UCLA baseball brush the Huskies aside
Sophomore catcher Steve Rodriguez and the No. 12 Bruins swept the Washington Huskies on the road this weekend. The Bruins scored 28 runs in the three games.
By Ryan Eshoff
May 9, 2010 9:42 p.m.
After sloppily dropping three games to Arizona State University and soiling a stretch of strong play, the UCLA baseball team was in need of a little spring cleaning.
A sweep of their own did the trick.
The Bruins emerged victorious from their longest conference road trip of the season, taking all three games at Washington, including a 7-6 win in Sunday’s finale.
“It’s a sign of resiliency for our team,” coach John Savage said. “We weren’t too happy after Arizona State, and we had a lot to prove. It was good to get back at it.”
No. 12 UCLA (34-10, 10-8 Pac-10) almost packed their bags a little too early in the final game of the series, as the Huskies (25-22, 8-10) scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth off of Dan Klein to make the game interesting before the Bruin closer was able to collar them.
Not that the Bruins were too anxious to head back to Los Angeles. After all, they have lost only twice on the road all season, and have yet to drop a series away from Jackie Robinson Stadium. It was UCLA’s first three-game sweep on the road since 2007 at Stanford.
“The guys are just relaxed, there are no distractions,” Savage said of the team’s road mindset. “We’ve got guys that are focused, and these are good character-builders for us. Winning on the road is a sign of a good team.”
Junior starter Rob Rasmussen turned in another quality Sunday start, going six and two-thirds innings and allowing just one run. With his seventh win, Rasmussen matched his fellow starters Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer, who each picked up their seventh wins over the weekend.
While Bauer was not as crisp on Saturday, he got plenty of run support in a 14-6 decision. Cole went seven innings and struck out nine to lead the Bruins to a 7-2 triumph in Friday night’s series opener.
“It was good for them to get back out there after Arizona State,” said catcher Steve Rodriguez, who handled all three starters. “They were more aggressive, and all did a good job of attacking the zone and pitching to their strengths.”
After scoring only five runs against Arizona State last weekend, the Bruins posted 28 over three days in Seattle, and received contributions from a number of different players.
Freshmen Cody Keefer and Cody Regis ““ who both had their share of struggles against the Sun Devils ““ each hit their first career home run over the weekend.
Rodriguez belted two longballs of his own in Saturday’s win to give him a team record-high of seven.
“We had a lot of guys contributing; versatility has been a strength for us,” Savage said. “We’ve gotten back to using our depth really well.”
Perhaps it was only a matter of time before the team could prove that it actually fared a lot better against ASU than the numbers indicated. This time, UCLA was able to build a lead in each game, then let their pitchers do the rest.
“We were putting together quality at-bats consistently,” Rodriguez said. “Same approach as last weekend really, but the results were definitely there against Washington.”
