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UCLA baseball hopes to improve its performance as it awaits the decisions of the MLB draft picks

Third-year pitcher Trevor Bauer was recently picked No. 3 overall by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the Major League Draft. Bauer completed the 2011 season with a 1.25 earned run average and 13 wins.

By Daily Bruin Staff

June 20, 2011 2:42 a.m.

UCLA baseball coach John Savage isn’t the daydreaming type.

He meets every visitor to his office at Jackie Robinson Stadium with a firm handshake and a casual, “What’s up?” He’s conversational, but make no mistake about it, Savage gets to the point.

It was out of character, then, for Savage to be gazing off into the distance in the postgame press conference that followed UCLA’s 4-3 loss to UC Irvine in the NCAA Los Angeles Regional.

He might have been replaying Anteater junior catcher Ronnie Shaeffer’s walk-off single that but the Bruins’ season to bed. He could have been coming to grips with losing the two best pitchers Westwood has ever seen ““ Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer, who were recently picked No. 1 and No. 3 overall in the Major League Draft. He could have been pondering how UCLA’s season was over in early June after a preseason No. 2 ranking and a deep Omaha run just 12 months prior.

But Savage was thinking about the future, about the three freshman pitchers who limited the opposition to 11 hits over the course of two elimination games that day.

“I was just thinking of (Adam) Plutko, (Zack) Weiss, (Nick) Vander Tuig and the future,” Savage said when brought back to earth. “Those are the new Coles and Bauers.”

Plutko, Weiss and Vander Tuig. It doesn’t have quite the ring to it that “Cole and Bauer” does but it’s shaping up to be UCLA’s starting rotation for the 2012 season.

Plutko, this season’s Sunday starter, breezed through the rigors of the Pac-10 schedule. He finished the season with a 2.01 earned run average, second only to Bauer, and allowed just over six hits per game.

A former sixth-round draft pick of the Houston Astros, fans can expect to see Plutko taking over for Cole on Fridays. Weiss will move from Tuesdays to the weekends and Vander Tuig will go from closer to starter. Savage admitted that Vander Tuig’s role as the closer this season was something that he “wasn’t totally used to.”

Vander Tuig struggled at times in that role. He blew leads against UC Riverside and Stanford in the regular season and again in the final game of the season. He did, however, finish the season with nine saves. Savage reiterated the tremendous amount of trust he had in Vander Tuig after the UC Irvine loss but he’s not the only one singing Vander Tuig’s praises.

“He’s had his struggles just like everyone else but I’m telling you, there aren’t many guys better than him out there,” said Plutko, whose outings were often followed by a Vander Tuig save. “I feel 100 percent confident every time he goes out there.”

It wasn’t all roses after the season ended, though. The Bruins ranked No. 4 in the NCAA in team ERA and pitching was certainly their strong suit but they ranked No. 245 in batting average and No. 166 in hits. They left 480 men on base throughout the season and it seemed that a lack of clutch at bats limited them throughout the year.

“That was really the story of our season,” Savage said. “We could not get people in. It seemed like we’d get them on, but at the end of the day we just, for whatever reason, didn’t produce enough runs for how many base runners we had.”

A large portion of UCLA’s strongest hitters will be back for the 2012 campaign. Four left-handed rising junior hitters ““ Beau Amaral, Cody Regis, Cody Keefer and Jeff Gelalich ““ will return next season as will rising sophomores Brenton Allen, Kevin Williams and Pat Valaika who showed signs of offensive promise.

The big unknown will be whether or not Savage can convince his former juniors who were drafted in the MLB Draft to come back for their senior campaigns. UCLA had nine players drafted in all but just Cole and Bauer went in the first round.

Catcher Steve Rodriguez and first baseman Dean Espy were both selected in the 15th round while pitcher Mitchell Beacom, second baseman Tyler Rahmatulla, shortstop Adrian Williams, right fielder Chris Giovinazzo and pitcher Brandon Lodge were all selected in the 20th round or below. The deadline to decide between signing with an MLB team or coming back to school is Aug. 15.

Returning players aren’t the only ones Savage will try to lure away from signing. Four freshman that UCLA inked to its 2012 recruiting class were selected in the draft as well. Righty Joe Ross was taken 25th overall and Tyler Goeddel was selected 41st overall while catcher Austin Hedges was picked in the second round. Kevin Kramer, another right handed pitcher, was taken in the 25th round.

Ross would be just the second player in UCLA history to turn down first-round money to come to school. The first? A guy by the name of Gerrit Cole.

Regardless of who will make up the team, Gelalich hopes he and his teammates will use this season as motivation for the 2012 campaign.

“We’re disappointed we didn’t get to where wanted to go,” Gelalich said. “I know that guys who will be coming back will remember this and will hopefully learn a lot from this.”

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