After winning its first national championship last season, UCLA baseball will begin its title defense on Feb. 14 against Portland. The Bruins released their 2014 schedule Tuesday night.
“The 2014 schedule will present our team with a tremendous challenge,” said coachJohn Savage in a statement. “We feel the nonconference portion will prepare us very well for the Pac-12 slate. The importance of RPI is critical when it comes to selection time for the NCAA tournament and we hope that this schedule will provide us with the chance to have a high RPI at the end of the regular season.”
Highlighting the nonconference competition for UCLA is its March 1 matchup against North Carolina State, whom UCLA defeated 2-1 in its second game of the College World Series last season. North Carolina State finished last season with a 50-16 record.
UCLA will start conference play one month into the season on March 14 with a three-game series at Cal.
While the games for the season are set, still undetermined for the Bruins is where the home games will be played. On Aug. 29, a federal judge ruled that the land on which Jackie Robinson Stadium sits was improperly leased to UCLA by the United States Department of Veteran Affairs.
UCLA has filed an appeal to the ruling, but if the court doesn’t rule in its favor, the baseball team could be forced to find a new stadium to play home games.