The deans of New England baseball are California dreaming.

The Harvard baseball team will open its third straight trip to the NCAA tournament on Friday, facing No. 12 Pepperdine in Los Angeles, Calif.

The Crimson (28-18, 16-4 Ivy) drew the No. 4 seed in the four-team regional, and will face the Waves (43-14) in the opening day nightcap. Host USC (33-23), which is seeded second, will play No. 3 Virginia Commonwealth (40-18) in the opener at Dedeaux Field.

The teams will play a double-elimination bracket, with the winner advancing to the Super Regional field of 16 teams.

"With 16 regional sites, we expected a four seed," said Harvard Coach Joe Walsh. "Pepperdine is strong, and I think USC might be the best team in the country if it wasn't for injuries. Those are two teams that could be No. 1 seeds. It's a good, strong regional and anybody can beat anybody in it."

The Waves paced the West Coast Conference all season before falling 2-1 to Loyola Marymount in the conference tournament. Pepperdine was a shoo-in for an automatic bid after posting wins over all five ranked opponents on its regular-season, including a pair over No. 3 Cal-State Fullerton.

"We're excited but we recognize that we're in a regional with very talented one and two seeds," said junior first baseman Erik Binkowski. "These are two teams that definitely like the long ball."

Harvard clinched a trip to the expanded 64-team field after a ninth-inning rally saved the third and deciding game of the Ivy League Championship Series from Princeton May 9 in Cambridge.

Pepperdine hitters pepper the WCC leader board, with third baseman G.J. Raymundo leading the way at .382 with 14 home runs and 57 RBI. The senior, who spent two years at Fresno Community College before transferring to Pepperdine, also slugged .717 with 31 extra-base hits in 49 games.