Baseball: Lots of locals in college baseball playoffs

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With eight Pacific 10 Conference schools selected for the NCAA baseball playoffs that begin Friday, there’s going to be lots of former Southern California high school standouts in action throughout the country, and not just from the Pac-10.

Two former Encino Crespi pitchers, Tyler Johnson from Stony Brook and Sean Gilmartin from Florida State, are key performers for their playoff-bound teams. Johnson is 9-3 and Gilmartin 7-7.

Three members off Los Angeles Loyola’s 2007 Southern Section Division 2 championship team are in the playoffs. Steve Selsky (Arizona), Kevin Muno (San Diego) and Kevin Grove (St. John’s).

Cal State Fullerton gets to host a regional, and its No. 1 pitcher is former Alhambra standout Noe Ramirez, who’s 10-1 with a 2.50 ERA.

UCLA is seeded No. 6 nationally and will host a regional Friday. Its strength is pitching, behind Gerrit Cole (Orange Lutheran), Trevor Bauer (Newhall Hart) and Rob Rasmussen (Pasadena Poly).

If UCLA and Fullerton win their regionals, they’d meet in a best-of-three series for a spot in the College World Series.

So watch out for the Southern California influence in the college baseball playoffs.

Here’s the bracket link.

-- Eric Sondheimer