UCLA baseball to face standout hitter, unfamiliar opponent in Gonzaga

It’s that time of year again for UCLA baseball: the bye week in the Pac-12 conference schedule.

It’s a time of year when coach John Savage has to mix and match to find a nonconference team to fill the void.

“Each team gets a bye in our conference, and we have to try to fill that with somebody that’s gonna be good – and anybody’s that’s really available,” Savage said.

The last couple years, the available teams have been familiar Southern California foes: Long Beach State and Loyola Marymount. This year, Savage had to go outside the Golden State to find a nonconference team that shared the same bye week as the Bruins. That team is Gonzaga (20-21, 10-11 West Coast Conference).

“You look for West Coast Conference teams or Big West Conference teams to try to match up and see who has the bye during your time,” Savage said. “(The Bulldogs) happen to have their bye in the middle of their conference.”

Gonzaga has become a familiar opponent for the UCLA men’s basketball team over the years, but its baseball team is relatively foreign to Westwood. The Bruins last played the Bulldogs back in 2002, when Savage was still coaching at UC Irvine.

“We’re not as familiar with them as some of the teams in our conference,” Savage said. “You try to get scouting reports and you try to get any sort of video you can get on them.”

After looking at the scouting reports on Gonzaga, Savage pointed to one player who specifically stood out to him: Taylor Jones. The 6-foot-7-inch pitcher-turned-first baseman has exploded as a hitter after spending his first two collegiate seasons primarily in a pitching role. Jones currently ranks No. 4 in the nation with a .426 batting average and No. 26 in the nation with a .649 slugging percentage.

“Taylor Jones is swinging the bat really well,” Savage said. “He’s a guy that is hitting .426 … so those numbers are pretty impressive.”

On Friday night, Jones will go head to head with one of the nation’s best strikeout pitchers: UCLA’s James Kaprielian. The junior right-hander currently ranks No. 24 in the nation with his average of 11.09 strikeouts per nine innings. But what’s been Kaprielian’s biggest strength has also been a weakness at times, as high strikeout totals have sometimes forced him out of the game earlier than desired.

“There’s definitely times where I’m a little hard on myself and I try to get too fine with (my pitches),” Kaprielian said. “I try to make maybe the perfect pitch, and any pitcher can say they’re guilty for that.”

Kaprielian said he aims to develop more of an attacking approach instead of a pitch-perfect strategy moving forward, relying on the Bruin defense to have his back once the ball is hit.

“Definitely just going out there and trusting my defense … that’s what I need to do sometimes,” Kaprielian said.

As for the UCLA offense, sophomore outfielder Brett Stephens said the Bruin batters spent this week focusing on the basics after being held to two hits by Long Beach State starter Ryan Cruz on Tuesday.

“He did a really good job of keeping us off balance, throwing off-speed pitches while throwing fastballs,” Stephens said. “(We’re) just getting back to work, getting back to the details.”