Gemoll-Led USC Excited About Regional Opener

Justin Gemoll was Mr. Versatility for USC last season, playing every infield position and left field for a team that advanced to a super-regional at Stanford.

When he returned to school last fall for his senior season, Trojan coaches informed Gemoll that his traveling days were over.

“They told me I was going to come to third base, that third base was mine,” Gemoll said. “It’s nice to get some consistency.”

The Trojans can attest to that.

Gemoll, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound senior from San Jose, has started every game and is leading the Trojans in batting average (.381), home runs (18) and runs batted in (61).

He is the main offensive force for a team that has a 10-game winning streak entering today’s NCAA Division I regional opener against Virginia Tech at Cal State Fullerton.

Top-seeded USC (38-18) plays fourth-seeded Virginia Tech (34-23-2) at 3 p.m., and second-seeded Fullerton (36-19) plays third-seeded Loyola Marymount (39-17) at 7 in the first regional hosted by three-time national champion Fullerton.

Top-seeded UCLA (35-24) plays Delaware (37-18) at Oklahoma City in a regional that also includes Oklahoma (39-21) and Oral Roberts (48-13).

Winners of the 16 double-elimination regionals advance to best-of-three super-regionals June 2-4. The eight super-regional winners will play in the College World Series in Omaha, June 9-17.

Twelve-time national champion USC, ranked 13th by Baseball America, finished fourth in the Pacific 10 Conference, but only one game behind UCLA, Stanford and Arizona State, who shared the championship.

The Trojans’ fast finish--and their fan base’s proximity to Fullerton--earned USC a No. 1 seed in what is arguably the toughest regional.

“We started off pretty well this season and we had a middle 20-25 games where we weren’t putting everything together,” said Gemoll, who transferred to USC from UC Santa Barbara last season. “But these last 10 games, we’re playing really well. It’s definitely a good way to go into the playoffs.”

USC’s pitching has been sharp down the stretch. Rik Currier is 12-3 with a 3.26 earned-run average. Six Trojan relievers have combined for 11 saves.

Big West Conference champion Fullerton has one of the deepest pitching staffs in the nation, led by Adam Johnson (7-3, 2.53) and Jon Smith (9-2, 3.18).

Loyola won the West Coast Conference and is ranked higher than USC and Fullerton, but all the Lions have to show for it is a No. 3 seed. Michael Shultz (9-5, 5.51 ERA) and Billy Traber (9-4, 3.14) are the top pitchers for a team that has four players with 10 or more home runs.

Virginia Tech, the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament champion, faced USC twice in a 1997 regional in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The Hokies won the opener, 3-2, then were eliminated by the Trojans, 6-2, the next day.

UCLA plays a Delaware team that won the America East Conference championship. Peter Maestrales is batting .359 with 13 homers and 60 RBIs for the Blue Hens. Rich McGuire (9-2, 3.53) and Dave Mullin (10-4, 4.61) are Delaware’s top pitchers.

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Staff writer Chris Foster contributed to this story.