Lake Elsinore

Here's this weekend's schedule for the Lake Elsinore regional, in which our baseball Hoos were seeded #3.

FRIDAY

Game 1 -- No. 2 seed USC vs. No. 3 seed Virginia, 6 p.m.


Game 2 -- No. 1 seed UCSB vs. No. 4 seed San Diego State, 10 p.m.

SATURDAY

Game 3 -- Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 6 p.m.


Game 4 -- Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 10 p.m.

SUNDAY

Game 5 -- Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4, 6 p.m.


Game 6 -- Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 4, 10 p.m.

MONDAY (if necessary)

Game 7 -- Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 6, 9 p.m.

Lake Elsinore is 3.5 hours from UC Santa Barbara, but only an hour and fifteen minutes from USC and one hour from San Diego State. I think the "host" really got screwed on this one.

I'm not exactly sure what kind of fan support USC and SDSU enjoy, but the Trojans drew an average crowd of 1,202 for its last home series (vs. Arizona State), while the Aztecs drew an average 304 for its last home series (vs. St. Mary's). For gits and shiggles, I looked up UCSB's average attendance for its last home series (vs. UC Irvine), and it was 783. (For comparison, Virginia drew an average of 4,078 for its series against Duke -- more than all of these other shitbag fanbases combined.)

The Diamond at Lake Elsinore "can accommodate 8,000+ fans for baseball with 6,066 fixed seats, 11 luxury suites, and a grass berm down the right field line."

Bottom line, I think we're going to be playing baseball in a more than half-empty stadium (which is being generous -- it'll be lucky to have more than 2,500 people in there), with no really big faction of partisan fans. I think it'll end up playing like a neutral site.

Our Hoos respond to playing in front of hostile crowds (23-12 road/neutral vs. 11-10 home), but I think it has to be considered a good thing that we're not going into a den of frenzied opposing fans like we would have in, say, Baton Rouge, Nashville, or Fort Worth. Or heck, even in Bakersfield, Springfield, College Station, or Fullerton.

In terms of regional draws, it kinda sucks that we got shipped out West, and it sucks that we'd potentially advance to face the overall #1 seed UCLA in Los Angeles... but landing in Lake Elsinore looks like a pretty good deal, all things considered.  Now we just have to figure out who's going to pitch.

Bring on USC!

GO HOOS!