NCAA BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : West Left Off the Site Map

The eight sites for the NCAA baseball playoffs were announced Monday and for the first time since the NCAA began the regional format in 1975 there will be no West regional.

The regional sites are Atlantic I at Miami; Atlantic II at Tallahassee, Fla.; East at Clemson, S.C.; Mideast at Knoxville, Tenn.; South at Baton Rouge, La.; Central at Austin, Texas; Midwest I at Stillwater, Okla., and Midwest II at Wichita, Kan.

Long Beach State had sought a regional, but the school’s paperwork was mishandled by the NCAA office and the bid was not presented before the original selections, according to Jim Wright, media coordinator for the College World Series. When NCAA officials realized the error, Long Beach State was reconsidered but the committee decided to stay with the original selections, he said.

“People do make mistakes and we can accept that, especially given the class and character of the NCAA office in admitting the error,” Long Beach State Athletic Director Dave O’Brien said in a statement. “But we are extremely disappointed . . .”

Stanford, Arizona State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Nevada also were among the 21 schools that submitted bids.

Cal State Fullerton (41-13) is ranked seventh in the nation by Baseball America and eighth by Collegiate Baseball after losing two of three games to USC last weekend. The Trojans are ranked ninth by Baseball America and 11th by Collegiate Baseball. Clemson (51-15) is No. 1 in both rankings.

The NCAA selection committee will determine the top eight teams in a meeting Sunday, and each will be assigned to different regionals. The other 40 teams then will be assigned to regionals and the field will be announced Monday.

The Big West Conference is expected to have three representatives. Nevada (39-10) has won the conference’s automatic berth by sharing the championship and winning its three-game series with Long Beach State (38-15) and Fullerton.

Nevada and Long Beach State have finished the conference season with 16-5 records. Fullerton is 15-5 and also can tie for the championship with a victory Wednesday at Pacific in a makeup of a rained-out game.