2010 College World Series: UCLA, Florida Open Their CWS Accounts

For UCLA, this year’s College World Series appearance is 13 years in the making. For Florida, they trot out a bunch of guys who were five years old 13 years ago. Not that UCLA is a veteran team. They’re anything but, leaning heavily upon freshmen and sophomores, but no team matches the youth of the Florida Gators. Luckily for the Gators, those youngsters are unbelievably talented, as evidenced by their names littering the various Freshmen All-American teams. As a counter, the Bruins will toss top pitcher after top pitcher at the Gators, all members of the top pitching staff in Omaha.

Led by youth and coming to Omaha hot, Florida has been one of the most consistent teams all year. They haven’t run off any ridiculous win streaks or gone into a deep funk, but they’ve consistently won series all year long. After going 42-15 during the regular season with an impressive 22-8 SEC mark, Florida rolled through the Regional that they hosted. By the time their 3-0 run was over, they had outscored Bethune-Cookman, Oregon St. and Florida Atlantic, 32-5. In the Super Regionals, they smacked Miami around to start things, then showed they could win a close game by clinching their College World Series spot in extra innings. Now, the Gators prepare for their first trip to Omaha since 2005.

With a 22-game win streak to start the season, a second-place conference finish and school record 43 regular season wins, UCLA accomplished a lot during the regular season. They were rewarded with the right to host both a Regional and Super Regional and the number six national seed. In the Regionals, UCLA had to play Kent St., LSU and UC Irvine in what was widely regarded as the toughest Regional out there. The Bruins had no trouble with it though, sweeping through it in three game to set them up with the team that had their number, Cal St. Fullerton. After dropping the opening game of the Super Regionals, UCLA was down to their final out in the second game, but they came back for an extra inning win, then cruised 8-1 to clinch the school’s first College World Series berth since 1997.

Now, the Bruins and Gators square off for the right to play TCU in Monday’s winner’s bracket game, while the loser will face Florida St. in an elimination game with their season on the line. Charged with getting their teams off to strong starts will be UCLA’s Trevor Bauer and Florida’s Alex Panteliodis.

The lone starting pitcher in the Gators rotation who entered the season with college experience, Pantheliodis went 11-2 with a 3.26 ERA on Friday nights. In last week’s Super Regionals, the sophomore was sensational, walking just one and striking out 11 in a two-run, three hit complete game to hand the Gators an important win to open the round.

Having spent last season and this season as the Bruins’ number two pitcher, Bauer will get his chance to start things off this weekend. Last season, Bauer was named National Freshman Pitcher of the Year and remarkably, it came in a season when he should have been a high school senior. The right-hander graduated from high school early to enroll at UCLA early and all he did was lead all Bruin pitchers. This season, Bauer is 10-3 with a 3.02 ERA, showing great consistency all year for the Bruins while leading the nation’s leading strike out team with 141 punch outs of his own.