KEVIN. B. KLAUS/Arizona Daily Wildcat The No. 15 UA baseball team faces an early season test this weekend when No. 8 Cal State Fullerton comes to Sancet Stadium for a three-game set.

No. 15 baseball battles No. 8 Fullerton at home

With only three games under its belt in the 2004 season, the Arizona baseball team is already getting an early taste of Omaha.

Cal State Fullerton (3-3, 0-0) heads into Tucson this weekend for a three-game series, which opens at 3 p.m. today.

The No. 8 Titans are coming off a third-place finish at last year's College World Series and have been to Omaha for the College World Series three of the last seven years.

"Hopefully the fans realize who is coming into town, so they can come out, watch and have a good atmosphere," said senior third baseman Moises Duran.

Although the No.15 Wildcats (3-0) recognize the significance of the series, they realize this is just one step in a long season.

"If you win all three, you don't get an automatic ticket to the College World Series, and if you lose all three, they don't keep you out of it," head coach Andy Lopez said.

"It's a long season and you don't want to put too much emphasis on one series, but it's a big series," said sophomore catcher Nick Hundley.

Fullerton holds a 14-game winning streak over the Wildcats since 1992, but has not faced Arizona since 1997.

After getting swept by Stanford the first weekend of the season, the Titans returned the favor against UNLV last weekend and upped their record to .500.

Arizona enters the series after sweeping a home series against UC Riverside a week ago. The Wildcats needed two comeback wins to beat the Highlanders.

"We didn't play our 'A' game at all last weekend," Duran said. "We have a lot more in us and every single player on this team can pick it up a lot."

Lopez plans on throwing the same three starting pitchers as last week, with junior Koley Kolberg (0-0, 1.42 ERA) set to throw Friday, sophomore Kevin Guyette (0-0, 11.81 ERA) Saturday, and sophomore Luis Cortez (1-0, 5.40 ERA) closing the series Sunday.

"It's a very untested staff, but I was happy how they managed the game when they had to (last weekend)," Lopez said.

In the Wildcats' three wins last weekend, they got good offensive production out of some of their newcomers.

Freshman shortstop Jason Donald went 4-for-10 with five RBI and four runs scored, including his first collegiate homerun, while freshman designated hitter Bill Rhinehart went 5-for-11 with four RBI and three runs scored.

First pitch for tomorrow's game is scheduled for 4 p.m., and the Sunday finale begins at 1 p.m.