UCLA baseball’s win streak broken in series victory over Arizona State
Sophomore infielder Kevin Williams hit a walk-off home run to help the Bruins win the first game of their series against the Sun Devils this weekend.
By Mansi Sheth
March 19, 2012 10:54 a.m.
The race turned into a marathon for the UCLA baseball team Sunday.
Because of Saturday’s stormy weather, UCLA completed its weekend series against Arizona State with a doubleheader Sunday, playing nearly seven hours of baseball at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
“It was a mentally draining day, a long, strenuous day,” said sophomore second baseman Kevin Williams. “I ache a little bit, and it was tough to keep it up, but I think we stayed focused.”
UCLA fought through the mental exhaustion to come up with a big 2-1 series win in its Pac-12 Conference opener.
“They are going to be part of the top five teams in the Pac-12. They are every year, so to win a series against Arizona State was a good test for us, especially after going on the road and then playing in a big place like Dodger Stadium,” said sophomore pitcher Adam Plutko, who started for UCLA on Friday. “I think we really handled this past week and a half really well.”
Williams led UCLA past Arizona State on Friday, hitting a solo walk-off homer off closer Jake Barrett to propel UCLA to a 6-5 victory and extend its win streak to 12.
“I had two strikes, and I was just trying to put a good swing on a ball and put it in play,” Williams said. “He threw me an elevated fastball, I got the bat to it, and I guess the rest is history.”
Williams was in a similar bottom-of-the-ninth, two-out situation in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader.
With No. 9 UCLA (15-4, 2-1 Pac-12) down 4-3 with a man on second, Barrett struck out Williams to help No. 11 Arizona State (12-7, 1-2) even the series at one apiece.
The Bruins won the final game 4-2 behind freshman pitcher Grant Watson, who gave up two runs in six innings to improve to a spotless 5-0.
UCLA quickly took control of the second game of the doubleheader, going up 3-0 in the second. Arizona State countered with two in the fourth inning, but was held scoreless after that. An RBI single from junior right fielder Jeff Gelalich in the sixth inning padded the Bruins’ fragile lead to two.
Even though UCLA was able to grind out a series win, all of the contests were decided by two runs or less, a margin the team had plenty of opportunity to widen this weekend.
The Bruins left a total of 22 runners stranded on base during the series compared to the 10 that the Sun Devils left.
“I thought we rushed a little bit during our at-bats. I thought we got a little bit antsy, but you also have to give the Arizona State pitchers some credit,” said coach John Savage.
“They made some big pitches. We weren’t as patient as we have been, and they took advantage of it. We had plenty of opportunities, but we just weren’t able to get that one big hit.”
UCLA continues its home stand Friday when it hosts Washington State in a weekend series.
“We just need to continue playing Bruin baseball and whatever it was that got us to that (12-game) win streak,” Plutko said. “That is our identity as a team. We just need to get at-bats, continue our pitching game and play good defense.”
