There wasn’t a seat to spare in the clubhouse. Pitcher Tyson Brummett sat up against the wall. Shortstop Jermaine Curtis pulled up a chair in the middle of the pack. Everyone’s eyes were glued to the television. At 9:30 a.m. on Memorial Day the entire baseball team was crowded around a large pull-down screen awaiting the selection for the 2007 NCAA Regionals.
The news came shortly into the program that the Bruins wouldn’t have to travel very far to start off the postseason. UCLA (30-26, 14-10 Pac-10) received the No. 2 seed in the Long Beach Regional, and will face off against the very familiar Pepperdine (35-20, 14-7 WCC), who received the No. 3 seed. Host Long Beach State (37-18, 15-6 Big West) received the No. 1 seed with Illinois-Chicago (34-19, 21-6 Horizon) filling out the bracket with the No. 4 seed.
The regional appearance is the Bruins’ second in a row, having made the regional at Pepperdine a season ago, when they were also a No. 2 seed. The regional berth marks the first time since the 1999 and 2000 seasons that the Bruins have made consecutive postseason appearances.
Playing just a short drive south on the 405 Freeway, the team will have some home-field advantage with a big fan base at its games.
“We’re really excited,” Curtis said. “It’s a tough regional. It’s close to home so we’ll get a home crowd. You always want support from the family members and friends.”
Still, playing close to home presents its own set of challenges to coach John Savage’s team. He noted that being so near to the team’s home turf is a mixed blessing. Whereas a postseason road trip takes the players out of their lives temporarily, playing so close to home poses a lot of potential distractions. Last season the Bruins did not do as good a job at avoiding the distractions as Savage would have liked.
“Having a lot of support and a fan base is the best thing you could ask for,” Savage said. “You just don’t want distractions. You don’t want players focusing on the Major League Draft, you don’t want them focusing on “˜how many tickets I have to get for this crew.’ Sometimes when you get sent out (on the road) you don’t have those (distractions). We have to do a better job of keeping distractions down and making sure that we’re focused on the regional.”
This regional will be the second consecutive regional that could be dubbed a “freeway series” for the Bruins. While UCLA received the No. 2 seed for the second year in a row, some of the team was let down that there were no plane tickets to book.
“Everyone wanted to travel a little bit (and) get out of the state,” Brummett said. “But a regional is a regional; you can’t be negative about it. We’re excited and ready to go out there and compete.”
In order to make it out of California in the postseason, the Bruins’ only option may be Omaha. With Cal State Fullerton competing in the regional hosted by the University of San Diego, if the Bruins win their regional they could play at San Diego or Fullerton, or possibly host a Super Regional themselves at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
But to qualify for the Super Regionals, the Bruins will have to play well in a ballpark that is less than their favorite. Blair Field is a large ballpark in terms of field dimensions, and was the site of a 14-1 loss to Long Beach State earlier in the year.
“It’s a big ball field,” Curtis said. “But like Coach said there’s no excuses right now. Every ballpark is fine. If we (have to) go back to Pullman, (Wash.), we’ll go back to Pullman. There’s no excuses.”
The one thing there is in the Long Beach Regional is familiarity ““ at least for three of the teams. UCLA has played both Long Beach and Pepperdine twice, coming away with very different results against the two squads. Along with the tough loss at Long Beach State, the Bruins dropped a 4-2 contest at home against the Dirtbags. Against Pepperdine, the Bruins have dominated, winning 6-2 at home and 4-1 in Malibu.
“(Pepperdine is) very competitive,” Curtis said. “We’re familiar with (most of) the teams, all the players (in our regional). Pepperdine and Long Beach. It’s going to be exciting.”
Illinois-Chicago, which won the Horizon League Championship, comes in as a mystery to the regional that the Bruins and the other teams will be studying before play begins this weekend. The Flames’ infielder/pitcher David Cales took home MVP honors on the All-Tournament team. A season ago, Cales played for Missouri, the team that won the Malibu Regional that the Bruins competed in.
The Malibu Regional was a strange weekend for the Bruins. Savage had a very young team, with many players competing in the postseason for the first time. UCLA was also forced to cram in must-win games before the sun went down, because Pepperdine’s field does not have any lights.
“Last year was a little different out at Pepperdine,” Brummett said. “The lights issue was something that we’ll get to have this year that we didn’t have last year.”
This year the Bruins are a little older, a little more experienced, and hoping to go more than a little bit further into the postseason.
“Last year we were just excited to get in,” Savage said. “It was a very young team. A bunch of freshmen last year. And this year is the second year of that class. They’re experienced now. They’ve played in a bunch of difficult venues. … We should be prepared to go play in this tough regional.”