Pitchers handily give team home-win

UCLA 3 San Diego State 1

By Scott Bair
Daily Bruin Contributor

Traveling around the country is fun, but sometimes you long for
nothing more than home, sweet home.

A return to their home park, Jackie Robinson Stadium, was just
what the UCLA Bruins needed to cure their losing ways. The Bruins
(26-20) snapped an eight-game losing streak on Tuesday night when
they beat the SDSU Aztecs (27-21) 3-1.

The night displayed five Bruin pitchers who, combined, only
allowed a solitary run. Bobby Roe started the game with three
scoreless innings to set the tone.

“They were standing way off of the plate, so I started
them with outside fastballs that they couldn’t reach,”
Roe said. “Then I’d throw them junk late in the count
that they had no choice but to swing at.”

The Bruin offense was again fueled by sparkplug lead-off man
Josh Canales, who went 2 for 4 with two runs scored in the game.
Canales, who has been on a tear lately, has gone 8 for 16 over his
last four games and has been the catalyst for the Bruins’
run-manufacturing style of offense.

That style was evident in today’s game. Designated hitter
Brian Baron knocked in two runs without even getting a hit,
including a deep sacrifice fly to score shortstop Preston Griffin
from third in the fifth.

Just because Baron, the nation’s leading hitter,
didn’t notch a hit doesn’t mean that he didn’t
hit the ball hard. He hit a rocket into the right-center field gap
and was robbed of an extra base hit by a diving Sean Pierce. Pierce
got a great jump on the ball and dove at full speed to make the
catch.

The lead could have extended by one if it weren’t for the
arm of left fielder Ben Leuthard, who threw out Matt Pearl at the
plate in the first inning. To get Pearl, Leuthard had to make a
perfect throw, and he hurled a strike right into the glove of
catcher Brian Manfred and right in front of a sliding Pearl to
prevent a Bruin run and record the third out of the opening
frame.

San Diego State got its lone run off of reliever Mike Davern in
the top of the sixth. Center fielder Rah-Miel Mitchell started the
Aztec rally with a one-out double to the right-center field gap.
Shortstop Taber Lee followed Mitchell’s hit with a base-knock
of his own and put an end to Davern’s night. After a
one-batter appearance by Chris Cordiero, Mike Kunes took over on
the mound. New left fielder Andy Litteral made the most of his at
bat, getting a base hit to drive in Mitchell from second.

Kunes killed the Aztec rally with a huge strike-out of clean-up
hitter Jacob Minter to secure the Bruin lead.

After the lone run, the Bruin pitching staff, backed by a solid
defensive effort from a starting nine that did not give up an
error, bared down and played solid fundamental baseball to secure
the 3-1 victory.

“It’s good to be home,” Canales said.
“Now we have to win some ball games and help ourselves out to
make the postseason.”

“¢bull; “¢bull; “¢bull;

Before the game the Bruins voted senior shortstop Josh Canales
and senior starter Paul Diaz as captains of the team.