Baseball to face San Diego State in first road game of the season
Junior Steve Rodriguez is in his third season as UCLA’s starting catcher. The Bruins travel to San Diego State today for their first road game of the season. UCLA, which fell from No. 2 to No. 5 in the latest Baseball America rankings, has not faced the Aztecs since 2009, in which they split a pair of Tuesday night games.
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UCLA takes on San Diego State in its first road game of the season. Sophomore Scott Griggs will start for the second time.
By Daily Bruin Staff
March 1, 2011 12:07 a.m.
The UCLA baseball team does not have a player who wears the No. 13 on its roster.
Perhaps it’s because 13 is viewed as unlucky in many circles, including baseball’s on-deck one.
UCLA junior catcher Steve Rodriguez wears No. 3, but he may want to change his number because three might as well be 13 for the Bruins so far this year.
After winning 22 consecutive games to open the 2010 campaign, UCLA dropped two straight to unranked San Jose State last weekend.
Although they had five hits in each of the two losses, the Bruins could push across only three runs in each contest.
The Bruins fell to No. 5 in Monday’s edition of Baseball America’s weekly rankings.
How far was the fall from grace for losing twice to a team that went just 9-15 in the Western Athletic Conference a season ago?
Three spots, exactly. Last season’s national runners-up were previously ranked No. 2 in the poll.
The Bruins (5-2) will get a chance to show the pollsters that they belong at the top again when they hit the road tonight for the first time this season, traveling to San Diego for a Tuesday night tango with San Diego State (1-5).
The game is slated to start at 6 p.m. which should come as a relief to UCLA fans as Saturday’s loss to San Jose State was pushed back from 2 p.m. to the calamitous 3 p.m. hour.
Junior infielder Dean Espy said UCLA can’t let the losses to San Jose State derail its focus this early in the season.
“We have a long road ahead of us, so we’ve gotta take the positives out of the weekend and move forward,” Espy said.
The Aztec program garners a lot of national attention with a Hall of Fame coach and a recent alumnus who went No. 1 in the 2009 MLB draft.
But under the direction of “Mr. Padre,” coach Tony Gwynn, San Diego State has managed to go just 233-236 in his eight years as coach.
The Aztecs’ last NCAA Tournament appearance came when that former No. 1 pick, Stephen Strasburg, went 13-1 as a starter.
Both Rodriguez and coach John Savage called the San Jose State series a “learning weekend.”
All-American junior pitchers Trevor Bauer and Gerrit Cole combined to give up seven earned runs.
Tonight, UCLA will turn to sophomore right-handed pitcher Scott Griggs for his second start of the season.
Griggs earned his first career victory a week ago, throwing four shutout innings, when the Bruins beat Pepperdine 9-0.
Even after the Bruins belted 22 hits in Sunday’s win over the Spartans, Savage said there’s still work to be done at the plate.
“We need to get on track offensively,” Savage said.
“Guys are getting worn down mentally a little bit, and they’re struggling. … We need to physically swing the bats better and mentally, (the players) need to make sure that they’re in tune with what we want them to do.”
UCLA and San Diego State did not play in 2010 but split two midweek games in 2009. The Bruins stole a road win in San Diego, using a five-run eighth inning to beat the then-No. 15 Aztecs.
This time around, it’s the Bruins who are ranked heading into tonight’s game at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
“We have to expect everyone’s best game,” Rodriguez said.
“We can get beat any time. We’re not invincible.”
With reports from Ryan Eshoff, Bruin Sports senior staff.
