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Baseball loses Stanford series as postseason approaches

Redshirt sophomore outfielder Christoph Bono scored one of UCLA’s seven runs in Friday’s win over Stanford, but the Bruins managed just two runs over the next two games, losing both. (Katie Meyers/Daily Bruin senior staff)

By Marion Patricio

May 5, 2014 1:19 a.m.

After a 7-2 win in the first game its series against Stanford, UCLA baseball lost the series, with a 5-0 shutout loss on Saturday and a 5-2 loss on Sunday.

“To win a Friday night game of Pac-12 and not be able to finish the series is disappointing,” said coach John Savage. “But I think (Stanford) played better than we did in the last two games.”

The weekend started off on a high note, with the Bruins scoring six runs right off the bat in the first inning.

“It was definitely a good thing that we set the tone early and jumped on them right away,” said redshirt sophomore outfielder Christoph Bono. “We’ve struggled with that at times this year, so it’s always good when that happens.”

Feeling like they secured the game, and maybe even the weekend, the Bruins became too satisfied, according to junior catcher Shane Zeile, and UCLA did not score another run until the eighth inning.

Sophomore pitcher James Kaprielian kept the Cardinal from scoring after the first inning, recording 10 strikeouts in the 6.2 innings he pitched on Friday.

Though the Cardinal managed one more run in the top of the eighth, freshman pinch hitter Brett Stephens singled in the bottom of the eighth inning, scoring Bono and making Friday’s final count 7-2.

The rest of the weekend did not play out this way, as the Bruins failed to put a single run on the board on Saturday.

UCLA found a foe in Cardinal pitcher John Hochstatter, as the Bruins could not figure out his pitching game throughout all nine innings, with only four Bruins managing to record hits.

“It’s never fun to get shut out,” Bono said. “We were just kind of playing into the pitcher’s hands. He was keeping the ball low and doing a good job of pounding the zone, but we were not helping ourselves out by swinging at too many of his pitches instead of being patient and looking for our pitch.”

The Bruins changed their approach on Sunday in hopes of stealing the series from the Cardinal, but were unable to execute at the plate, despite having runners on base in seven of their nine innings.

“We definitely got runners on base and that’s a plus,” Bono said. “That’s a good way to start the offense but we just needed to have some more clutch time at-bats with runners in scoring position.”

With this series loss, UCLA has three Pac-12 weekends – nine games – remaining to secure its chances at a postseason, and the Bruins are more motivated than ever to make the most of the next month.

“We know it’s coming down to crunch time but we can still get to where we want to go,” Bono said. “It’s just going to be up to us at this point, so we have to go out there and take it.”

Savage has told the team it is nowhere near done, and he knows the team has a lot of opportunities left with the volatility of this conference

“It’s never safe (in the Pac-12 conference) and that’s what makes this league so competitive and fun to be a part of,” he said. “We know what we’re up against but we’re not going to give up and we’re gonna battle with the guys we have.”

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Marion Patricio
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