Bounce-back season nets UCLA first No. 1 seed

OMAHA, Neb. — UCLA coach John Savage didn’t expect his Bruins to be down for long after they went from being national champions in 2013 to finishing five games under .500 in 2014. He was right. The Bruins’ dominance in the Pac-12 Conference this spring impressed the Division I Baseball Committee so much that Monday they were awarded their first No. 1 national seed for the NCAA tournament.

“We knew we were going to have a good team,” he said. “We knew we had some players back, and we knew we were healthy. But to go from the top of the mountain in 2013 to the bottom in 2014 and then back in 2015, at least to this point, feels pretty good.

“The Pac-12 coaches predicted us to win the league. I think that’s kind of a telling sign. You still have to go out and do it and have things go your way.”

The Bruins (42-14) edged out Southeastern Conference regular-season champion LSU (48-10) even though they lost two of three at Oregon in their final series.

“UCLA has been there for much of the season. LSU is an outstanding club as well. There’s such a fine line between the two,” said committee chairman Dave Heeke, athletic director at Central Michigan.

“UCLA did not lose a series until that last weekend. They were a powerful group throughout the entire year. Ultimately, it was very close, but they were deemed to be our No. 1 overall seed.”

The other six national seeds, in order, are Louisville, Florida, Miami, Illinois, TCU and Missouri State.

The tournament opens Friday with 16 four-team, double-elimination regionals. Best-of-three super regionals are next week, with those winners moving to the College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha.

National seeds that win their regionals play at home in super regionals. Since the NCAA went to its current tournament format in 1999, only one No. 1 national seed — Miami in 1999 — has won the championship.

UCLA didn’t even make the tournament a year ago, following its championship with an injury-riddled 25-301 season.

The Bruins have bounced back on the strength of a pitching staff that leads Division I with a 2.16 ERA and a much-improved offense that’s batting .285 and averaging better than six runs a game.

This is the third time since 2010 UCLA has earned a national seed. UCLA starts the tournament in Los Angeles against Cal State Bakersfield. Maryland and Mississippi also are in the Bruins regional.

The ACC and SEC tied for most qualifiers with seven apiece. The Pac-12 has six teams in the tournament, and the Big Ten set a conference record with five.

Miami is in the tournament for a record 43rd consecutive year.