COLLEGE BASEBALL / GARY KLEIN : West Coast Teams Help to Restore the Winning Image

In the minds of many players, coaches and scouts, West Coast baseball has been vindicated with USC, Cal State Fullerton and Stanford advancing to the College World Series, which opens Friday at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha.

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.”

George Horton, the associate head coach at Cal State Fullerton, 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 Fullerton, USC, Tennessee and Miami.

Snow said before the regionals that Fullerton was the team to beat. 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.”