Brandt comes through for key win in his hometown

By Adam Karon

Daily Bruin Contributor

PALO ALTO, Calif. ““ Coming home is always relaxing. You
get to sleep in your own bed, eat homemade food, see old friends
and, in the case of UCLA pitcher Jon Brandt, come into a tie game
to beat the No. 2 baseball team in the country on their own field
in front of a record crowd.

Entering Friday night’s game in the seventh inning with
the score tied, Brandt held Stanford hitless for three innings and
gave the Bruins a chance to win the game 10-9 on a wild pitch in
the ninth inning.

“It’s nice to get the first one,” UCLA head
coach Gary Adams said of the win, which clinched a share of the
Pac-10 championship for the Bruins. “It takes a little more
pressure off us.”

Speaking of pressure, how about the pressure of pitching in
front of a Sunken Diamond regular season record 4,080 fans that
included family and friends? Brandt grew up in Palo Alto and as a
child went to games at Sunken Diamond to watch the Cardinal play.
He pitched for Palo Alto High School, literally across the street
from Stanford University. Without a doubt, the Stanford series was
one Brandt looked forward to all year long.

Despite that, Brandt knows he is a Bruin at heart. Standing in
the dugout before the start of Friday’s game, he looked at
Adams and said, “I’m really glad I’m standing on
this side of the diamond, skip.”

And the Bruins were glad to have him. Brandt has helped
stabilize a bullpen that was shaky earlier in the year. Friday was
a whole different story as the pen kept UCLA in the game. After
starter Josh Karp was roughed up a bit, Scott Arrasmith came in and
pitched a scoreless sixth. Adams then handed the ball, and the
game, to Brandt.

“It was important, I wanted to put on a good show for my
family and friends,” Brandt said. “It was even more
important for our team, giving us a shot to win the Pac-10
outright.”

The senior succeeded in spectacular fashion, holding Stanford
hitless in the seventh and eighth innings.

After the Bruins scored in the ninth, Brandt was forced to face
the meat of the Cardinal order.

He quickly fell behind Stanford slugger Edmond Muth. But using
pinpoint precision and a question mark-shaped curveball, Brandt
struck out Stanford’s leading home run hitter and silenced
the Stanford faithful.

“When he got Muth out to lead off the inning, I said,
“˜That’s it, we’re gonna win this
one,'” Adams said. “Those were great pitches,
outstanding pitches and they were all curveballs.”

Next up was the Cardinal’s second leading power hitter,
Joe Borchard. Again Brandt fell behind, and again he showed
confidence in his breaking ball, forcing Borchard into a weak
groundout to first.

“My curveball is my best pitch,” Brandt said.
“I have confidence in it, so I threw it when I needed it. I
knew I was going into the game to finish it.”

Minutes later Brandt enticed Stanford senior John Gall to ground
out, sending his Bruin teammates spilling onto the field to offer
congratulations.

“We needed him to be a bulldog coming out of the pen like
that,” UCLA catcher Forrest Johnson said. “All three of
his pitches were working. Coming back, playing in front of family
and friends, he wanted to have a good outing. He didn’t let
it bother him, didn’t let the pressure affect him at
all.”

With an Arizona State loss, Brandt’s victory on Friday
helped put UCLA in a position to win the Pac-10 title outright,
though Stanford took the next two to earn a share of the title and
ASU rebounded against Arizona to share it as well.

But for the unranked Bruins, who needed a strong showing in the
Stanford series before heading into postseason play, sharing the
title with two of the nation’s top teams may be just what
they needed to turn around an up-and-down season.

And they have a hometown hero in part to thank for it.