Fullerton’s Slump Pays Off for Big West

The Big West Conference benefited from the early success and recent failure of Cal State Fullerton and ended up the big winner Monday, when the NCAA regional playoff baseball pairings were announced.

Nevada Las Vegas, Long Beach State, UC Santa Barbara and defending champion Fullerton all made the 48-team field, putting the Big West behind only the Southeastern Conference, which landed six berths, and the Atlantic Coast Conference, five, for most invitations.

Regional play will begin Thursday, with regional winners advancing to the College World Series, starting May 31 at Omaha.

Fullerton, ranked 11th, lost 10 of its last 15 games and dropped from a sure No. 1 to the second-seeded team in the Midwest Regional, at Wichita, Kan., where host Wichita State will be top-seeded. But Fullerton’s swoon brought credibility to the rest of the conference.

“I think there was a lot of focus on Fullerton,” said Long Beach Coach Dave Snow. “Someone else winning the regular season, someone else winning the conference tournament, that helped everyone. I think the committee saw that and figured there must be some other good teams in the league.”

USC, which moved up to No. 1 in the country this week in both Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball polls, landed the top spot in the Central II regional in Lubbock, Texas. The Trojans will open against Akron, the Mid-American Conference champion. Akron is making its first appearance in the double-elimination tournament.

“We don’t know much about [Akron] but we will,” said USC Coach Mike Gillespie. “We feel pretty good with the way we have played lately.”

Cal State Northridge was the day’s big loser. Ranked 10th in the nation and the Western Athletic Conference champions, the Matadors landed fifth in the West at Stanford and must play the second-seeded Cardinal, winner of 16 consecutive games.

The Matadors, gathered at a restaurant to watch the pairings announced on television, went silent as their matchup was read.

Northridge Coach Mike Batesole said he was happy just to be invited, but speculation had been that the team would be third-, or possibly, second-seeded. Santa Barbara and Mississippi State, unranked teams, received higher draws in the West.

“Between the lines, on the playing field, they are much better than a No. 5,” Snow, whose Long Beach team played Northridge, said of the Matadors. “For me, that was the biggest surprise of the draw.”

Unranked UCLA made the field, despite having lost six of its last eight games. The fourth-seeded Bruins will play host Texas in Central Region I at Austin. Long Beach is that region’s No. 2 team and will play Southwest Missouri State.

“I felt like we earned [the invitation], but you never know when the NCAA gets its hands on things,” UCLA Coach Gary Adams said.

Nine teams from the West were selected, compared to seven last season.

“I think more important than more teams being invited was that they spread out the teams from the West so we have the opportunity to get out of the regionals,” Snow said. “In the past, they would throw them all in the West regional, allowing only one to get out.”

The Matadors received the same seeding as Fresno State, the team they beat out for the WAC title. The Bulldogs landed in Central II with USC, and play host Texas Tech.

Santa Barbara joins Northridge in the West. The fourth-seeded Gauchos play Mississippi State. UNLV was given the No. 3 spot in South II and will play Tulane.