Sports enthusiasts: Being nice has its rewards

Being kind and thoughtful has its advantages.

Just take the relationship between San Diego State University and the University of San Diego, for example.

Thanks to the generosity of USD, an SDSU sports enthusiast will now be able to watch the Aztecs play a “home” game in the second round of the NIT on Friday night at USD’s Jenny Craig Pavilion.

Two years ago, USD was in a similar bind. The Toreros were hosting a four-team regional in the NCAA Baseball Tournament but couldn’t play at home because they do not have lights.

USD thus turned to SDSU, which allowed the Toreros to play their “home” games at Tony Gwynn Stadium.

Lesson learned: Never expect a favor to be returned when you do a favor.

However, if you do someone a favor, you have a much greater chance of them returning the niceness.

USD baseball hopes to roll an 'eight'

The University of San Diego baseball team can only hope things to continue to come up “eights” this weekend.

The Toreros, seeded No. 8 in the NCAA baseball tournament, are the host team at San Diego State.

According to ESPN, the No. 8 seed has advanced to the College World Series in each of the prior eight seasons since the NCAA Tournament was expanded to 64 teams.

How’s that for picking the right number in the lotto?

There are other numbers the Toreros must fight.

USD begins the tournament Friday at 8 p.m. against Fresno State, which defeated the Toreros twice in last year’s NCAA Regionals at Cal State Fullerton. The Bulldogs also defeated USD two out of three games this March at Fresno.

This time, the Toreros will be playing on their home field … so to speak.

Perhaps one of the rallying points for USD is second baseman Justin Snyder. Nine years ago, when known as “Boomer” Snyder, he led Santee Pioneer to the District 41 Little League championship.

The Toreros are hoping that things are booming for them again this weekend.