The weather is perfect, people get better looking when they come here (really, all my ugly high school friends got good looking when they went to college down here) and the city is just gorgeous in general. So whenever I get an excuse (and getting paid to blog on baseball is a great one) to leave disgusting Long Beach, Calif. to go down Interstate 5 to San Diego, I make sure to take advantage.

Of the colleges in San Diego, the University of San Diego is by far the nicest (and the most expensive). Unlike San Deigo State and UC San Diego, USD is a private school located on top of a canyon that over looks the Pacific Ocean. It’s pretty incredible.

Although the campus and its Spanish style buildings are beautiful, it is clear that not too much tuition money has been invested in the baseball stadium.

Just a quick glance and you understand why San Diego will have to host the NCAA Regional about 10 miles away at Tony Gywnn Stadium. There is one section for fans, which is directly behind home plate and about 30 rows high (it is about 15 percent full as of 2:29 PST). The press box is kind of like those press boxes at high school football fields - really small - which means I’m outside today, which is fine with weather being about 72 degrees. The powder blue scoreboard looks like a really nice Little League scoreboard. To be honest, it is a little funny thinking this could be the stadium of a national champion college baseball team.

All of that being said, the field itself is nice and the canyon that Cunningham Stadium sits in is majestic - so it’s hard to rip USD too much.

Plus, the team on the field is really, really good. San Diego (ranked as high as No. 5 in some national polls) is the clear-cut favorite in the best-of-three series with Gonzaga this weekend, to determine the West Coast Conference Champion.

Although, the Zags did win two-of-three when the two teams met early in the WCC season, up in Spokane. So anyway, it at least has the potential to be a good series, and I am openly rooting for a three game series (one extra day in San Deigo).

Today's Pitcher's
USD - LHP Brain Matsuz (10-2, 2.43 ERA) - the best pitcher in the country?
GON - RHP Clayton Mortensen (8-2, 4.00 ERA) - was named WCC pitcher of the year.