USC is First-Round Opponent

Fourth-seeded BYU will meet host USC, the No. 1 seed, on Friday at 3 p.m. (PDT) in the NCAA Baseball Regional at Los Angeles, Calif.

The Cougars, 29-29-1, play 17th-ranked USC (Baseball America), 34-22 and 17-7 in the Pac-10, in the first game of that regional. No. 2 seed Cal State Northridge, ranked 16th by Collegiate Baseball, and No. 3 seed Maine, each with 40-15 records, play on Friday at 7 p.m. Saturday's opening game three pits the losers of game one and two at 11 a.m., while the winners of the first two games meet at 3 p.m. The winner of game three will play the loser of game four on Saturday at 7 p.m.

If BYU is involved in the third day of the regional, games six and seven would be played on Monday instead of Sunday.

The Cougars have a 4-23 record against the Trojans, who won the Pac-10 Conference this season. The last time the two teams met was in 1988 when USC beat BYU in the first round of the NCAA Regional at Fresno, Calif. The last time BYU won was in 1976 at Dedeaux Field, 8-4, when Cougar Coach Vance Law was a sophomore.

"Traditionally USC is a strong team built around good pitching," said Law, whose Cougars were at Lincoln, Neb., last season as the MWC Champion. "Last year was special, but the difference is this year our players are going with a purpose to win. We were awestruck last year and I want to stress to our players this is an opportunity to prove we are worthy."

The Cougars bring a .500 record into the tourney, the first time they have achieved that level this season. The other 63 teams in the tourney have a better record than BYU, who earned the automatic berth last weekend by upsetting regular-season MWC Champion San Diego State in the league tourney.

Law said his probable starting pitcher against the Trojans will be Jeff Mousser (9-4, 5.03).

The BYU-USC game will be carried live on the Internet through audiocast and webcast at www.usctrojans.com. The BYU games will be broadcast live locally over KOVO Radio (960 AM).

This is BYU's 11th appearance in an NCAA Regional and the Cougars have a 7-20 record, having last won in 1994.