Baseball team focuses on its final nonconference matchup against UC Irvine while keeping its eye on postseason play
Freshman pitcher Zack Weiss will take the mound tonight against UC Irvine. Weiss has a 2.72 ERA and a 5-2 record through seven starts. This will be UCLA’s last nonconference game of the regular season.
By Daily Bruin Staff
May 24, 2011 1:18 a.m.
Let’s try this again.
A critical late-season, midweek matchup against an opponent from last year’s playoffs. The hope is that there will actually be a game this time around.
When UCLA (31-20) faces UC Irvine (37-14) tonight, it will be the Bruins’ first midweek game in a fortnight. It wasn’t by choice though: UCLA’s scheduled tilt with Cal State Fullerton last week was canceled because of electrical issues at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
It will be the first of four consecutive road games to close out the regular season for the Bruins, who have very little margin for error as they seek to maximize their postseason seed and potentially earn the opportunity to host a regional.
As tough as it may be, the Bruins will have to avoid looking ahead to their season-ending series at Arizona State this weekend. While that series could help determine the Pac-10 champion ““ and regional hosts ““ there is still the matter of boosting the postseason resume against a team like the Anteaters.
“We’re not focused on ASU right now, we’re focused on Irvine,” freshman closer Nick Vander Tuig said. “We’ll just take it game by game, keep getting better this week and hopefully take care of business.”
In UC Irvine, UCLA can find a near carbon copy of itself. The Bruins, ranked No. 23 in Monday’s Baseball America Top 25, and the Anteaters, ranked No. 24, have had similar season arcs and have boasted similar rankings throughout much of the year.
When the two teams first met in Westwood on April 26, the then-No. 24 Bruins defeated the Anteaters 6-1. UCLA got a terrific start from freshman pitcher Zack Weiss, who went seven innings and gave up just one unearned run.
As it turns out, Weiss might have missed out the most on last week’s Fullerton game being canceled. With the postseason looming, the freshman needs to get as many important innings under his belt as he can.
“We need to play Tuesday, we need to get Weiss an outing,” coach John Savage said. “He missed that Tuesday outing, which would have been good for him to get one in.”
Count last Tuesday as a lost opportunity any way you flip it. A missed chance at getting some more innings for Weiss, or knocking off one of the Bruins’ nemeses, or getting the inconsistent offense more critical at-bats.
It’s late in the season, but don’t think that the Bruins have any desire for additional time off.
“We need to get at-bats and gear up for the weekend,” Savage said. “It felt a little odd not playing in the midweek.”
UCLA will have to be ready to face an Irvine team that has been barreling toward the finish line. Although they lost the finale of their most recent weekend series against UC Riverside, the Anteaters have won 11 of their last 13.
The two teams are used to playing important games against each other; last season, the Bruins eliminated the Anteaters in the finale of the UCLA regional.
“We took Irvine earlier in the year, but they’ll be wanting to get us at their place,” Vander Tuig said. “We’ll be ready to play.”for
