Californians Left Dreaming About Trips to College World Series

They will start the College World Series in Omaha on Friday, but they’ll do it without a team from California.

A 48-team tournament field that included eight California schools was winnowed to the eight that will go to Omaha, none of them from California, which had three teams in regional finals on Sunday, none of them winners.

Among the losers were last season’s World Series champion, Cal State Fullerton, which lost to Rice in the Midwest Regional semifinal; and USC, ranked No. 1 in the country going into the tournament, but no better than second in the Central II Regional coming out.

CENTRAL II

USC spent the day feeling like a champion, charged on adrenaline, but in the end, the Trojans were simply too tired.

Oklahoma State eliminated USC from the NCAA playoffs with a 10-2 victory in the Central II regional. The Trojans, drained from an 11-inning, come-from-behind victory over Texas Tech, 13-10, earlier in the day, had only five hits, scoring on solo home runs by Jacque Jones and Robb Gorr.

Paul Sanchez, making his first start, held the Cowboys (45-19) scoreless for the first three innings, but in the fourth Oklahoma State scored five runs and had six of its 14 hits.

“I think after [the fourth inning] we all settled down and weren’t really into it,” USC shortstop Marc Mirizzi said. “We didn’t have any energy left.”

Half of the earlier game was played in a dust storm, but when it cleared USC (44-16-1) scored nine runs in the final four innings, all coming with two outs, in beating the host Red Raiders.

With Texas Tech leading, 10-7, in the bottom of the 11th inning, USC got a run-scoring single from Wes Rachels, followed by a two-run triple by Paul Cruz to tie the score. After Jones walked, Jeff Inglin hit a three-run homer.

“It was too bad we couldn’t take some time off to enjoy the first one before coming back out and being disappointed,” USC Coach Mike Gillespie said.