Baseball hopes to snap Tuesday losing streak against Long Beach State
Sophomore Cody Keefer and the Bruins will take on Long Beach State tonight at Jackie Robinson Stadium after losing their two previous Tuesday night games.
By Ryan Eshoff
April 12, 2011 12:36 a.m.
Consider it a miracle if John Savage has any fingernails left at the end of the 2011 baseball season.
As coach of the UCLA baseball team, Savage has already overseen what has seemingly been a season’s worth of close games. The No. 23 Bruins (16-11) have lost just three times by more than two runs, and nine of their wins have been by three runs or fewer.
All that adds up to a less-than-stellar record that could easily be 20-7. Or 12-15. The reasons for the nerve-wracking contests are plenty ““ a strong starting rotation, an inconsistent offense affected by NCAA regulations on bat performance, an inexperienced bullpen and an extremely competitive conference and region.
UCLA, which hosts Long Beach State tonight, will continue to seek out ways to buck that trend. The two most flexible contributing areas ““ porous hitting and shaky late-game execution ““ are two of the team’s primary subjects of focus.
“We’re just going to come out and play Bruin baseball,” sophomore outfielder Cody Keefer said. “That’s what we try to do every time. We’ve just got to work on finishing the game out and not losing it in the ninth inning as we’ve shown the past couple of games.”
Each of the Bruins’ two most recent losses has involved ninth-inning rallies by the opposition. UCLA failed to lock up a weekend sweep of Washington State on Sunday when the Cougars came back from a 2-0 deficit with three runs in the final frame against a trio of Bruin pitchers.
That defeat came less than a week after UCLA gave up the tying run ““ unearned ““ in the bottom of the ninth against UC Riverside, then went on to lose in the bottom of the 11th.
The Riverside game proved to be a busy one for the UCLA pitching staff; Savage went with a committee approach and used seven different pitchers. Freshman Zack Weiss got the start and went three shutout innings before yielding to the bullpen.
The rookie right-hander will get the nod once more against Long Beach State, albeit with a longer leash.
“We’re going to let him go a little longer than we did last week,” Savage said. “We’re having a tough time finding innings for everybody. We tried to throw a lot of different guys Tuesday, and we almost pulled it off.”
Whoever ends up on the mound will likely have to grind things out against a Long Beach State team (16-14) known for its scrappiness. The Dirtbags haven’t shied away from playing the toughest competition that the country has to offer; UCLA will be the seventh Pac-10 team that they’ve played this season.
A year ago, the two schools split the two-game season series, with each team winning at the other’s home ballpark. Both of those games were blowouts, with UCLA winning 10-1 and Long Beach State returning the favor with a 16-4 shellacking of the Bruins later in the season.
Given the early results of this season, though, the likelihood of seeing scores like that is awfully slim. Expect another nail-biter.
“It’s a big game for us,” Savage said. “Long Beach State is a very good team. We’re looking to get back in the win column Tuesday.”
