No. 1 UCLA baseball enters NCAA Regionals with determination

The last time the UCLA baseball team was preparing for an NCAA Regional, the circumstances were different.

The 2013 Bruins entered their NCAA Regional as the No. 10-ranked team in the country. They were one of the 16 different No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, but they weren’t a favorite. They didn’t have a target on their backs.

This year, UCLA (42-14, 22-8 Pac-12) enters its NCAA Regional at Jackie Robinson Stadium as the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, something of which junior pitcher James Kaprielian said the team has taken note.

“Obviously there’s a No. 1 ranking now and you kind of have that on you,” Kaprielian said. “And it’s a great honor and we take pride in that.”

Kaprielian added that the Bruins had a short meeting after watching the NCAA Tournament selection show on Monday. The essence of the meeting: Don’t let the new circumstances and top ranking change anything.

“Nothing’s really gonna change too much, we’re kind of still approaching the game the same way,” Kaprielian said.

With the same approach in play for the postseason, that means Kaprielian – the team’s Friday starter throughout the regular season – will start Friday night against Cal State Bakersfield (36-22) in UCLA’s first game of NCAA Regional play.

“I’m gonna be starting on Friday, coach (John Savage) said we’re not gonna really mess with it,” Kaprielian said. “It doesn’t really matter. Every game’s important, and we’ve got plenty of guys and plenty of arms that are able to get the job done.”

If Kaprielian and the Bruins are able to get by the Roadrunners, the lowest-seeded team in the regional, they’ll face the winner of the Ole Miss–Maryland game on Saturday. Neither the No. 2-seeded Rebels nor the No. 3-seeded Terrapins finished the regular season ranked in the top 25, but each has a standout player that ranks in the top 20 of a major statistical category.

For the Terrapins (39-21), their standout is a starting pitcher – Mike Shawaryn, a 6-foot-3-inch sidearmer with a sweeping slider. With his unusual delivery, Shawaryn finished No. 2 in the country with 12 pitching victories, No. 5 in strikeouts and No. 19 in ERA. But if Maryland follows its regular-season pitching schedule like UCLA is, then that means Shawaryn will start on Friday against Ole Miss, and thus be ruled out from starting in the potential UCLA-Maryland game on Saturday.

For the Rebels (30-26), their standout is a slugger – first baseman Sikes Orvis. Orvis ranks No. 10 in the country with 16 home runs – the second-most of any player in the vaunted Southeastern Conference.

The left-handed hitting Orvis has yet to face a pitching staff like UCLA’s, however. The Bruins enter the NCAAs with the No. 1 team ERA in the country. What could make matters more difficult for Orvis is that the pitcher he’d face from UCLA is a lefty – senior Grant Watson.

Watson also has his 2-0 record and 13 scoreless innings from the 2013 NCAA Tournament to fall back on. Seven of those innings came against the University of San Diego, which featured first baseman Kris Bryant, who hit 31 homers that year. The other six came against North Carolina, the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament that year.

“(Facing) UNC in Omaha – you can’t take that experience away, if it was a win or a loss,” Watson said.

Watson and Kaprielian are two of the 19 players the Bruins have returning from the 2013 UCLA national championship team. And while this year’s NCAA run will begin with a different seeding, there are certain aspects that are the same for the Bruins.

Just like in 2013, UCLA lost two of its last three games heading into NCAAs. Redshirt junior outfielder Christoph Bono said that series loss will keep the Bruins hungry, just like the 2013 team was.

“You never want to lose a series, especially when we had a chance to win every series in the Pac-12 and that one, being the last one (in the season),” Bono said. “Losing a series like that … I think it will keep us on our toes and keep us focused on getting better every day.”

The Bruins may no longer be underdogs, but the mindset is the same.