USD Baseball 2005

UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO BASEBALL

The West Coast Conference The baseball portion of the wee started with five charter members and three associates as LMU , Pepperdine, Saint Mary's, San Francisco and Santa Clara were joined by UC Santa Barbara, Pacific and San Jose State. The conference temporarily split from 1977-84 into the Northern and Southern California Baseball Associations (so divisional play isn't completly foreign to the league), but realigned in 1985 to include San Diego and Nevada in a seven-team league. In 1991, the Wolf Pack departed and a six-team loop existed until Portland and Gonzaga, full members in all other sports, left the Pac-10 North league to bring the wee to its full-bodied eight-team set in 1996. This is the seventh year of the current eight-team WCC baseball alignment but the con– ference has determined a champion in the sport annually since 1968. During that time, teams in the WCC have advanced to four College World Series, includi ng a national title in 1992 (Pepperdine). Four current members -- San Diego, Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine and Santa Clara -- have represented the wee in NCAA tournament play. That foursome has an all-time record of 73-82 in the championships. Portland is the only other current member with NCAA tourney experience, most recently in 1991 as the Pacific-10 North representative. West Coast Conference baseball enters its 38th season and its sixth season of divisional play under an eight-team alignment. Two fou r-team divisions, aptly named "West" and "Coast" will play a 30-game schedule. The champions of each division will collide at the end of the season in a best two-of-three series to determine the WCC's automatic entry into the NCAA Championships. The site of that playoff will be based completely on the outcome of the regular season series meeting between the two champions. The winner of that three-game reg ular season coll ision earns the right to host the championships. Each team will play a total of six games against each team in its own division , three home and three away, and a single three-game series against each team in the opposite division. Every two years two teams will swap divisions, effectively mixing the matchups over an eight-year span. Of note is the fact that traditional local rivals (Portland-Gonzaga; Saint Mary's-San Francisco; LMU-Pepperdine and Santa Clara-San Diego) will never be in the same division .

2004 wee Standings

2004 West Coast Conference Results WCC Coast wee Overall LMU 20-7 32-22 San Diego 19-11 35-21 Gonzaga 16-1 1 24-27 St. Mary's 7-23 14-41 wee West wee Overall Pepperdine* 19-1 1 30-32 Santa Clara 16-14 27-29 San Francisco 14-16 27-32 Portland 6-24 12-44 2004 records listed *2004 WCC Champions, NCAA Regionals Pepperdine won best-of-three series WCC Championship Series over LMU One-Division wee Format Begins in 2006 The West Coast Conference wi ll change its leag ue baseball format and schedule beginning in 2006. A one– division format wil l once again be implemented and the eight institutions wi ll compete in a 21-game conference season. Currently, WCC schools compete in a two-d ivi– sion format, West and Coast, with a 30-game conference schedule. The two-division format was originally imple– mented in 1999, but continues to undergo re-alignment every two years. Under the one-division, 21-game format, each school will play the other seven opponents one lime over the course of an eight-week conference season . Each team will play seven three-game series, with one week serving as the bye week. The top two finish ing teams will play in the wee Championship Series with the regular-season champ serving as series' host.

USD ALL-TIME RECORDS vs. wee Opponent GONZAGA LMU PEPPERDINE ST MARY'S SAN FRANCISCO SANTA CLARA PORTLAND Results 20-12-1 42-53-1 29-80 52-33 56-36 35-47 26-16 1st Series 1985 1985 1985 1986 1985 1985 1985

The Toreros have won two of the last three WCC Championships, and entering the 2005 season, USO owns the league's best overall record (106-74) since 2002 www.usdtoreros.com

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