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UCLA Baseball: D1 Baseball’s experts weigh in on the Bruins’ CWS chances

By Mike Regalado

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 19: Garrett Mitchell #5 of UCLA throws from center field during a baseball game against University of Washington at Jackie Robinson Stadium on May 19, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Katharine Lotze/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 19: Garrett Mitchell #5 of UCLA throws from center field during a baseball game against University of Washington at Jackie Robinson Stadium on May 19, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Katharine Lotze/Getty Images) /
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Eight experts from D1 Baseball have weighed in on the upcoming NCAA Baseball Tournament, and all of them have the UCLA baseball team heading to Omaha for the College World Series.

The UCLA baseball team claimed the no. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, but that does not mean that they will make it to the 2019 College World Series… or does it?

RELATED: Several Bruins Received Pac-12 Honors

Eight experts from D1 Baseball came together to discuss their projections for the field of 64 and all of them, at the very least, have the Bruins making it to the CWS.

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This has been quite the season for UCLA as they have put up a 47-8 record, their best in program history. The Bruins also posted a 24-5 Pac-12 record, winning every conference series this season. This led to D1 Baseball ranking the Bruins no. 1 for ten consecutive weeks.

UCLA has a great balance of hitting, defense and pitching, with the last one being their strength. It can be argued that the Bruins have the best pitching staff in the nation, and their NCAA-leading ERA of 2.59 is proof of that.

Of course, it helps when you have the Ryan Garcia, the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year, and John Savage, the Pac-12 Coach of the Year, leading the team.

But these are just numbers. To get a better feel for how the Bruins will do in this talented field of 64, the experts at D1 Baseball gave their takes.

All eight experts have UCLA heading to Omaha. That means they are predicting that the Bruins will take the Los Angeles Regional this weekend and then take down Oregon State in the Super Regionals, who many are expecting to win the Corvallis Regional.

Among the eight D1 Baseball writers, UCLA is one of four teams that have been unanimously projected to make the College World Series. The other three are Georgia, Vanderbilt, and Mississippi State.

These projections are a good sign for the Bruins, but can they go all the way and win their first title since their only title in 2013?

According to the experts, only two (Burke Granger and Shotgun Spratling) have the Bruins winning the title. The other teams picked to win it all are Vanderbilt, Mississippi State and Texas Tech with Vandy getting the majority of the votes.

UCLA begins their journey to Omaha on Friday, May 31 against Omaha (coincidence? UCLA has to go through Omaha to get to Omaha) at 7 p.m. PT at Jackie Robinson Stadium.