Baseball hopes to challenge Stanford in three-game weekend series

It will be a battle of the pitchers this weekend at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Coming into the weekend with a 2.37 ERA and .228 batting average against, No. 21 UCLA baseball (17-7, 6-3 Pac-12) will face off against No. 2 Stanford (22-3, 5-1). While the Bruins’ ERA and BAA are both good for second in the conference, the Cardinal edge them out with a 2.21 ERA and .200 BAA.

Stanford’s projected starter on Friday, pitcher Tristan Beck, has a 3.55 ERA and 34 strikeouts this season. Beck’s younger brother, starting pitcher Brendan Beck, will start Sunday. Brendan Beck looks to be the bigger concern for UCLA, sporting a perfect 4-0 record and a 1.63 ERA with just six walks allowed.

However, the Cardinal’s ace Kris Bubic will get the nod on Saturday. Bubic tops the conference leaderboards with a 0.96 ERA and a .150 BAA and was placed on the preseason watch list for the 2018 Golden Spikes Award.

“You have to take advantage of any opportunities you get offensively,” said coach John Savage. “They’ve got really legit pitching, and (Brendan) Beck and Bubic are two of the better guys in the country, so it’s going to be a tremendous challenge for us.”

Senior right-hander Jake Bird will take the mound for the Bruins on Friday, boasting a 1.39 ERA on the year. However, Bird has been limited to a 2-2 record this season, since 12 of the 19 runs he has allowed have been unearned.

Pitcher Zach Pettway will start for UCLA on Saturday having won four straight appearances. The freshman has gone at least five innings deep in all of his appearances this season, and his 2.23 ERA is good for 10th in the conference.

Despite Stanford being ranked No. 2 in the country, sophomore reliever Kyle Mora said his team is excited for the challenge.

“It’s all about who we are … and not about our opponent,” Mora said. “We’re fired up for that series.”

Junior pitcher Jon Olsen, who was hit in the face by a line drive in a match against USC, has been out for the last month after undergoing surgery to repair multiple facial fractures. With Olsen still out, Savage said the starter for Sunday is up in the air.

Savage said he hopes both Olsen and redshirt sophomore pitcher Kyle Molnar will be available next weekend in Utah, although they are not expected to return this weekend.

Freshman shortstop Kevin Kendall has started five of the last seven games for the Bruins, recording a .444 average in that span. The Bruins’ everyday shortstop sophomore Ryan Kreidler has been playing third base lately, opening up the starting job for Kendall. A recent addition to the lineup, Kendall was confident his team could compete with Stanford’s powerful staff.

“Staying true to who we are, just being ourselves – really, that’s all it is,” Kendall said. “As long as we do that, we’ll be in pretty good shape.”

UCLA scored just 2.3 runs per game from March 25 to March 31. The Bruins broke out of that slump Tuesday night, tallying 13 runs against the Lions, with Kendall’s 2-run home run leading the charge.

UCLA and Stanford kick off the three-game series Friday at 6 p.m., with the Bruins just two games behind the Cardinal in the conference standings.