COLLEGE BASEBALL NCAA TOURNAMENT : Fullerton and Loyola Left Out of 48-Team Field

Euphoria and disappointment, annual byproducts of the selection process for the NCAA Division I baseball playoffs, were evident in the Southland Monday with the announcement of the 48-team field for this year’s tournament.

USC, Miami, Wichita State, Florida State, Florida, Louisiana State, Texas and Clemson are seeded first in the eight double-elimination regionals that begin Thursday and Friday to determine the participants in the College World Series at Omaha, Neb.

As expected, Cal State Long Beach, ranked eighth by Baseball America; No. 11 Cal State Northridge and No. 13 Pepperdine were awarded berths in the playoffs.

Also included, by virtue of winning the Western Athletic Conference tournament, was No. 24 San Diego State.

However, Cal State Fullerton (34-22), co-champion of the Big West Conference, was left out. So was Loyola Marymount (38-22), which finished half a game behind Pepperdine for the championship of the West Coast Conference and won two of three games from the Waves in a season-ending series last weekend.

Notre Dame, with a 45-16 record, also fell by the wayside.

A coaches committee chaired by Missouri’s Gene McArtor met in Overland Park, Kan., and selected the participants for the playoffs based on overall record, strength of schedule and a computer-generated Ratings Percentage Index (RPI). Twenty-five of the 48 berths went to conference champions or winners of conference tournaments, leaving 23 at-large berths.

Middle Tennessee State, which finished with a 28-31 record, and Alabama Birmingham (27-28) won conference postseason tournaments and made the playoffs despite overall losing records.

“I knew it could happen, but I didn’t really believe it would happen to us,” Fullerton Coach Augie Garrido said of his team’s exclusion. “I don’t like finding out how accurate I am.”

Third-ranked USC (44-15-1) will play host to the West I Regional and will open against Middle Tennessee State on Friday. The regional also has No. 15 Hawaii (48-16), Pepperdine (41-15-1), No. 16 Creighton (45-20) and Minnesota (36-24).

Long Beach (40-19), which finished third in the Big West behind Fresno State and Fullerton, is seeded third in the Central Regional at Austin, Tex., which starts Friday. The 49ers will open against No. 19 Southern Mississippi (41-22) in a regional that also has Texas (46-16), Oklahoma State (43-18), Rutgers (32-20-2) and Alabama Birmingham.

Northridge (41-16-1), competing as an independent in its first season at the Division I level, is seeded fourth in the West II Regional at Fresno, which begins Thursday. The Matadors open against No. 17 Fresno State (37-20), which tied Fullerton for the Big West title. Other teams are No. 9 Miami (45-15), No. 12 Stanford (37-21), San Diego State (43-19) and Portland (30-17).

Other regions, with start dates:

Atlantic Regional at Tallahassee, Fla., Thursday--No. 2 Florida State (53-12), Georgia Tech (40-24), Alabama (39-18), Florida International (43-21), St. John’s (33-12-1) and Coastal Carolina (36-27).

East Regional at Gainesville, Fla., Thursday--No. 6 Florida (45-19), No. 25 North Carolina State (45-18), Jacksonville (43-19-2), Missouri (39-18), Ohio University (33-25) and Furman (25-24).

Northeast Regional at Orono, Me., Thursday--No. 4 Clemson (56-8), Mississippi State (40-19), No. 21 Maine (45-16), Villanova (37-13-1), Towson State (27-21-1) and Princeton (22-20).

Midwest Regional at Wichita, Kan., Friday--Top-ranked Wichita State (59-12), Ohio State (50-11), Baylor (40-18), California (34-25), Rider (32-14-1) and East Carolina (29-22-1).

South Regional at Baton Rouge, La., Friday--No. 7 LSU (47-18), No. 18 Texas A&M; (42-21), No. 23 South Alabama (43-15), Oklahoma (40-21), No. 20 Southwestern Louisiana (46-18) and Northwestern Louisiana (38-19).