OMAHA:Road to Omaha includes Anteaters

OMAHA, Neb. — The Road to Omaha finally reached an off-ramp for the UC Irvine baseball team Monday as the Anteaters, fresh off their Super Regional sweep at Wichita State, arrived by bus at the site of the 61st College World Series at storied Rosenblatt Stadium.

Coach Dave Serrano's No. 4-ranked Anteaters (45-15-1) will square off against Arizona State (48-13) in their first game of the eight-team tournament. The game will be played Saturday at 11 a.m.

Should UCI win, it would play again Monday at 4 p.m. A loss Monday would put the Anteaters into an elimination game Monday at 11 a.m.

The tournament is broken down into two four-team brackets, both of which feature a double-elimination format identical to that conducted in the four-team regionals.

The winners of their respective brackets will meet in a best-of-three championship series, scheduled to begin June 23 at 4 p.m.

UCI enters on a six-game winning streak, with 14 wins in its last 15 games. It was the only road team to win a Super Regional and it joins Big West Conference rival Cal State Fullerton, Rice, Mississippi State and Arizona State as teams with a 5-0 record in the regionals and super regionals.

The Anteaters, who were 0-4 in two NCAA Division I postseason appearances before this season, began their current hot streak after back-to-back losses May 1 and May 8 to UCLA and San Diego, respectively. It was only the third time all season the Anteaters dropped two straight games.

They have not had a three-game losing streak since April 2 to April 8 of the 2005 season.

BARRY FAULKNER may be reached at (714) 966-4615 or at barry.faulkner@latimes.com.