FROM CBD NEWS SOURCE
Los Angeles, Calif. – The UCLA baseball team will look to return to the College World Series for the third time in four years as they will play a 56-game regular schedule in 2013 that includes 10 conference and 12 non-conference opponents.
The Bruins, who are coming off of their second consecutive Pac-12 championship, will open the season with a three-game series at home against Minnesota starting on Friday, Feb. 15. UCLA will also play 18 games against seven opponents that competed in the 2012 NCAA Tournament. Overall, the Bruins will play 32 home games, 23 away games and one at a neutral site.
“We are very excited about the 2013 schedule,” head coach John Savage said. “The players want to play one of the toughest schedules every year and our program will be challenged once again with all of the teams that we play.”
UCLA will play their first-ever three-game series against Minnesota, and will make their first visit to Baylor from Feb. 22-24. The Bruins will also host Wright State for the first time in program history from March 1-3, and will host Loyola Marymount for a three-game set from April 12-14.
For the fourth straight year, UCLA will face USC at Dodger Stadium as a part of the Dodgertown Classic, taking on the Trojans on Sunday, March 10. Notre Dame and Oklahoma will also be featured in the Dodgertown Classic, and will play the Bruins on Friday, March 8 and Saturday, March 9 respectively at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
The Bruins will kick off conference play hosting a three-game series against Washington from March 15-17 at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The Bruins’ other home Pac-12 weekends include series versus California (March 22-24), Oregon State (April 5-7), Utah (May 3-5) and defending NCAA Champion Arizona (May 10-12).
UCLA will face a tough Pac-12 road slate as well that includes trips to Arizona State (March 28-30), Oregon (April 13-15), Washington State (April 26-28), USC (May 17-19) and Stanford (May 24-26).
Midweek contests include two games each against Cal State Northridge, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara. The Bruins will also play one midweek home game against Hawaii on April 9.
UCLA’s last seven schedules have been ranked among the top-five-most difficult in the country as ranked by Boyd’s World (strength of schedule ranking service, boydsworld.com). The Bruins’ schedule was ranked No. 1 in 2006 and 2010, No. 2 in 2007, No. 3 in 2008 and 2009, No. 4 in 2012 and No. 5 in 2011.
