference a big ol’ giant Kelly Osborne-like “shut up!” They heard all about the Lobos coming in and making this their year to take over the MWC. Again, shut up! Today, Matt Carpenter and Jimmie Pharr both hit grand slams… in the same freakin’ inning.

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THREE DOWN
Well, actually it’s “10 Down” as we look at the Ouch List for Sunday, April 5th.

The Ouch List:

- Georgia.
Result:
Lost 7-5 vs. LSU.
Weekend:
Lost two of three at home to the Bayou Bengals.
Why It Hurts:
Well, it won’t cost them an NCAA bid or host spot or anything, but the Dawgs WILL lose that No. 1 ranking they’ve had for the past week. Good series. Close games. Great atmosphere. Not a lot to be ashamed of here, but it’s still an “ouch.”

Dave Perno pleads his case right before getting ejected today vs. LSU.

- Middle Tennessee State
Result:
Lost 14-7 at Louisiana-Lafayette
Weekend:
Swept in all three games by the Cajuns, 5-2, 10-5 and 14-7.
Why It Hurts:
As good as the Blue Raiders have been, it’s hard for a team like this to make enough of an impact to get ranked in one of the many rankings and polls out there. Well, MT was on the verge of that busting through this weekend, but did a pretty good faceplant at Tigue Moore Field. The Raiders fall to 21-7 and 11-4 in the Sun Belt.

- Nebraska
Result:
DNP today
Weekend:
Lost all three games at home to Kansas State
Why It Hurts:
This weekend sweep affirms two things, 1- K-State is for real and will be a player in the post-season. And 2- Nebraska’s series win over Oklahoma State may have been a blip on the radar and looks like the rebuilding project is in full swing after all. NU is now officially in dead last in the Big 12 at 4-8. Rebuilding year? Sure, but did we expect this much?

- New Mexico.
Result:
Lost 19-3 at TCU today
Weekend:
Got swept in all three games in Ft. Worth.
Why It Hurts:
Because this was one team that the college baseball nation had a big eye on going into this weekend. Especially since the Lobo schedule has been pretty sparse, except for the two-game sweep at Texas A&M. So this was the one weekend chance to see if UNM was worth its salt. Annnnnnd… it wasn’t. The Lobos were beaten 7-4, 4-2 and 19-3, having never scored in the 7th-through-9th innings all weekend.

- No. 30 UNC Wilmington
Result:
Lost 10-8 at George Mason
Weekend:
The Seahawks were swept in all three games.
Why It Hurts:
Mostly because, like Middle Tennessee, the Seahawks need to take advantage of playing and beating good opponents when they can. But going to Fairfax this weekend, the ‘Hawks ran into a buzzsaw, losing 4-2, 6-3 and 10-8. Two dubious milestones were realized, it was GMU’s first sweep of UNCW in 10 years and also, at seven straight losses, this is UNCW’s longest losing streak since 1998.

- Santa Clara.
Result:
Lost today vs. San Diego 22-5
Weekend:
Dropped all three games to the No. 23 ranked Toreros.
Why It Hurts:
We all know SCU wasn’t on everybody’s potential Top 25 list going into the weekend. But every outlet imaginable came into the season expecting the Broncos to challenge for the WCC title. Then they lost heart-and-soul catcher Tommy Medica to injury. Then they lost their fight. And it all played out on TV today. SCU was drubbed by USD this weekend by a combined 53-19 this weekend.

- Tulane
Result:
Lost at Rice 7-4.
Weekend:
Lost all three games to the Owls to completely drop off the radar.
Why It Hurts:
With Ryan Berry and Mike Ojala both on the shelf this weekend, there was never a better time to give the Owls a loss or two. Well, the Green Wave is still a year or so behind as they are now on a 7-9 run and sit at 1-5 in C-USA play.

- No. 13 Texas A&M.
Result:
Lost 7-5 at Texas Tech.
Weekend:
Lost two of three to the Red Raiders.
Why It Hurts:
Tech was supposed to be one of the easier opponents on the Aggie schedule. You know, a way to improve their record and continue their resurgence from that ugly 3-7 stretch in mid-April. Instead, they were bitten in the reveille twice by the Double Ts. Now the Ags have to go to red-hot K-State and test the fates there.

- The leaders of the Atlantic 10.
Results:
1st place Temple split at UMass, W8-7 and L7-6
2nd place Dayton lost twice at Rhode Island, 4-2 and 3-0.
3rd place Fordham lost twice vs. St. Joseph’s 11-5 and6-5.
Why It Hurts:
Well if entertainment value is your schtick, then you’re like me and starting to LOVE this conference race. To quote a not-so-famous Rush song, anything can happen. ($10 to whoever knows the song… and can hum it too, not just look up the lyric on the web). With all that went on, look for Rhody to make a run back up to the top of the conference chase.

- Michigan.
Result:
Lost at home to Penn State, 15-5.
Weekend:
Dropped two of three to the visiting Lions.
Why It Hurts:
Hmmm, with the rest of the Big 10 playing some wicked-good baseball, maybe this signifies a paradigm shift at the top. Minnesota, fresh off a series win over No. 24 Ohio State, and Illinois, who lost two of three vs. Indiana, now take the reins of the top of the conference standings. There IS a way back for the Maize and Blue though. The Wolverines host both the Illini and the Gophers starting next week with UI.

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More tomorrow.

G’night.