Anteaters shuffle pitching rotation

ROUND ROCK, Texas — With an eye toward the big picture, UC Irvine baseball coach Dave Serrano has shaken up his pitching lineup to start the NCAA Regional that begins for the Anteaters today at 11 a.m. against Wake Forest at the Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas.

Rather than open with sophomore first-team All-Big West Conference standout Scott Gorgen, who has been the Friday night starter all season, Serrano tabbed junior Wes Etheridge, a second-team all-conference performer, to start against the Demon Deacons.

UCI (40-15-1) will hope to use Gorgen (10-2 with a 3.06 earned-run average) in what Serrano hopes will be a winner’s bracket showdown Saturday at 4 p.m., most likely against Texas. Gorgen ended the regular-season with back-to-back shutouts, allowing seven combined hits in 18 innings.

Serrano said Sunday after the conclusion of the final regular-season series at UC Riverside that he was leaning toward opening with Etheridge, who should be rested after coming out in the third inning of Saturday’s game at UC Riverside with a quadriceps injury.

Etheridge was not involved in the decision in a game Riverside won, 4-2, to clinch its first Big West Conference championship.

Serrano said Monday that Etheridge would have no lingering effects from the quadriceps ailment he deemed a Charley horse.

Further, Serrano said the rest Etheridge received with his early exit would help alleviate some fatigue that had set in with Etheridge’s staff-leading 109 1/3 innings pitched this season.

“Etheridge [11-4 with a 2.88 ERA] has been going on fumes,” Serrano said Saturday.

Etheridge will be opposed by sophomore left-hander Garrett Bullock (4-2, 4.71 ERA).

Bullock allowed seven runs, six earned, on 10 hits against Florida State in the opening round of the ACC Tournament last week. Bullock worked 5 1/3 innings and absorbed the loss.

THE ROAD AHEAD

If Etheridge can come through and beat Wake Forest (33-27), the Anteaters, ranked No. 9 in the most recent Baseball America poll, would battle the winner of today’s 5 p.m. first-round game between Texas (44-15), the No. 4 national seed and Ivy League champion Brown (27-19).

The winner of Saturday’s winner’s bracket showdown would then need just one win Sunday against the last team standing to advance to the Super Regional against the winner of the Wichita State Regional.

At Wichita State this weekend are the host Shockers (49-19), Arizona (40-15), Oral Roberts (40-15) and New Orleans (37-24).

Should the winner of Saturday’s winner’s bracket game lose Sunday, a deciding game in the double-elimination game, is scheduled for Monday at 11 a.m.

THE LONGER ROAD AHEAD

Should UCI lose today, it would meet the Texas-Brown loser Saturday at 10 a.m. The winner of Saturday’s game between the two Friday losers would advance to meet the loser of the Saturday’s winner’s bracket game Sunday at 10 a.m.

DELL DIAMOND DOINGS

All four teams got to settle into their new surroundings during workouts Thursday at Dell Diamond, which has 8,733 permanent seats and room for 3,000 more on grass berms that border the outfield wall.

The attendance record is 13,475, who saw Roger Clemens pitch June 16, 2006, as he was working his way back to the Houston Astros rotation.

The dimensions are 330 feet down the left-field line, 375 in both alleys, 407 to deepest center field and 325 down the right-field line. The outfield wall is eight feet high.

Texas has played eight games at the Dell Diamond this season, wining five.

THE SKIES OF TEXAS

Conditions are warm and humid with a lingering chance of afternoon showers, but the heat is not oppressive, as of yet in Round Rock.

There was light rain Thursday morning, but there are no storms in the forecast, as of Thursday, that would be severe enough to threaten the schedule.

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