UCLA has been selected to host an NCAA baseball regional at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
The news hit NCAA.com around 12:30 p.m. Sunday as the Bruins were taking the field in the series finale against Arizona State. Although UCLA has the worst record among the sixteen regional hosts, it secured at least a share of the Pac-10 conference title with dominating wins Friday and Saturday.
Coach John Savage said Tuesday that the Bruins would be “a viable option” if they were to win Friday and Saturday and he was spot on. After junior Gerrit Cole dominated the Sun Devils 10-3 Friday, Trevor Bauer was terrific Saturday. The junior struck out 14 on his way to a complete game shutout and a 7-0 win.
It would stand to reason, then, that UCLA will be hosting as a No. 2 seed. The NCAA selection committee often awards No. 2 seeds hosting honors to help balance out the hosts geographically in the west. Other western hosts include Arizona State, Oregon State and Cal State Fullerton.
With the hosting selection, No. 23 UCLA is guaranteed an at-large bid at the very least. A win today or an Oregon State loss would win them the conference title outright and an automatic bid. The entire 64-team field ““ including the three other teams UCLA will play host to ““ will be announced Monday at 9:30 a.m. on ESPN. It’s safe to say a top-eight national seed is out of the question for the Bruins, excluding them from hosting a super regional as they did a season ago.
16 NCAA regional hosts:
Georgia Tech (40-19)
Texas (43-15)
Cal State Fullerton (39-15)
North Carolina (45-14)
Virginia (48-9)
Clemson (41-18)
Texas A&M (41-18)
South Carolina (45-14)
Oregon State (38-16)
TCU (42-17)
Florida (44-16)
Rice (41-19)
UCLA (33-21)
Vanderbilt (47-9)
Florida State (42-16)
Arizona State (38-16)