Cardinal turns red, shamed by losses

Cardinal turns red, shamed by losses

Baseball upsets No. 5 Stanford, wins two of three weekend
games

By Yoni Tamler

Daily Bruin Contributor

In its conference opener, the No. 6 UCLA baseball team validated
itself as a true Six-Pac contender. The Bruins upset No. 5 Stanford
by taking two out of three games at Jackie Robinson Stadium this
weekend.

After a split of the first two games, UCLA (11-5 overall, 2-1
Six-Pac) defeated Stanford in Sunday’s rubber match, 7-5.

"This was our best game of the three in terms of all-around
better play," UCLA head coach Gary Adams said. "You gotta win two
out of three in your home court, and last time they came down here
and beat us two out of three. I have to tip my hat to
everybody."

The Cardinal (10-7, 1-2) jumped out to an early 3-1 lead on
Sunday, but UCLA’s dependable offense rallied for five runs in the
third and fifth innings to retake the lead, 6-3.

In the top of the seventh the Bruins ran into trouble again.
Stanford’s Brian Dallimore and Jon Schaeffer both hit solo homers,
prompting a call to the bullpen. Kevin Sheredy came in and retired
all three batters he faced.

Sheredy shut out Stanford the rest of the way to earn his third
save of the year and the second in three days. The junior allowed
no hits and struck out four over three innings in relief of Pete
Zamora, who improved to 2-0 on the season.

Stanford’s lone win of the weekend, a 9-1 rout on Saturday, was
a one-sided contest from the beginning. The Cardinal combined for
14 hits on the day, handing junior Ryan Lynch his first loss of the
season.

But the real story of the game was true freshman Jeff Austin.
With an ERA of 0.78 going into the game, Austin (3-1) went the
distance for Stanford recording 13 strike outs and fanning eight of
the nine Bruins in the lineup.

"Austin really put on a lesson on how to pitch," Adams said. "He
was always ahead (in the count). He put on a clinic on how to put
the pressure on hitters."

Austin’s first complete game of his collegiate career also
brought his strikeout total to 47 in 32 innings.

On Friday, the Bruins came out on top in a 6-5 thriller. Right
fielder Jon Heinrichs knocked in the game-winning run in the bottom
of the eighth inning.

Jim Parque (3-0) fanned nine while allowing three earned runs
over eight innings. Parque clamped down the Cardinal after the
first inning when Stanford scored four runs.

"I just said, ‘Screw it, let’s pitch,’" Parque said. "I wanted
to make the best of the situation, so I figured I’d just try to
throw a shut-out the rest of the game."

* * *

Things haven’t changed much for hot-hitting Zak Ammirato, who
refused to come back to earth against Stanford. Over the three
games, Ammirato was six-for-13 with five RBIs, including a home run
in Friday’s game.

Freshman Jack Santora also shined for UCLA this weekend. Filling
in for an injured Troy Glaus on Sunday, Santora went two-for-five
and was brilliant at shortstop in UCLA’s 7-5 win.

PATRICK LAM/Daily Bruin

Junior Zak Amirrato continued his hitting streak against
Stanford, going six-for-13 with five RBIs in three games.

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