UCLA baseball to play for pride in last games of season
Redshirt sophomore catcher Justin Hazard (left) talks with sophomore pitcher Cody Poteet (right). While pitching didn’t struggled often this season, the Bruins have been eliminated from contention for the playoffs and will now just be playing for pride. (Katie Meyers/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By Marion Patricio
May 13, 2014 1:27 a.m.
With only seven games left, and after having been eliminated from playoffs contention, UCLA is heading into the home stretch with thoughts of rebuilding its team for next year.
But the Bruins intend to play these last few games with as much pride as it takes to wear the UCLA logo across their chests.
“You’re going to see us playing for pride,” said redshirt sophomore catcher Justin Hazard. “That is what the coaches were preaching and from now on it’s about playing for pride.”
On Tuesday night, UCLA (23-25-1, 10-14 Pac-12) will head down to Irvine to face No. 24 UC Irvine (34-16) in its last midweek game, looking to defend its dignity.
“We got them earlier in the season, but they’re a really hot team right now,” Hazard said. “So we’re going to come out, stick to our plan, believe in it and hopefully start, maintain, and finish the whole game.”
However, streaks are not in their favor as the Bruins are coming from a six-game losing streak, while UCI lost two games just this weekend to end its winning streak.
Over the past three weeks, the Anteaters won nine of their last 11 games, beating teams like USC and UC Santa Barbara, both of which UCLA struggled with earlier this season.
“We’re still playing to win and we’re not going to take the day off because we know what UCI is capable of,” said sophomore infielder Trent Chatterton. “They’re a good program, so we’re going to come out playing hard.”
In their usual approach, the Bruins will not focus too much on their opponents’ stats or streaks, as they continue working on strengthening their bullpen and hoping that the rest will follow, according to coach John Savage.
Their pitching staff has been excelling over the past few weeks with junior Grant Watson, redshirt sophomore Jake Ehret, and freshmen Scott Burke and Nick Kern combining their efforts last Tuesday to throw five innings of shutout relief.
Savage expressed his satisfaction with the starting pitchers’ performances, saying they all played very well this past weekend.
“I hope we can build off that and make sure that our bullpen is ready to go this week,” he said.
Savage has a lot of confidence in the team’s designated midweek pitcher, as freshman Grant Dyer has a 3.55 ERA and a 1.348 WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched), after winning six of his 10 starts on the mound.
For now, the team will go out and try to find its footing in these last few weeks of play.
“(We expect) to come out with a team that is going to be playing good baseball and a team that, we feel, is going to turn it around,” Savage said. “We’ve lost six in a row so now it’s time to go play baseball.”
