Titans, Long Beach Are Seeded Second

Four Big West teams, the most ever, earned spots in the NCAA regional baseball tournament field Monday, a reflection of the strong showing by the conference this season.

Cal State Fullerton (43-14) and Long Beach State (34-24) were seeded No. 2 in their regionals.

The Titans were assigned to the Midwest Regional hosted by Wichita State, which has the nation’s best record at 50-9. Fullerton faces Delaware (44-10) in its opening game Thursday.

Long Beach was sent to the Central I Region at Austin, Texas, where Miami (43-12) is top-seeded and host Texas is No. 3 in the six-team field. The 49ers meet Southwest Missouri State (30-23) in their first game.

Nevada Las Vegas (43-14) is third seeded in the South II Regional at Baton Rouge, La., where host Louisiana State (44-15) is No. 1. UC Santa Barbara (32-18) was seeded fourth at the West Regional at Stanford, where Florida State (45-17) is top-rated.

The Big West benefited from a 167-78 nonconference record, including a 46-28 record against Pacific-10 teams. Cal State Fullerton’s late-season slump opened the door for more national recognition for the three other teams.

Fullerton was 38-4 and ranked No. 1 before losing 10 of its last 15 games. When the Titans slumped, Long Beach won the regular season title, and UNLV took the postseason tournament. Santa Barbara tied for second during the regular season.

“We’re just thrilled,” Big West Commissioner Dennis Farrell said. “This is a highlight day for the conference. We certainly felt that we deserved all four teams in. And the fact that we had two No. 2 seeds, a No. 3 and a No. 4 really shows the depth of our strength.”

The Southeastern Conference led the way with six teams in the playoffs. The Atlantic Coast Conference has five.

Long Beach Coach Dave Snow said the Big West’s balance wasn’t lost on the selection committee.

“There was a lot of focus on Fullerton this year because they were the defending national champion,” Snow said. “I think [the selection committee] said, ‘Hey, there must be some other teams in that league.’ When they saw us win the regular-season [title] and [UNLV] win the conference tournament, it showed them a lot.

“I think this is very positive for our conference. We’ve been battling against the [Pacific-10 Conference] for years, and they got three teams in. I wouldn’t necessarily say we’re moving ahead of them, but we’re getting some respect.”

Titans Coach Augie Garrido agreed. “Having four teams in this year really speaks well for the strength of the conference,” he said.

Garrido also said the committee recognized the strong baseball being played on the West Coast.

USC (41-14-1), the Pac-10 champion, moved into the No. 1 spot in both polls Monday and is top-seeded in the Central II Regional at Lubbock, Texas, where Fresno State also made the field. UCLA is fourth-seeded at Austin, and Cal State Northridge fifth-seeded at Stanford.

Garrido said he thought his team still could have been top-seeded if the Titans had won all three games from Miami last weekend in the final series of the regular season.

Miami won, 5-4, and, 8-7, before Fullerton took the final game, 7-6, Saturday in 12 innings. The Titans are ranked 11th in this week’s Baseball America poll.

Garrido said he was pleased with “the way we battled to win” the final game against Miami.

“It was a regional tournament atmosphere,” Garrido said. “We really played hard and stayed focused. But at this point we have no interest in looking back. You play the whole season to win enough games to get into this tournament, and we’ve done that. It’s all about how you play now that counts. What people remember is how you finish.”

Garrido said he had no complaint about being sent to Wichita, where the field includes Big Ten champion Indiana, Missouri and Rice.

Fullerton played two games against Wichita State last season at Eck Stadium, the tournament site, and the Shockers were the only team to win as many as two games from last year’s team that won the College World Series.

Garrido said outfielder Skip Kiil’s status is uncertain for the regional because of an apparent stress fracture to his left wrist.

* Staff writer Jason Reid contributed to this story.

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Baseball Regionals

Here are the first-day pairings in the NCAA regionals announced Monday. The double- elimination tournament starts Thursday and ends Sunday. Regional winners advance to the College World Series. All times PDT.

ATLANTIC (at Clemson, S.C.)

Georgia Southern (45-12) vs. Old Dominion (39-15), 8 a.m.

Tennessee (40-18) vs. West Virginia (31-23), Noon

Charleston Southern (30-22-1) at Clemson (45-15), 4 p.m.

CENTRAL I (Austin, Tex.)

Miami (43-12) vs. Sam Houston State (30-27), 9 a.m.

Long Beach State (34-24) vs. SW Missouri State (30-23), 1 p.m.

UCLA (33-26) at Texas (38-22), 5 p.m.

CENTRAL II (Lubbock, Tex.)

USC (41-14-1) vs. Akron (37-21), 9 p.m.

Oklahoma State (41-19) vs. Arkansas (39-18), 1 p.m.

Fresno State (35-22) at Texas Tech (47-13), 5 p.m.

EAST (Gainesville, Fla.)

North Carolina State (42-17) vs. South Florida (45-17), 8 a.m.

Central Florida (42-20) vs. Massachusetts (37-11), Noon

Bucknell (24-21) at Florida (44-16), 4 p.m.

MIDWEST (Wichita, Kan.)

Rice (39-21) vs. Missouri (39-17), 9 a.m.

Cal State Fullerton (43-14) vs. Delaware (44-10), 12:30 p.m.

Indiana (42-16) at Wichita State (50-9), 5 p.m.

SOUTH I (Tuscaloosa, Ala.)

South Alabama (42-15) vs. Stetson (40-21), 9 a.m.

Virginia (41-19) vs. Notre Dame (43-16), 1 p.m.

Princeton (26-19) at Alabama (45-17), 5 p.m.

SOUTH II (Baton Rouge, La.)

UNLV (43-15) vs. Tulane (42-18), 9 a.m.

Georgia Tech (37-22) vs. New Orleans (41-19), 1 p.m.

Austin Peay (44-20) at LSU (44-15), 5:30 p.m.

WEST (Stanford)

Florida State (47-15) vs. Northeastern Illinois (31-27), 11 a.m.

Mississippi State (37-22) vs. UC Santa Barbara (32-18), 3 p.m.

Cal State Northridge (49-16) at Stanford (39-17), 7 p.m.