UCLA Baseball: Bruins are heading to the NCAA Tournament

The UCLA baseball team has punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament as they are the 2-seed in the Minneapolis Regional.

After an up-and-down season that was filled with injuries and setbacks, the young UCLA baseball team has made their way into the NCAA Tournament.

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The Bruins just wrapped up their season with a win over #2 Oregon State, though it came after two loses to the Beavers. That is kind of how the Bruins’ season went as they have had to make a lot of changes and shift the roster around because of youth and injuries.

Still, the fact that the Bruins are 36-19 (19-11 in the Pac-12) says something about the resiliency of this squad.

Things get going this Friday as the Bruins are the #2 seed and will be joined in Minneapolis by #1 Minnesota, #3 Gonzaga and #4 Canisius. UCLA will take on Gonzaga at 11 a.m. PT, followed by Minnesota-Canisius at 3 p.m. PT.

Click HERE for the full bracket.

https://twitter.com/Pac12Network/status/1001138922116689921

The first part of the NCAA Tournament will be double elimination, meaning if a team loses, they still have a chance to advance, but will be sent to the elimination bracket and will need to win out to advance to the Super Regionals, which will be a best-of-3 series.

The interesting part about this is if UCLA wins the Regional and #1 Oregon State wins their Regional, both will meet in the next round. As for other Pac-12 schools, #1 Stanford and #3 Washington have also made it into the tournament.

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Though the Bruins have had a rough season, they look to the bats of Jeremy Ydens, Chase Strumpf and Michael Toglia, who all have an average of over .330 and over 70 hits a piece. They will also need their pitchers to play at the top of their game, especially Jake Bird who went 7-5 this season while posting a 1.99 ERA. Go Bruins!