NCAA puts ‘Eaters in Texas

IRVINE — A season of firsts will continue for the UC Irvine baseball team, which will compete with three teams it has never faced before in the four-team NCAA Regional, beginning Friday at Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas.

The Anteaters (40-15-1), who moved to No. 9 in the latest Baseball America national poll, will face Wake Forest (33-27) in the first game of the four-team, double-elimination regional tournament Friday at 11 a.m. (PST)

Texas (44-15), the No. 4 overall seed in the 64-team field announced Monday morning on live television, will host the regional in the Austin suburb, where Ivy League champion Brown (27-19) rounds out the field.

Texas, coached by longtime former Cal State Fullerton head man Augie Garrido, whose 1986 Titans pitching staff included UCI Coach Dave Serrano, faces Brown in the Friday night game at the home of the Triple-A Round Rock Express.

“The Road to Omaha [home of the College World Series] for the Anteaters begins in Round Rock,” Serrano said to a crowd of players, parents and supporters who assembled at an Irvine restaurant to watch the announcement Monday. “And that’s not where it’s going to end.”

Serrano, guiding the program to its second straight regional, believes his team is primed for the challenge of advancing to the Super Regionals, where a best-of three series whittles 16 teams to the eight-team College World Series field.

UCI, making its third trip to a regional in four years, is 0-6 in postseason play as a Division I program. It bid to host a regional this year, but was denied, it learned Sunday.

“I was hoping for the program’s sake and for the kids, that we would go somewhere [outside the west region],” Serrano said. “There’s probably a few teams on the West Coast that are a little envious of us, because we get to go play different [teams] than we’ve been playing all year.”

Serrano acknowledged the difficulty of knocking off a tradition-rich Texas squad making its 49th appearance in the NCAA tournament. The Longhorns, champions of the Big 12 Conference, are aiming for their 33rd trip to the College World Series, where they have won six national championships. They have played in the NCAA title game three of the last four years, including victories in 2005 and 2002 under Garrido.

“No doubt, it’s a tough regional,” Serrano said. “Any time you match up against an Augie Garrido team, not to mention a Wake Forest team out of a tough Atlantic Coast Conference, you’re going to have your hands full. But coming through the Cal State Fullerton chain (he was a Titans assistant coach for eight years, the last of which they beat Texas in the final to win a national title in 2004) [winning regionals on the road] is how that program got on the map.

“We have our hands full, but I can’t be more thrilled for these young men and my coaching staff and this university, for as much as they’ve fought and grinded out the regular season. But I believe we’ve been rewarded by going to a high-profile regional where we’re going to experience a Division I regional atmosphere at its finest.”

UCI is the No. 2 seed in the regional, with Wake Forest No. 3 and Brown No. 4.

Games are scheduled for 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. A Monday game, if necessary, is scheduled for 11 a.m.

UCI, which tied Long Beach State for second place in the Big West Conference, behind first-time champion UC Riverside, is one of four Big West teams in the NCAA tournament field. Cal State Fullerton (33-23), which finished fifth in the conference, three games behind fourth-place Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (32-24), became the fourth Big West school invited.

It’s the only the second time in 25 seasons since the NCAA regional format began that the Big West (formerly the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn.) has had four teams in the tournament.

Long Beach State is a No. 1 seed as host of its own regional, while Cal State Fullerton is the No. 2 seed in the San Diego regional and UC Riverside is the No. 2 seed in the Tempe Regional hosted by Arizona State.

“I thought the Big West was taken care of,” Serrano said. “But I feel for [Coach] Larry Lee and Cal Poly. If I was in his shoes, I’d be scratching my head and wondering ‘What do I need to do?’ ”

Should UCI win the regional, it would advance to the Super Regional against the winner of the Wichita Regional that includes host Wichita State, Arizona, Oral Roberts and New Orleans.

The College World Series is scheduled June 15-25 at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb.

UCI, which posted its highest single-season win total since joining the Division I ranks before the 1978 season, has also set a record for conference wins (15), highest national ranking and most consecutive weeks in the top 25.

The Anteaters won 13 of 15 series this season, including sweeps of Houston, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Pacific and Cal State Northridge. The ‘Eaters were also 2-0-1 in an early season series against Loyola Marymount, in which one game was halted due to darkness with the score tied.

UCI has won nine of its last 10 games.

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at [email protected].