UCLA’s Cody Regis adjusts in a hurry

Reporting from Omaha — The pressure of playing a new position on the grandest of college baseball stages has yet to affect UCLA freshman Cody Regis.

Regis moved from third base to second base for the College World Series. He replaced the injured Tyler Rahmatulla, who is out because of a fractured wrist suffered in the postgame celebration after UCLA’s super-regional victory over Cal State Fullerton.

On Monday, Regis hit a two-run home run in the Bruins’ 6-3 victory against Texas Christian at Rosenblatt Stadium.

Regis said he has spent most of his time in Omaha working with assistant coach Steve Pearse and Rahmatulla to make the adjustment easier.

“When Tyler went down it was a shock to us all,” Regis said. “And basically, coach [ John Savage] called me, told me that I’d have to be ready to play second base. So the flight over here, the bus rides, everything, I’ve been working with Tyler and coach Pearse just getting ready to play second base.”

Regis, who was replaced by Dean Espy at third base, is two for 10 with three runs batted in and no errors.

True grit

The Bruins opened the CWS by scoring in 11 of the first 12 innings. Savage credited it to his team continuing to use the middle of the field.

“When we do that, we’re a tough team to pitch against,” Savage said. “We don’t have a bunch of home run hitters. We don’t have a bunch of guys that are knocking down the fence, but we have a bunch of guys that are gritty … if you leave some pitches over the plate, they can do some damage.”

Turning point

Since being swept by Arizona State in early May, the Bruins have won 20 of 24 games.

“Definitely that was a very tough series for us,” freshman Beau Amaral said. “Definitely sparked a little fire in us and we wanted another chance at them.”

Arizona State goes home

UCLA won’t be getting that second chance at Arizona State.

The Sun Devils, the top-seeded team in the tournament, were eliminated by South Carolina, 11-4, Tuesday.

Jackie Bradley and Adrian Morales hit home runs during an eight-run second inning that propelled the Gamecocks, who will play another elimination game Thursday.

The Sun Devils lost consecutive games for the first time this season and were two-and-out at the CWS for only the third time in 22 appearances.

The eight-run second was Arizona State’s worst inning in 196 games, since giving up nine runs in a 14-5 loss to Arizona on May 25, 2007.

Arizona State’s Riccio Torrez had his hitting streak end at 26 games. He was hit by pitches twice, struck out twice and flied out.

Times wire services contributed to this report.

srichardson@sunsentinel.com

The Associated Press contributed to this report