Titans Given a No. 2 Seeding and a Tough Draw at Home

By LON EUBANKS

May 23, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Cal State Fullerton, which will host its first NCAA regional baseball tournament this week, didn’t get any favors from the NCAA Division I committee Monday when the pairings were announced.

Fullerton (36-19) was seeded second in the four-team field that will include No. 1-seeded USC (38-18) and third-seeded Loyola Marymount (39-17). Virginia Tech (34-23-2), the Atlantic 10 Conference champion, is seeded No. 4.

Fullerton will face Loyola, which won the West Coast Conference championship series against Pepperdine, in the first round at 7 p.m. Friday. USC and Virginia Tech will play at 3 p.m. The double-elimination tournament continues Saturday and Sunday.

Loyola defeated Fullerton, 11-2, in a midweek game in April. USC won at Fullerton, 7-6 and 8-3, while the Titans won at Dedeaux Field, 5-4.

“You’re always going to have strong teams in a California regional,” Titan Coach George Horton said. “We knew that going in. For us, it’s something of a tradeoff with being able to host. We knew we probably could have had an easier time if we had gone on the road.

“But right now, it’s about winning a national championship, and you have to be able to beat quality teams to do that.”

USC was one of four Pacific-10 Conference teams seeded No. 1 despite finishing fourth in the conference. The Trojans, however, have won their last 10 games.

UCLA (35-24), which shared the Pac-10 championship, was given the No. 1 seeding at the Oklahoma City regional, where host Oklahoma (39-21), Oral Roberts (48-13) and Delaware (37-18) complete the field.

Arizona State (42-13) is ranked seventh and Stanford (42-13) eighth among the top eight teams seeded nationally by the committee, and both will host regionals.

The committee ranked South Carolina (52-8) No. 1, followed by Louisiana State (43-17), Georgia Tech (47-14), Clemson (45-16), Houston (44-15) and Florida State (45-15). The eight nationally seeded teams are assured of not meeting before the College World Series.

“I think UCLA is the one that got the break in all this,” USC Coach Mike Gillespie said “The Fullerton field is very tough. I think Loyola is really being under-respected. For Loyola to be a No. 3 is ridiculous.

“I would have preferred to play against teams that we don’t play all the time, but the fans of college baseball in Southern California should be getting what they want. That’s the good thing.”

The three Southland teams at Fullerton are ranked among the top 20 teams by Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball.

The Fullerton winner will meet the Georgia Tech winner in a best-of-three super-regional series for the right to advance to the College World Series. The eight super-regional sites will be determined Monday.

The Stanford regional also appears particularly strong with Alabama (38-22) seeded second, Nevada (37-17) third and Fresno State (40-19) fourth. Nevada became the second Big West team to make the 64-team field. Long Beach State, which finished in a three-way tie for third place, was left out for the first time since 1990.

Dick Rockwell, chairman of the baseball committee, said Fullerton losing two of three games last weekend against Long Beach State wasn’t a deciding factor in the Titansnot being seeded first.

“When we decided to send (USC) to Fullerton, it was more of a geographic decision,” Rockwell said. “We know that’s going to be a really tough regional, but it should have good fan interest.”

Fullerton players said Monday they welcome another shot at Loyola and USC. “Those were all midweek games before, and the pitching matchups will be a lot different now,” relief pitcher Kirk Saarloos said.

First baseman Aaron Rifkin said he thinks not being seeded No. 1 might provide added motivation for the Titans. “But we know those are all good teams in our tournament.” he said.

Second baseman David Bacani said he thinks the Titans match up well with Loyola and USC. “The important thing, though, is for us to play up to our capability,” Bacani said.

Horton said he plans to start Adam Johnson (7-3) in the opener against Loyola. “We’ll see what happens after that,” Horton said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NCAA Baseball

Division I Regional At Titan Field

Cal State Fullerton

Friday

Game 1: Virginia Tech (34-23-2) vs. USC (38-18), 3 p.m.

Game 2: Loyola Marymount (39-17) vs. Cal State Fullerton (36-19), 7 p.m.

Saturday

Game 3: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 1:30 p.m.

Game 4: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 4:30 p.m.

Game 5: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser, 7:30 p.m.