Baseball seeks win in rematch against Pepperdine
Sophomore second baseman Trevor Brown and the Bruins play a non-conference game against the Pepperdine Waves in Malibu today. UCLA beat Pepperdine 9-0 earlier this year.
BASEBALL
Pepperdine
Today, 3 p.m.
Malibu
Listen live at UCLABruins.com
By Daily Bruin Staff
May 2, 2011 11:46 p.m.
The last time it played Pepperdine, the UCLA baseball team was ranked No. 2 in the nation and was coming off of a series sweep of San Francisco.
The Bruins laid the smackdown on the Waves, winning their fourth straight game, 9-0, to open the year.
What a difference two months makes.
UCLA, now unranked, takes to the road tonight for a rematch with Pepperdine almost three-quarters of the way through the season after a tumultuous couple of months.
There was the first sign of weakness, a series loss to San Jose State in late February. Then another series loss to Nebraska that featured three extra-inning games and not a lot of offense. After a 1-2 performance in the Dodgertown Classic, coach John Savage called his club “an average team.”
The start of conference play brought new life to the Bruins, who won four consecutive Pac-10 series, including two on the road at Washington State and USC. But those four series wins were followed by two straight losses.
The Bruins had Stanford down to its last strike before letting that game and series slip away, and last weekend saw a series loss to a battle-tested No. 3 Oregon State team.
A look at UCLA’s Pac-10 schedule shows its back-loaded nature. Recent Bruin-beaters Stanford and Oregon State are ranked in the top 25 and two of the Bruins’ three remaining Pac-10 matchups come against ranked teams.
None of that matters to sophomore second baseman Trevor Brown, though.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with our schedule,” he said. “I think we’ve just had a few mishaps here and there at the end of games where we couldn’t finish a few, but I don’t think it’s a big deal. I think we’re still playing well, and we’ve still got a legitimate shot.”
But it’s not just the ultra-competitive Pac-10 race that Brown has in his sights, because according to him, a win tonight means as much as it does on the weekends.
Each loss from here on out is more costly than the last for UCLA, which is fighting for postseason berths and seedings.
“We take non-league games just as seriously as we take league games,” he said. “We can’t look ahead to Oregon so we’ve got to go out and play Pepperdine just like we would play anyone else.”
“It’s a Tuesday game that we need to come out ready to play, and it’s in between league, but we need to focus on Pepperdine right now,” Savage added.
And you can bet the Bruins are hungry for some runs after being the victims of a no-hitter Saturday against Oregon State.
“We’ve got to come out and be ourselves and attack,” junior first baseman Dean Espy added. “We want to be the aggressor when we go over there.”
After a roller coaster ride of a season Brown remains sure of his and his teammates’ abilities.
“I think we’re as good as any team we play,” he said. “I think we have a legitimate chance at beating everyone we play, it just depends on how we go out and if we produce or not.”
