OMAHA, Neb. -- From the beginning, a sense of exceptionalism hovered over the College World Series. There was something of everything.

We had perennial powers (North Carolina, LSU), teams that have waited decades or forever for this (NC State, Indiana), a team that won titles its previous two times here (Oregon State) and five conferences (SEC, Pac-12, ACC, Big Ten, Big East). We had compelling stories, but nobody rode in on the bare back of luck. All eight teams hosted regionals and proved their worth.

So we should have been prepared for anything, shielded completely from surprise. And yet, who had both UCLA and Mississippi State playing for the national championship?

Neither team entered Omaha as the favorite in its bracket. Both have deep, festering wounds that would be fatal for most other clubs. But here they are, both undefeated at the College World Series and proving something we've always known to be true: You don't have to be perfect to be a champion.

Now, a five-month season has been reduced to three days. Game 1 of the best-of-three series is Monday at 8 p.m. ET, with all games on ESPN. Let's take a quick look at the Bruins and Bulldogs, and ask five questions about the championship series.

Will the "clean" David Berg return for UCLA in the finals?

Berg, the Pac-12 pitcher of the year and UCLA's closer, has been a late-night titan for John Savage this season, emptying the end of ballgames of stress. Not often is a reliever among the three most valuable assets a team possesses, but I think that's fair to say about Berg, considering how UCLA is constructed. Everything the Bruins do is designed to get the ball to Berg. That's it.

UCLA closer David Berg struggled Friday before nailing down the victory. AP Photo/Francis Gardler

So it was a little concerning to watch Berg on Friday night at TD Ameritrade Park nearly drowning in his own sweat and North Carolina's propensity for heroics. He entered with a four-run lead and then loaded the bases with nobody out. It was the first pulse felt by the Tar Heels' offense, the first push back against the Bruins.

"Come on, you get ran out there as much as he does, things are going to happen," Savage said. "So, hey, he's our guy. That's who we're going to go to. He's one of the major reasons why we're here, and he can screw up every now and then. It's OK."

Savage laughed and shrugged, reminding everyone that Berg has "had a lot of clean innings." He's right -- Berg does have a 0.96 ERA in 75 1/3 innings with 77 strikeouts and only 11 walks, after all -- but in the past couple of weeks, innings have come up mostly dirty for Berg.

Beyond UCLA's starting rotation, its greatest strength is the death trap of Berg and freshman James Kaprielian at the end of games. Kaprielian did his part against UNC, striking out two in a scoreless seventh inning, but the Bruins will need the best from both to beat the Bulldogs.

How much damage will Wes Rea and Hunter Renfroe cause?

Rea and Renfroe sat shoulder to shoulder on the interview podium after Mississippi State beat Oregon State on Friday, and talked about hitting. Rea had two knocks against Oregon State -- a third was robbed at the wall in left-center -- and Renfroe broke the Beavers with a three-run homer.

Hunter Renfroe's three-run homer sent the Bulldogs to the finals. AP Photo/Eric Francis

"Last year, I really didn't have a plan for the off-speed stuff," Rea said. "This year, I'm more center to right-center on the fastball and left-center to left field on the breaking ball. So it's not like I have to guess one pitch to hit to be productive anymore."

Talk about the ballpark, its deep gaps and the wind blowing straight in from center dominated conversations all week in Omaha. "Once the ball gets into the gaps, it's not going out," Renfroe said. "So I just try to hit line drives."

Renfroe and Rea have wrecked the ball for Mississippi State in the postseason -- hitting .368 and .382, respectively -- and they could be the biggest factors in this championship series, because it doesn't take more than a small child's handful of runs to put games in legitimate jeopardy for UCLA.

With runners on base, a Renfroe homer here and a Rea double there would likely be enough meat for the Bulldogs' bullpen to feast on and finish the Bruins. It's not all on those two, of course. The Bulldogs do have other capable hitters -- Adam Frazier and Alex Detz at the top of the lineup, Brett Pirtle and C.T. Bradford in the middle -- but the run-scoring opportunities are typically there for Renfroe and Rea, and they've been masterful at cashing them in.

Speaking of runs, how many will UCLA manufacture?

Perhaps more than any other team in the College World Series, the Bruins have to be almost perfect in their offensive execution to score runs. They can't miss hit-and-runs, they can't miss squeezes, they can't make outs on the bases. Some of those errors can be overcome by teams with the ability to assault pitching staffs. UCLA is not one of those teams.