NCAA BASEBALL : Trojans Win West Regional : College baseball: After losing to Long Beach State in the first game, USC earns trip to Omaha with 9-2 victory.

Only one obstacle remained between USC and its return to a place and perch it once occupied regularly. But the glory days of Trojan baseball have long since passed, and recent such opportunities have gone unfulfilled.

Separating USC from the College World Series was stubborn Long Beach State. And sure enough, a loss Sunday afternoon to Long Beach forced a second game to determine the NCAA West Regional winner.

The Trojans didn’t falter in the clutch a second time. They rode a three-run first-inning home run by Gabe Alvarez and a strong performance from starter Brian Cooper to win, 9-2, in front of 1,112 at Fresno State’s Beiden Field.

Top-seeded USC (45-19) finished 4-1 in the regional and qualified for its 18th trip to the Series in Omaha, Neb. The Trojans have won 11 NCAA titles--the most of any school--but have not earned a berth to the Series since winning its last national title in 1978. Five times since 1988, the Trojans have played for regional championships.

“This is a feeling of happiness and triumph,” USC Coach Mike Gillespie said. “We are abundantly aware of the fact that we’ve knocked on the door many times before but couldn’t get through.”

USC held off second-seeded Long Beach (39-25-1), which finished 4-2 in the regional, by starting quickly in Sunday’s second game.

The three-run homer by Alvarez, his 12th of the season, set the tone.

“That was a big shot for them,” 49er Coach Dave Snow said. “You get into that type of a ballgame, and you’re looking for something early that you can create some emotion off of.”

That was just what Cooper (7-2) needed. He pitched like a guy in charge, striking out a career-high 11 and giving up two runs on nine hits in eight innings.

Cooper, a junior right-hander, pitched on only two days rest. He started Thursday and picked up the victory in USC’s 10-4 victory over Middle Tennessee State. That coupled with his standout performance Sunday prompted his selection as the regional’s most outstanding player.

“Brian Cooper, who has been good, better and great in succeeding weeks for us this year, pitched absolutely the best that he has pitched,” Gillespie said. “He did everything we asked of him and more.”

USC scored two runs in the fifth and wrapped up the game with four in the seventh, the big hit being a two-run homer by Ernie Diaz. Long Beach managed to get two homers, by Jeff Liefer and Jason Minici, each of whom played outstanding in the regional. But Cooper was simply too tough.

“He throws a hard slider,” said Liefer, who hit four homers in the tournament. “His slider was really on in the beginning of the game.”

Long Beach received a great effort from Kyle Wilson (13-3) to force a second game.

Wilson gave up three runs in eight innings and closer Gabe Gonzalez held on to earn his 20th save.

“We have witnessed momentum changes [in regional finals], when we have lost the first game on occasions,” said Gillespie, who watched the Trojans lose two games on the final day of regionals in 1988 and ’90.

“This group was simply determined to not allow themselves to be down. We came out extremely aggressive from the get-go.”

And it helped that Long Beach’s pitching staff was drained.

“We used a lot of our quality pitching to get to that point,” Snow said.

Snow started Steve Hueston (2-2) in the second game.

Hueston pitched four innings and didn’t have a decision in Long Beach’s 14-11 victory over Southwest Missouri State on Thursday.

He pitched four innings against USC, giving up five runs. Snow used four pitchers in the second game, including Gonzalez.

Gonzalez appeared in four of the 49ers’ five games and had three saves. He gave up three runs in two-thirds of an inning in the second game Sunday.

“He’s a great pitcher, but that’s a tough deal asking him to throw that much,” Snow said. “I probably shouldn’t have put him in that position.”

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Mark Redman struck out 14 as defending champion Oklahoma (42-14) earned a return trip to the Series with a 3-1 victory over Auburn (50-13) at Oklahoma City. . . . Will Duffie’s second triple of the game drove in two runs in the eighth inning and sent Clemson (54-12) to a 7-4 victory over Alabama (42-23) and into the Series. . . . R.A. Dickey pitched an 11-inning complete game and Tennessee (52-14) scored twice in the 11th on a wild pitch and a hit batsman with the bases loaded to beat Oklahoma State (46-19), 3-1, at Knoxville, Tenn., and earn its first trip to the Series since 1951. . . . Doug Mientkiewicz hit two homers and drove in five runs at Tallahassee, Fla., as Florida State (52-14) earned its seventh trip to the Series with a 13-1 rout of Mississippi (40-22).