UCLA baseball's offense stalls in 3-0 loss to San Francisco to open NCAA regional play
Junior pitcher Gerrit Cole walks toward the lockers after UCLA’s 3-0 loss to San Francisco at Jackie Robinson Stadium on Friday.
By Daily Bruin Staff
June 3, 2011 10:26 p.m.
Coming off one of its most productive offensive weekends of the season, the UCLA baseball team picked a bad night to sputter at the plate. With first-round draft prospect junior Gerrit Cole on the hill, run support was at a premium.
The Bruins mustered just four hits to open NCAA regional play Friday with a 3-0 loss at Jackie Robinson Stadium. San Francisco sophomore Kyle Zimmer kept UCLA guessing all night in his first career complete-game effort, striking out 11 and allowing just one extra base hit.
“Zimmer was as good as we’ve seen all year,” said John Savage, coach of the No. 17 Bruins. “After the firrst inning, we knew there would be a lot of strikeouts tonight. They were the more aggressive team.”
UCLA was able to mount a two-out rally in the bottom of the ninth inning by loading the bases, but sophomore home run leader Cody Regis was left looking at the final strike to end the game, a pitch that painted the outside corner of the plate. Regis tried to make a case that the pitch was too far outside, but home plate umpire Tony Carilli wouldn’t hear it.
“There were a lot of strikes being called on both sides,” Savage said. “We just didn’t fight enough pitches off with two strikes. You have to fight those pitches off. You can’t stand there with your bat on your shoulder and two strikes.”
The Dons’ junior first baseman Nik Balog said his team was helped by the trip it made to open the season at Jackie Robinson Stadium, when it was swept by the Bruins.
“I did think that helped us quite a bit,” Balog said. “They were the same guys we faced at the beginning of the year. He’s still the same Gerrit Cole.”
Cole, in what was possibly his last game at Jackie Robinson Stadium, was at a loss for words when asked to sum up his home career, as he will surely be leaving UCLA in Monday’s Major League Baseball draft.
“No,” he said after surrendering a season-high 11 hits. “I’m just looking forward to tomorrow.”
UCLA will send recently named Collegiate Baseball Player of the Year, junior Trevor Bauer, to the hill Saturday to face off against No. 2 seed Fresno State. Fresno State was sent to the losers’ bracket by No. 3 seed UC Irvine in the early game Friday, losing a 12-6 decision.
Savage said he doesn’t feel like his team has an advantage with the Bulldogs never having faced Bauer. Their last trip to face the Bruins was the season opener in 2006.
“Not necessarily, there’s no advantage,” he said. “It’s two teams that lost the first day and are playing to stay alive. I don’t know what the advantage is.”
