Riding on a bus en route to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., on Monday afternoon, former Westlake High standout and current UC Irvine starting second baseman Cody Cipriano prepared himself for the raucous baseball environment his team was about to descend upon.

"I'm going by what the coaches are saying because they've all been here before," said Cipriano, the 2002 and 2003 Marmonte League Player of the Year and a ninth-round pick by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays during last week's MLB draft.

"They say it doesn't get any better than Omaha with 20,000 people screaming and cheering for you," he said. "I'm looking forward to it."

Cipriano, a senior who leads the Anteaters with 12 home runs, 57 RBI and a .593 slugging percentage, isn't the only local product contributing to the team's NCAA tournament success.

His roommate, starting catcher Aaron Lowenstein of Calabasas High, has helped guide a stingy pitching staff that's allowed just nine runs in five postseason contests.

Lowenstein, who attended A.E. Wright Middle School in Calabasas with Cipriano, said getting to Omaha has been on the roommates' agenda since graduating high school four years ago. Up until this season, however, UC Irvine had never even won a regional game.

"When we signed up for the whole deal, we were looking for a team that we knew could go to the national championship," said Lowenstein, a red-shirt junior who's hitting .303 with 20 RBI.

"We're not here playing just to play and go to the next level. We're here for a reason, and it's to win a national championship."

Sophomore shortstop Ben Orloff, a Simi Valley High graduate, ranks third on the team with a .341 batting average. Orloff has started each of Irvine's 61 games this season.

Orloff said the thrill of beating Wichita State and becoming one of only eight teams to qualify for the doubleelimination tournament at Rosenblatt Stadium was still sinking in during Monday's bus ride.

"It's awesome. Words can't describe it," Orloff said. "I don't think it's even really set in yet that I'm on a bus going to Omaha. The College World Series is something I've been watching since I can remember. To be a part of it now is something special."

During his sophomore season at SVHS, Orloff struck out only one time. As fate would have it, Cipriano was on the mound. These days, rather than face off against each other, they form a potent double-play combination.

"Our years of communication pay off well when we go into loud stadiums now," Orloff said. "We know each other so well that we don't even need to talk much on the field anymore because we know where the other guy is going to be. It's really very cool."

Nick Farinacci, who helped lead Agoura High to the CIFSouthern Section Division I championship game in 2006, is a member of UC Irvine's ballclub but is not on the 25-man active roster.

Heading into Saturday's 11 a.m. PST opener against Arizona State, which will be broadcast on ESPN, UC Irvine (45151) appears to have as good a shot as any team to claim the title.

The Anteaters, second-place finishers in the Big West Conference, have won 14 of their last 15 games, including two-game sweeps on the road against fifthranked Texas and ninth-ranked Wichita State in the regional and super regional rounds, respectively.

Cipriano said the team's confidence is peaking at the proper time.

"We go into every game expecting to win because we know we're one of the best teams in America," Cipriano said. "Hopefully we can give this season the storybook ending it definitely deserves."