USC, Fullerton Get Regionals

College baseball fans in the Southland might be enjoying a busy holiday over Memorial Day weekend, thanks to the NCAA Division I baseball committee.

USC (36-16), ranked second by Baseball America, and No. 4 Cal State Fullerton (39-14) were chosen Monday as two of the 16 sites for the four-team, double-elimination regionals that will be played May 25-27.

The brackets for the 64-team tournament will be announced next Monday. Regional winners advance to best-of-three super regionals June 1-3. The eight super-regional champions move on to the College World Series June 8-16 in Omaha.

This will be the first time two regionals are scheduled in Southern California. USC last hosted in 1999. Fullerton hosted for the first time last year.

Wally Groff, chairman of the committee, said 32 schools submitted bids to host regionals. The minimum bid, or guarantee, was $35,000. Groff said one bid was $330,000.

No. 3 Nebraska (41-14), No. 6 Tulane (45-9), No. 9 Georgia (401-6) and No. 10 East Carolina (44-11) will host regionals for the first time. Top-ranked Miami (41-12), No. 7 Stanford (39-14), No. 12 Louisiana State (37-18-1), No. 13 Florida State (40-15), No. 15 Clemson (37-18) and No. 19 South Carolina (41-15) are other schools besides Fullerton that also hosted last year.

No. 5 Notre Dame (45-9-1), No. 14 Tennessee (41-15) No. 16 Rice (40-12) and No. 24 Ohio State (41-14) also were selected.

Long Beach State (34-18), Fresno State (37-22) and No. 18 Arizona State (33-16-1) were among schools that submitted bids but were not selected.

“I like the idea that we’re in surroundings we’re comfortable with for the regional,” USC Coach Mike Gillespie said. “Our guys can kind of stay in their daily routines.”

USC lost money when it hosted regionals in 1991 and 1999. Fullerton Athletic Director John Easterbrook said his school made money last year.

Groff said a team’s record, not revenue projections for the tournaments, was the main criterion for selection as host.

“We try to let the teams play themselves into [hosting a regional],” said Groff, the athletic director at Texas A&M.; “The financials are usually one of the last things we look at.”

Regional hosts are guaranteed either first or second seedings in their regionals, so much is on the line this weekend in the final conference series of the season.

USC is 16-5 in the Pacific 10 Conference after completing a sweep of Washington State on Monday and leads second-place Stanford (14-7 in the Pac-10) by two games heading into a series at Oregon State.

Fullerton is 12-3 and in first place in the Big West Conference after losing two of three games against No. 20 UC Santa Barbara (37-13, 11-4) last weekend. Fullerton ends its Big West schedule this weekend against Long Beach (10-5 in the Big West), which is coming off a sweep of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (28-24, 6-9).

Santa Barbara plays Cal Poly San Luis Obispo this weekend.

With USC junior right-hander Mark Prior grabbing the attention of major league scouts and the national media, Trojan senior Rik Currier has again quietly put together an outstanding season.

Currier improved to 10-1 by shutting out Washington State at Dedeaux Field on Sunday, 7-0.

Currier gave up five hits and had a season-high 12 strikeouts as he became the Pac-10’s all-time strikeout leader. He has 424, compared with the former record of 420 set by former Trojan Seth Etherton from 1995-98.

Currier is 36-12 in his Trojan career and 25-4 in the last two seasons.

No. 11 Pepperdine (39-15, 25-5) plays host to Gonzaga (26-25, 17-13) this weekend in the best-of-three, West Coast Conference championship series.

The winner receives the conference’s automatic berth in the playoffs.

Pepperdine ended its regular season with a sweep of Portland that gave the Waves their second consecutive West Division title.

Gonzaga finished in a first-place tie with Santa Clara in the Coast Division. Despite being swept at home by Loyola Marymount last weekend, the Bulldogs won the division title because they’d won their season series against Santa Clara.

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NCAA Regionals

The 16 regional sites for the NCAA’s 64-team Division I baseball tournament, which begins May 25:

Site Host School Athens, Ga. Georgia Baton Rouge, La. Louisiana State Clemson, S.C. Clemson Columbia, S.C. South Carolina Columbus, Ohio Ohio State Coral Gables, Fla. Miami Fullerton Cal State Fullerton Houston Rice Knoxville, Tenn. Tennessee Lincoln, Neb. Nebraska Los Angeles USC New Orleans Tulane Palo Alto Stanford South Bend, Ind. Notre Dame Tallahassee, Fla. Florida State Wilson, N.C. East Carolina