Bruins go on hitting rampage against Matadors and Boilermakers

  NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Senior pitcher Jon
Brandt hurls the ball.

By Scott Bair
Daily Bruin Contributor

Many great baseball minds have said that hitting is contagious.
With the combined 22-run outbreak over the last two games, it is
safe to say that the Bruin offense has caught the virus.

The Bruins (14-7) played host to the Cal State Northridge
Matadors (14-8) and the Purdue Boilermakers (4-8) on Tuesday and
Wednesday, respectively, at Jackie Robinson Stadium. UCLA took both
games, downing CSUN 12-7 and Purdue 10-6.

During Tuesday’s matchup against the Matadors, things
started harmlessly enough, with no runners crossing home plate in
the first.

But the second inning turned out to be a different story. The
Bruins charged at the Matadors, who failed to snatch the red sheet
and get out of the way. They gave up eight runs in the bottom of
the second.

Twelve UCLA hitters came to the plate during the inning, using
two doubles, three singles and three walks to generate the
runs.

The Bruins weren’t satisfied with the second-inning
barrage, scoring a run in four of the next six innings. The final
run and the nail in the coffin came on junior catcher Josh
Arhart’s first home run as a Bruin, giving his team a 12-7
edge to finalize the score.

“The ball looked the size of a softball today. I’ve
been staying down on the ball and on that one, I found my
swing,” Arhart said.

The Bruins also took Wednesday’s game, flexing more of
their offensive muscle.

Again, UCLA traded last-minute heroics for early-inning offense.
The Bruins established an early lead on the Boilermakers, scoring
five runs in the first inning. The runs crossed the plate thanks to
four doubles, the first three of which came from the initial triad
of batters in the inning.

The Boilermakers responded with five runs of their own during
the first three frames, chasing Bruin spot-starter Mike Davern
after 2 1/3 innings.

Purdue’s offense evened the game at five in the third
inning on a single up the middle by designated hitter David
Harrell. That hit drove in two runs and capped a three-run inning
for the Boilermakers.

After Davern left the game, Bruin relievers Wade Clark and Kevin
Jerkins allowed just one run over the next 6 2/3 innings.

“We knew that our bats were going to hit, and once we got
up by four, I just wanted to make my pitches and wrap up the
game,”Jerkins added.

While the bullpen was silencing the Purdue offense, left fielder
Adam Berry and the Bruins continued to put runs on the board. Berry
drove in three of the last four runs himself, two on a
bases-clearing triple to right field in the seventh and the other
on a solo home run in the sixth. He finished a single away from
hitting for the cycle.

“I’m starting to feel a little better at the
plate,” Berry said. “I was in a slump for a while, but
now I think I’m ready to step up and help the team
again.”

Not only are the Bruins getting more production out of their
offense, the defense is starting to shore up as well. UCLA had two
errors over the last two games, in comparison to the eight they
gave away in three contests last weekend versus Arizona.

The Bruins still made defensive mistakes on Tuesday and
Wednesday, they reacted to them impressively.

Third baseman Randall Shelley made an error in the top of the
eighth that put runners on first and second with nobody out. On the
very next play, Shelley responded by going across his body to pick
up a tough grounder off Harrell’s bat, tag third and throw to
second for a double play. Shelley’s play kept a Purdue runner
from scoring and put an end to a possible late-inning rally,
securing the second Bruin win in a row.

“I couldn’t ask for any better response to losing
two games to Arizona,” UCLA Head Coach Gary Adams said.

The Bruins take their two-game winning streak into a 10-day
hiatus for final exams. The Bruins host Cal State Los Angeles at
Jackie Robinson Stadium on Sunday March 25.