USD beat Pepperdine Sunday to take the WCC championship. That earned the Toreros their first ever trip to the NCAA tournament, as the #3 seed in the regionals at Tempe, Arizona. A tip of the cap to Rich Hill and his squad. Good luck, guys.

San Diego State, unfortunately, did not make the dance despite winning the Mountain West regular season title. BYU, which beat the Aztecs in the conference tourney, earned a slot as the #4 seed in the Los Angeles regionals. It would have been nice to see coach Jim Deitz get one last crack at it, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Baseball America has released its list of the top 250 draft-eligible prospects. Allan Simpson and Jim Callis have done a thorough job on this one. Some names of note:

• 9 Cole Hamels, lhp, Rancho Bernardo HS, San Diego. There is speculation that the Padres will take local product Hamels with their first pick at #13
• 26 Royce Ring, lhp, San Diego State U. The track record of college closers is spotty, but he’s got a live arm.
• 56 Jake Blalock, ss-3b, Rancho Bernardo HS, San Diego. Teams may be hesitant to let Hank’s little brother slip as far as Hank did.
• 77 Taber Lee, ss, San Diego State U. Travis’ little brother is a pest at the plate and knows how to play the game.
• 82 Rory Shortell, rhp, San Diego State U. Yep, yet another Aztec.
• 125 Alberto Concepcion, c-1b, U. Southern California. Padres’ 1999 second round pick.
• 192 Ricky Barrett, lhp, U. of San Diego. Southpaw will be drafted about where former batterymate Greg Sain was taken last year.

Five songs that currently blow my mind, in no particular order:

• "Earthshine" (Rush). Gee, what a shock. The symphonic guitar parts in the chorus are just overwhelming. Extra style points for the pre-chorus, which is written (if I’m counting correctly) in 11/16 time and doesn’t sound like Morse code.
• "Mexico" (Incubus). The whole Morning View CD rocks. Mike Einzinger’s articulate yet elusive guitar lines never get old. Even though he almost never takes a solo, the cat can flat-out play. Brandon Boyd’s vocal control is ridiculous on this track.
• "Simple Man" (Lynyrd Skynyrd). I know these guys are the antithesis of hip in many circles but this is a really powerful tune. Slow and very heavy.
• "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" (Charles Mingus). I have no explanation for anything Mingus created. It’s just otherworldly.
• "Possibly Maybe" (Bjork). Her ability to juxtapose beautiful melodies with strange noises is unparalleled. She shouldn’t be able to make what she does work so well, and yet there it is.

I just really love music, and sometimes I like to share what moves me. If I turn you onto something you’ve never heard before, great; if you think my taste stinks, well, that’s cool, too. If we all liked the same thing, life would be pretty boring, now, wouldn’t it?

Sometimes I frighten even myself. Back to baseball. Xavier Nady made a pinch-hitting appearance for the second game in a row at Portland, this time doubling and scoring the Beavers’ only run in a 2-1 loss. Ben Howard worked seven scoreless innings, allowing five hits and two walks. He also fanned two batters.

Down at Mobile, Oliver Perez was less impressive in his second Double-A start. Still, it wasn’t too bad, as he surrendered three runs on six hits over five innings. Perez walked four and struck out six. Second baseman Bernie Castro swiped his 30th base of the season.

At Rancho Cucamonga, the Storm beat the home team, 5-1, behind the strong pitching of Jason Wiedmeyer and Tagg Bozied’s 11th home run.

And down at Ft. Wayne, Greg Sain knocked two hits and Jon Huber worked seven strong innings in a 2-1 victory over visiting Quad City.