UCLA wants to match the hype

After a roller-coaster regular season during which they needed a strong finish to make the playoffs, the Bruins (31-25) get new life as the postseason begins Friday with an opening-round game against Virginia (38-21) at 4 p.m. in the Cal State Fullerton regional.

UCLA began the season with high expectations fueled by a preseason No. 1 ranking by Baseball America, but never found the consistency needed to maintain such a lofty ranking.

The Bruins fell out of the national polls by early April and had been written off as a playoff contender as recently as May 11 when they fell to 25-23 and into sixth place at 8-10 in the Pacific 10 Conference.

A late-season surge brought six victories in their last eight games and the Bruins finished third in the conference at 13-11, gaining momentum they hope to carry into the playoffs.

"The air got let out of the balloon real fast," Coach John Savage said. "For whatever reason, we had a lot of guys pressing. Maybe they were trying to live up to that ranking, but we just didn't play up to our capabilities in all three facets of the game."

There's little doubt that the Bruins have talent: As many as nine players are projected picks in the upcoming Major League Baseball draft. The current junior class was among the top-rated recruiting classes in the nation three years ago.

Players such as shortstop Brandon Crawford, pitcher Tim Murphy and third baseman Jermaine Curtis started as freshmen and led the team to the regionals. Last year they helped the team advance to the Super Regionals. This year, they figured, the next logical step would be to go to the College World Series in Omaha.

"The expectations were a little high coming in to the season," said senior second baseman Alden Carrithers, batting a team-best .380. "But you know you still have to play the games and I think we lost sight of that for a little while."

As UCLA began its free fall out of the national polls, the Bruins began to hear talk of how they were overrated. From Internet message board posts to crowds at road games, nobody seemed to believe the Bruins should have been so highly ranked.

"A lot of people were counting us out," said Murphy, who was selected Pac-10 pitcher of the week the last two weeks. "They said we didn't have a chance, but we're in the playoffs now and we have just as much of a chance as anyone."