COLLEGE BASEBALL / GARY KLEIN : One Playoff Certainty: Games Will Be on Road

As the regular season approaches its final weeks, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Long Beach, Pepperdine, USC, UCLA and Cal State Northridge are still in contention for spots in the 48-team NCAA playoffs, which begin May 27.

None, however, is in the running to be among the host teams for eight regional sites, expected to be announced Monday.

The reason: Money.

The Southland has a tradition of producing strong teams, but it also has one of financial failure when it comes to staging regionals.

Texas, Fresno State, Louisiana State and other schools easily generate the NCAA’s unofficially mandated $100,000 profit, at the same time providing their teams home-field advantages that can go a long way toward advancing to Omaha and the College World Series.

That doesn’t happen in entertainment-saturated Southern California.

“There’s a lot going against it,” said Bill Shumard, Fullerton’s athletic director. “You have to hope you get a tournament that’s filled with local flavor, but also teams of national prominence. It’s also imperative that the home team stays in until the final game. On top of all that, it’s Memorial Day weekend.”

UCLA took a financial bath when it had a regional in 1986. USC fared even worse in 1991, when the Trojans, with an experienced lineup and a deep and talented pitching staff, appeared to have all the makings of a World Series participant.

USC athletic administrators, aware that they might, at best, break even, got the regional with hopes that a World Series appearance would offset some of the deficit and result in increased national exposure.

But while eventual national champion LSU drew 39,500 to its four-day regional at Baton Rouge, La., USC attracted only 9,000. The Trojans were eliminated before the final, and the school lost about $60,000.

Long Beach, tied with Fullerton for first place in the Big West Conference, is the only Southland school that submitted a regional bid. The 49ers moved from their campus field to 3,200-seat Blair Field this season with the regionals in mind.

“It’s a little bit of a learning curve for us,” said David O’Brien, Long Beach’s athletic director. “We talked to a number of people from local businesses, restaurants and hotels about hosting a regional.

“We know it would be extremely tight in terms of breaking even . . . but the Long Beach area is a strong baseball community, and it might work if everything fell into place. We know we probably won’t get it this year, but the preparation to make the bid is going to help us in the future.”

Fullerton, also in a new stadium, will be in a position to hold a regional when a press box is built, Shumard said.

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Exclusive club: Fullerton Coach Augie Garrido will be looking for victory No. 1,000 today against Cal State Northridge. Garrido has a record of 999-478-7 in 25 seasons.

Only nine Division I coaches have won 1,000 games or more. Former USC Coach Rod Dedeaux is the biggest winner in Division I with a 1,332-571 record.

Garrido, who has also coached at San Francisco State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Illinois, won national championships at Fullerton in 1979 and 1984.

If Garrido gets his 1,000th victory against Northridge, it will come at the expense of an old friend, Matador Coach Bill Kernen, who was an assistant under Garrido for eight seasons at Fullerton and Illinois.

“I’m really happy for Augie,” Kernen said. “But I’ll be a whole lot happier if he gets his 1,000th win over the weekend.”

Fullerton, tied with Long Beach for first place in the Big West Conference, plays its final conference series this weekend at home against San Jose State. Long Beach plays host to Nevada.

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On the fence: USC will play Chapman and UCLA will play Southern Utah this weekend in nonconference series, setting the stage for the May 14-16 series between the Trojans and Bruins.

UCLA started the week 25-18 overall and 13-11 in the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division. USC, which has played more ranked teams than any school in the country, is 25-23 and in fourth place in the Pac-10 at 14-13.

USC Coach Mike Gillespie realizes his team might be on the bubble for a playoff spot.

“If we sweep (UCLA), there’s no way they can leave us out,” Gillespie said. “If we win two, we’re in really good shape.”

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Home, sweet home: San Diego, which trails Pepperdine by 1 1/2 games in the West Coast Conference, will face a difficult task this weekend in its three-game series with the Waves in Malibu.

Pepperdine is 22-3 at home this season and 46-4 over the last two. San Diego has defeated Pepperdine only twice in 22 games at Malibu since 1985.

College Baseball Notes

Adam Millan of Cal State Fullerton hit a home run in each of the Titans’ four games last week, giving him six for the season. . . . Rich Haar of UC Santa Barbara began the week leading the Big West Conference with 13 homers and a six-game hitting streak. Gaucho freshman Jared Janke is batting .328 with 11 homers and 40 runs batted in. Also a pitcher, he has a 6-3 record and 4.63 earned-run average.

Octavio Medina is batting .327 for Chapman, which will end its second and final season in Division I with a three-game series against USC this weekend. . . . Daniel Choi of Cal State Long Beach is 13-1 with a 2.60 ERA in 107 1/3 innings. Kevin Curtis and Jeff Liefer are batting .365 for the 49ers.