Savage's team gearing up for Spring Madness. Another fantastic preview from our rye, who once again is showing why he may be one of the best college baseball bloggers in the country. GO BRUINS. -N

This weekend college baseball turns up the heat as regional play begins all around the nation and teams continue their season long march to Omaha. For those interested in a look at regional play around the nation, check out either Rivals.com, CSTV.com or BaseballAmerica.com. If you want to watch some of the games, check out ESPNU where they will be showing the Myrtle Beach regional and the San Diego regional this weekend or CSTV, who will be showing the Fayetteville regional. However, here we will be focusing on the Long Beach regional where Long Beach St., Illinois-Chicago, Pepperdine and our UCLA Bruins will be playing. All the games will be played at Blair Field, located roughly 2 miles off the 405 freeway.

The postseason format is rather forgiving, allowing any team to lose a game each round, but losses will tax your pitching staff. On selection Monday, the committee announces the 16 host sites and 8 national seeds. The regional hosts are all #1 seeds in their regional this year and the national seeds are ensured to not play each other until the College World Series. All 16 regionals are comprised of 4 teams, making a 64 team field. Each regional plays a double elimination tournament with the winner advancing to the Super Regionals the next weekend. There are 8 Super Regionals, hosted by the national seed if they advance and each Super Regional has 2 teams that play a 3 game series. The winner of the series adavances to the College World Series. There, the 8 teams will be split into 2, 4 teams brackets where they will play another double elimination tournament. The winners of each bracket then plays a best of 3 in the championship series for the national title.

Long Beach St. is the host of the regional and #1 seed. The Dirtbags finished the season with a 37-18 record and 15-6 conference record, good for 2nd place in the Big West. Ranked 21st by Baseball America, the Dirtbags record is especially impressive considering they played the toughest ranked schedule in the nation and finished the regular season #7 in the RPI, two things that certainly bolstered their argument to host a regional. On the mound, Long Beach St. is led by Sr. LHP Omar Arif, who compiled 5 wins and a 3.11 ERA this season. After Arif is Jr. RHP Andrew Liebel and Jr. RHP Manny McElroy however neither is counted on to go deep into games. Long Beach St. has a deep bullpen so after Arif, they essentially use a pitching staff by committee, hoping their starter can give them 4 or 5 good innings and letting their bullpen close it out. The Dirtbags are certainly led by their offense and the headliners in their potent offense are So. SS Danny Espinosa and So. 1B Shane Peterson and Sr. Of Robert Perry. Espinosa leads the team with 7 homers and is batting .318, while playing exceptional defense. Peterson has a team leading .344 batting average and Perry leads the team with 50 RBI while batting .330. The Dirtbags are a dangerous team and have taken it out on the rest of the teams in this regional, going 2-0 versus both UCLA and Pepperdine and sweeping a 2 game series from Illinois-Chicago when they played last season.

In Long Beach St.'s regional opener, they will take on the #4 seed Illinois-Chicago Flames. The Flames, automatic qualifiers as winner of the Horizon League are certainly the underdog in the regional and a good bet to lose their first 2 games and be sent home quickly. The Flames were 34-19 this season, but 0-4 against teams that qualified for a regional and 4-11 versus teams from a power conference. The Flames rely on Fr. RHP Steve Crnkovich for their quality starts and he has performed well this year, amassing a 2.27 ERA and .246 opposing bating average. At the plate, Illinois-Chicago's big bat is Sr. OF Larry Gempp Jr., who batted .397 with 7 homers and 57 RBI this year. While not much of a threat to win the regional, a strong pitching performance by Crnkovich gives the Flames a shot to upset a team and cause some issues in Long Beach. Illinois-Chicago has not played either UCLA or Pepperdine recently, but played Long Beach St. last year and were swept in a 3 game series.

The UCLA Bruins are seeded 2nd in the Long Beach regional and will matchup against the Pepperdine Waves in their first regional game. After finishing with a 30-26 record against the 3rd toughest schedule in the country and a 14-10 conference record, good enough for 3rd in the Pac 10 the Bruins are considered a serious threat to win this regional and some experts are picking them do do just that. The Bruins are led by Sr. RHP Tyson Brummett on the mound and a sensational group of sophomores at the plate. The Bruins have not played Illinois-Chicago recently, but played Long Beach St. and Pepperdine twice each this season. The Bruins lost their 2 games to Long Beach St., but beat Pepperdine in each of their 2 meetings. For more information on the Bruins' season check out this Bruin regular season review.

The Bruins will take on the #3 seed Pepperdine Waves in the regional's opening game. The Waves finished with a 35-20 record this season and 14-7 in the WCC. Once a top 15 team in the nation, Pepperdine has struggled lately, losing 7 of 9 before sweeping lowly Portland in the final series of the season. The Waves now sit at #24 in the nation, a far cry from their #9 ranking they held only 4 weeks ago. The Waves come into this regional as a possible dark horse due to their strong pitching with Jr. RHP Barry Enright. Enright, considered one of the premier arms on the west coast and a likely 1st round pick in next month's MLB draft gives the Waves a dominant arm in their opener and a tough game for UCLA. Enright finished the season with a 12-4 record and remarkable 1.74 ERA. Leading the charge at the plate for the Waves is Jr. Of Adrian Ortiz, who batted .355 and Jr. SS Danny Worth, who batted .346. The Waves have struggled mightily against the teams in the Long Beach regional. While they have not played Illinois-Chicago, they lost the 2 games they played to Long Beach St. and their 2 games to UCLA.

The Long Beach regional figures to be one of the most intriguing in the nation as 3 teams (Long Beach St., UCLA and Pepperdine) all have legitimate shots at winning the regional. All 3 teams will also be playing close to home so each school figures to have a large fan base at all their games. The games will all be at Blair Field in Long Beach and an All-Session ticket is $90 for a super box, $70 for a reserved box and $50 for a general admission seat. Single game tickets can be purchased at the stadium on game day and prices figure to be $10-$15 so show up at Blair Field and support our Bruins as they march towards Omaha!

Game Schedule:
Friday:
Game 1- #2 UCLA vs. #3 Pepperdine, 3 pm
Game 2- #1 Long Beach St. vs. #4 Illinois-Chicago, 7 pm
Saturday:
Game 3- Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2, 3 pm
Game 4- Winner of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2, 7 pm
Sunday:
Game 5- Loser of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 3, 2 pm
Game 6- Winner of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 5, 6 pm
Monday:
Game 7 (if necessary)- Rematch of Game 6