COLLEGE BASEBALL / GARY KLEIN : Fullerton No. 1, USC Plays Miami at Omaha

Cal State Fullerton is the top-seeded team and USC is No. 6 in the eight-team College World Series that begins Friday at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha.

USC (45-19), making its first World Series appearance since 1978, plays third-seeded Miami (46-15) on Friday in the second game after second-seeded Florida State (52-14) plays seventh-seeded Oklahoma (42-14), the defending national champion.

In the other bracket, Fullerton (53-9) opens Saturday against No. 8 Stanford (39-23) and fourth-seeded Clemson (54-12) plays fifth-seeded Tennessee (52-14).

A double-elimination format is used for bracket play with winners advancing to a one-game final on June 12.

Stanford became the last team to make the field Tuesday when Brian Dallimore’s eighth-inning single broke a 4-4 tie with Texas Tech in a 6-5 victory in the Midwest I regional at Wichita, Kan.

The No. 1-seeded team has never won the championship since bracket play began in 1988, but George Horton, associate head coach at Fullerton, said the Titans have one advantage.

“We like the fact that we do not play the very first game because there is too much going on leading up to it,” Horton said. “We don’t think Stanford will be easy by any stretch of the imagination, but we’re happy to be opening on Saturday.”

In the minds of many players, coaches and scouts, West Coast baseball has been vindicated with USC, Fullerton and Stanford advancing to the World Series.

Schools from the West have won the national title 26 times in 48 years, most recently in 1992, when Pepperdine defeated Fullerton in the championship game. But only seven teams from the West were selected for this year’s 48-team playoffs, the fewest since the regional format was adopted in 1987.

USC, Long Beach State, Pepperdine and Fresno State were placed in the West Regional at Fresno. Meanwhile, six teams from the Southeastern Conference were sent to different regionals.

“Three or four of the West teams in this regional could have won other regionals and advanced,” USC Coach Mike Gillespie said after the Trojans defeated Long Beach, 9-2, in the regional. “If this doesn’t wake someone up, it should.”

Horton agreed.

“The strength of the SEC and the ACC is blown way out of proportion,” he said. “Even Oklahoma won the national championship last year and three quarters of their kids are from California.”

A Fullerton-USC final is a good possibility, Horton said.

“If I was betting man,” he said. “I would bet West vs. West.”

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Long Beach State’s absence from the World Series is odd, considering that the 49ers have advanced to Omaha in every other odd-numbered year since Dave Snow took over as coach in 1989.

Snow’s 49ers this season played series against four of the eight teams that will be in Omaha--Fullerton, USC, Tennessee and Miami.

Snow said before the regionals that Fullerton was the team to beat for the national championship. After Sunday’s 9-2 loss to USC in the West Regional final, he said 11-time national champion USC could contend for the title.

“Offensively, they are as good as anyone there,” Snow said. “In Omaha, pitching is the key because if things go right for you, you can win it with basically two starters.

“I’m not sure how their 1-2 punch will stack up, but that will be the key.”

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Former major league outfielder Fred Lynn, who helped USC win consecutive titles in 1971, ’72 and ‘73, said the Trojans will have their work cut out for them.

“I don’t think they can step on the field like we used to and instill fear,” said Lynn, who will be working his fourth World Series as a broadcaster for ESPN. “In those days, we had a lot of respect from other coaches and players because they knew we would never beat ourselves in a tough game.

“The players on this year’s team have to prove they are in that same mold, and they’re off to a good start toward doing that.”