COLLEGE BASEBALL / NCAA REGIONAL PLAYOFFS : USC Wins Big; Fullerton Makes It Close

USC pitcher Brian Cooper learned he was starting the Trojans’ West Regional opener against Middle Tennessee State on Thursday, one hour before the game.

Cooper, a junior right-hander from Glendora, was tabbed after Seth Etherton came down with flu.

“I thought I would be pitching later in the week,” Cooper said. “But it probably was a good thing it happened like this because I didn’t have a chance to get nervous the night before.”

He gave up two runs and struck out eight in six innings as USC defeated Middle Tennessee State, 10-4, before 1,124 at Beiden Field.

The top-seeded Trojans (42-18) will play Fresno State, which lost to Pepperdine, 9-5, later Thursday. Middle Tennessee State is 35-26.

The winner of the six-team double-elimination regional advances to the eight-team College World Series in Omaha on June 2-10.

“We wanted to come out and establish ourselves as the team to beat, and I think we did that,” USC outfielder Geoff Jenkins said.

Jenkins erased a 1-0 deficit in the first inning with his 19th homer, a two-out, two-run shot to right-center field that scored leadoff hitter Walter Dawkins, who had walked.

Junior outfielder Jacque Jones followed Jenkins’ blast with a solo shot to right for a 3-1 lead.

Jones also had had a triple and a single.

Cooper (6-2) scattered seven hits, walked two and matched his season high for strikeouts.

Long Beach State 14, Southwest Missouri State 11--The 49ers scored three runs in the eighth inning on a ground ball, an error and a wild pitch to break an 11-all tie and cap a come-from-behind victory.

Long Beach (36-23-1), which will play Pepperdine, trailed, 10-3, entering the bottom of the fifth. The 49ers’ scored four runs in the inning, highlighted by Jeff Liefer’s three-run homer, his 10th.

Long Beach tied the score, 11-11, in the seventh inning on a single by Jason Minici, an error on a ground ball by Kirk Pierce, a bases-loaded walk by Will Skett and a sacrifice fly to left field by Casey Snow.

Kyle Wilson (12-3) pitched 3 2/3 innings in relief for the victory. Gabe Gonzalez pitched one inning for his 18th save.

Minici had a triple, double and two singles and scored four runs.

Pepperdine 9, Fresno State 5--The fourth-seeded Waves scored five runs in the fifth inning and freshman left-hander Randy Wolf (9-1) pitched eight innings against the third-seeded Bulldogs before 4,318.

Wolf gave up 13 hits, struck out seven and walked one.

Ruben Gamboa, Jason Cohen and Justin Hodgdon each drove in two runs for the Waves (35-17-1), who had 13 hits.

Fresno State (41-21) made three errors, one by right fielder Joseph Frietas, who slipped trying to field a single by Hodgdon with the bases loaded in the fifth inning and Pepperdine leading, 6-3.

SOUTH REGIONAL

Cal State Fullerton is the nation’s top-ranked team, but the Titans had to fight for a 7-6 victory against a team that finished the regular season third in its conference.

And it took a throwing error by Northeast Louisiana (37-19) with two out in the ninth inning for Fullerton (50-9) to score the winning run in Baton Rouge, La.

Jack Jones was safe on shortstop Tommy Smith’s high throw, letting Joe Fraser score from third.

Fullerton’s 11th consecutive victory advances the Titans into today’s second round at 1 p.m. (PDT) against James Madison, which lost, 8-7, to Rice.

“We got only one break in the whole game, and that was the last one,” Coach Augie Garrido said.