Today, Surf Meets the Turf in Land of Wind and Rain

OMAHA —  It never rains on Southern California, not in this College World Series, not when Pepperdine is seeded seventh out of eight teams and sweeps into the final, and most definitely not when a little thunder, lightning and No. 1 Miami are the only things obstructing Cal State Fullerton’s path to CBS Saturday.

Miami threw its best pitcher at Fullerton Friday night.

No matter.

Omaha threw its worst weather at Fullerton.

No matter.

For nine blustery innings inside deluged Rosenblatt Stadium, the all-weather Titans did to top-ranked Miami what the overworked grounds crew did to the infield during the middle of the fifth--threw a tarp over it--which means today, two Southland schools 50 miles apart will play for the College World Series championship.

It was Fullerton 8, Miami 1 and now it’s Fullerton versus Pepperdine, landlocked Orange County versus seaside Malibu, Kevin Costner versus Johnny Carson, the 91-57 Interchange versus Zuma Beach, Brian’s Beer and Billiards versus Gladstone’s For Fish, Augie Garrido’s heavy-metal wall-bangers versus Andy Lopez’s deep-dish pitching staff.

The Whacks versus the Waves.

All week long, the Omaha World-Herald has been rife with surf-and-suntan references while chronicling Pepperdine’s unlikely crest, but Friday it was Fullerton that had to shoot the tube to reach the final.

“A monsoon” was the way Miami Coach Ron Fraser described the playing conditions. Buckets of rain pummeled the late innings. Thunderclaps boomed overhead. Sandbags were dragged onto the field between innings to sprinkle over the quagmire that once was home plate.

Hurricane weather, you might call it--unless you saw what it did to the Hurricanes.

It was still 3-0 and drizzling when the Titans dug in for the bottom of the fifth. Then, a leadoff double off the top of the right-field fence by Phil Nevin, followed by a flare single to right by Jason Moler.

Fullerton and the elements were both threatening, but only the Rosenblatt grounds crew could succeed where the Miami bullpen failed.

They stopped the Titans, momentarily, at least.

The ensuing 23-minute rain delay was the highlight of the evening for the Hurricanes. Finally, the ringing in the ears subsided. There was still thunder in the heavens, but that was nothing compared to the thunder of the friends of Nevin.

When the tarp was removed, the suspense was as well. Slippery when wet, the Rosenblatt infield played like a hockey rink--”I felt like I was wearing a pair of ice skates,” said Miami first baseman Kevin DiGiacomo--and the Hurricanes played it like the Quebec Nordiques.

After the intermission, Steve Sisco opened the second half with a routine grounder that nearly leveled Hurricane second baseman Dave Berg. E-4 and Nevin scores.

Minutes later, the bases were loaded with one out and Nate Rodriquez hits a one-hopper right at DiGiacomo. DiGiacomo fires home for a force on Moler but then catcher Charles Johnson tries to double up Sisco, who has just rounded third.

For the first time all Series, Johnson’s cross-hairs are cross-eyed and his throw plunks Sisco right in the hip, sending the ball squirting halfway to second base.

Sisco scores, Fullerton leads, 5-0, and the last three innings become simply a wading game for the Titans.

It turned out to be the last game in Fraser’s 30-year career at Miami and the coach half-expected it to go down this way. He had been told, when the day comes, there won’t be a dry eye in the house.

But not a dry inch in the house, either?

“I couldn’t believe they continued this ballgame,” Fraser said after it was finished. “The College World Series should be the ultimate in college baseball. A real showcase . . . To subject players to these conditions doesn’t seem fair. The conditions should be ideal. The players deserve much better than that.”

Nevin, once he’d towel-dried his dripping blond locks, couldn’t disagree.

“We don’t get lightning like that in California, I’ll tell you that,” he said. “It was real muddy out there the last couple innings.

“I guess money kind of talks. They needed to get in this game for CBS tomorrow.”

Having gone two for five on the field, Nevin was one for one in the interview room. Long ago, college baseball sold its soul for a prime-time ticket on CBS, bastardizing its double-elimination World Series to appease the network, which demanded a winner-take-all championship final on Saturday. This means 3-0 Pepperdine can be eliminated today by way of a single loss to 4-1 Fullerton.

It also means Friday’s semifinal had to be completed, one way or another, come rain or hail or tornado through the bleachers.

“I guess so,” said Fraser with a sigh of resignation. “I don’t know, maybe they could have finished the game later tonight or maybe tomorrow morning. Certainly, we deserved better conditions than this.

“People were watching this all over the country (on ESPN). We didn’t do a lot for college baseball tonight.”

By the time the Titans hit the beach, they had about 14 hours to prepare to play the school by the beach, another inconvenience courtesy of the master planners at CBS. Today’s final will start at 10 a.m. (PDT), so the East Coast can settle in at 1 o’clock with pretzels and beer and learn a little more about the West Coast.

“This is great for Southern California,” said Pepperdine Coach Andy Lopez. “It just shows what a lot of coaches in our area have felt all along. We may not have records of 56-3, but there’s a reason for that. Every week, we’re playing (nonconference) games against UCLA, USC, Long Beach State, Cal State Northridge . . .

“Our nonconference games in Southern California are monsters. That’s why you see us coming here with 16, 17, 18 losses. For us to play Fullerton for the national championship, that doesn’t surprise me at all.”

Garrido called today’s all-SoCal matchup “a significant statement . . . It shows why schools like ours and Pepperdine belong here. We recruit the best baseball players in the country, right in our own backyard.”

And, some of the best swimmers.