OMAHA, Neb. -- They call themselves the 'orphans,' but the Long Beach State 49ers quickly are finding a home among college baseball's elite.
The 49ers, a collection of mostly junior-college players nobody else wanted, quickly meshed under Coach Dave Snow and now find themselves in the College World Series against such traditional powers as Texas and Miami.
At this time last year, Long Beach State was coming off a 14-win season and had no head coach.
'It's been a storybook season,' said second baseman Chris Gill, the lone holdover from last year among the regulars. 'We've gone through some hard times over the last few years. But good things come to those who wait.'
The best thing to come along for Long Beach State was Snow, who came to the school last June from Loyola Marymount and immediately began beating the bushes for talent.
Because Snow was hired so late, most of the top prospects were gone.
'The coaching staff worked almost 24 hours a day the first few weeks on the job trying to find players for our team,' Snow said. 'All of the players who were highly sought-after had already signed pro contracts or signed letters of intent to play at other schools. So we had to scramble for good players.'
Snow, who keeps an extensive notebook on potential prospects, found a few gems.
Center fielder Darrell Sherman, signed from Cerritos Junior College in California, hit .381 and stole 39 bases in 43 attempts.
Don Barbara, who Snow turned down at Loyola because he had too many first basemen, signed with Long Beach and hit .372.
Perry Sanchez, a utility player at Cerritos, became the regular catcher and hit .319 with 53 RBI. He may be thesmallest catcher in college baseball, standing 5-foot-10 and weighing 155 pounds.
Finally, left-hander Kyle Abbott transferred from Cal-San Diego and became the ace of the pitching staff, going 15-2 with a 2.37 ERA.
'A lot of players came here ready to make the team,' Abbott said. 'It wasn't a big problem (coming together), and there haven't been a lot of big personality conflicts. Coach Snow is a great motivator. He gets the most out of his players.'
The 49ers topped last year's victory total before they lost a game, going 18-0 to start the season. They finished the year 50-13 and won the West I Regional to earn the College World Series berth.
'We had the team set goals and we never deviated from them,' said Snow, who took Loyola Marymount to the CWS in 1986 and is only the fourth coach in history to take two schools to the tournament.
Long Beach State's performance also came despite the lack of a home field. Reconstruction at Blair Field, the 49ers' usual home, forced many home games to be played at either Cerritos or Long Beach City College.
'We even practiced a couple of times on a Pony League field,' Snow said.
Now the 49ers are playing on the biggest stage in college baseball, and the players are relishing every minute of it.
'Maybe I'll realize the significance of what's happened in a few weeks,' Gill said. 'Right now I'm just enjoying myself. People don't know what this year's been like for me.'
