BASEBALL / NCAA DIVISION I TOURNAMENT : Loyola, USC, UCLA In, Pepperdine Out

USC, UCLA, Cal State Fullerton, UC Santa Barbara and Loyola Marymount were selected Monday as part of the 48-team field that will compete for the NCAA Division I baseball championship.

The Pacific 10 Southern Division has four teams--Stanford, Arizona State, USC and UCLA--in the double-elimination tournament, which begins Thursday and Friday at eight regional sites. Stanford and Arizona State each was seeded first in its regional.

The regional champions will advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., June 1-9.

The Atlantic Coast Conference also has four in the tournament: North Carolina, Clemson, North Carolina State and Georgia Tech.

San Diego State and Fresno State also were chosen. But Pepperdine (37-23), which was second to Loyola in the West Coast Conference, will miss the playoffs for the first time since 1984.

“We looked at the regular-season performance as well as the conference in making the decision,” said Gene McArtor of the NCAA Baseball Committee.

The eight top-seeded teams and the regional in which they will compete are: North Carolina, Northeast; Miami, Fla., Atlantic; Louisiana State, South I; Florida State, South II; Arkansas, Midwest; Texas, Central; Stanford, West I; and Arizona State, West II.

Eleven-time national champion USC (37-20) meets Southern Mississippi (41-23) in the South I regional at Baton Rouge, La. UCLA (39-24) plays South Alabama (41-18) in the Midwest regional at Wichita, Kan.

Stanford (52-10) will face Campbell (15-31), champion of the Big South Conference, in a first-round game at Palo Alto. Fresno State (37-22) plays Southern Illinois (47-12) and San Diego State (46-20) meets Middle Tennessee State (42-13), also in Palo Alto.

Arizona State (49-14) plays host to Pennsylvania (22-15), Loyola meets Washington State (46-17) and UCSB (40-20) plays Oklahoma State (49-16) at Tempe.

Big West Conference champion Fullerton (32-21) plays Old Dominion (40-17) at Texas.