Rebels draw powerhouse in opener

Tuesday, June 1, 2004 | 10:43 a.m.

At Sunken Diamond, Stanford, Calif.

Double elimination

Winner advances to College World Series

Friday

Game 2 -- Long Beach State (36-19) vs. St. John's (36-21), 2 p.m.

Game 1 -- UNLV (37-22) at Stanford (44-12), 6 p.m.

Saturday

Game 3 -- Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 11 a.m.

Game 4 -- Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 3 p.m.

Game 5 -- Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser, 7 p.m.

Sunday

Game 6 -- Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 1 p.m.

Game 7 -- Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 5 p.m., if necessary

For the UNLV baseball team, the Road to Omaha will begin with a gigantic pothole.

The Rebels (37-22), who breezed through last week's Mountain West Conference tournament on their home field to earn an automatic berth in the NCAA regionals, learned Monday they will travel to Palo Alto, Calif., to face host Stanford at 6 p.m. Friday.

That's Stanford as in No. 1-ranked Stanford. That's Stanford as in 1987 and '88 national champion Stanford. That's Stanford as in six years running College World Series participant Stanford.

You know, that Stanford.

But rather than treat the tough matchup as a death sentence, UNLV coach Buddy Gouldsmith prefers to look at it as an opportunity.

"We couldn't be more excited," said the Rebels' first-year coach, whose team will be the No. 4 and last seed at the double-elimination Palo Alto regional. "These are the kind of clubs you measure yourself against. I know (our players) will be excited and so am I."

If Gouldsmith's ultimate purpose is to upgrade the Rebels' strength of schedule, it may happen sooner than later, thanks to the luck of the draw at the regional.

Long Beach State (36-19), which also spent most of the year ranked in the Top 10 before closing the season with seven consecutive losses to national powers Cal State Fullerton and Miami, will play St. John's (36-21) of the Big East in the other first-round regional game at Sunken Diamond on the Stanford campus.

This is the second consecutive year the Rebels have qualified for the regional and the ninth time they have appeared in the NCAA tournament. Last year, UNLV went 2-2 in Tempe, Ariz., against host Arizona State, New Mexico State and Central Connecticut State.

No affront to those programs, but the field at Palo Alto is significantly stronger.

Stanford (44-12), coached by college baseball guru Mark Marquess, had no fewer than eight players -- including John Mayberry Jr., son of the former slugging Kansas City Royals first baseman -- nominated for All-America honors this season.

The Cardinal will be making its 25th NCAA tournament appearance and its 11th in a row after capturing the Pac-10 regular-season title for the second consecutive season. Stanford has made it to the CWS in Omaha 15 times and has finished national runner-up in three of the past four seasons.

Given Stanford's all-time postseason record of 113-54 (including 61-21 in the regionals), the Rebels probably couldn't have drawn a more formidable first-round opponent -- unless somebody like the Yankees had eligibility remaining.

Although Stanford will enter the postseason ranked No. 1, it was awarded the fifth national seed by the tournament committee. That, in theory, means there are four teams better than the Cardinal.

But Marquess didn't seem concerned by any of that on Monday.

"We earned the national seed by having a great regular season and winning the Pac-10," he said. "But you still have to play well to succeed in the postseason."

During Monday's nationally televised pairings show, ESPN's Harold Reynolds already had Stanford pencilled into the second round of the winner's bracket against Long Beach.

Listening to Reynolds and ESPN's other tournament experts, you got the impression that the only thing to be decided was the Dirtbags' pitching rotation, and whether they would hold back strikeout ace Jered Weaver, a finalist for college baseball's Golden Spikes Award (player of the year) until the second round.

Against Brigham Young of the Mountain West this year, Weaver struck out the first 10 Cougars he faced.

"More than likely, they're gonna face Stanford," Reynolds said. "And they'd like to have Mr. Weaver against Stanford."

Still, Gouldsmith said the Rebels plan to show up anyway.

"They don't fear anyone," he said of his players. "The biggest advantage we'll have going into Stanford is that Stanford won't scare them. They'll be ready to go and give it everything they've got."