Series wins leave UCLA only with questions, uncertainty

  EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Senior catcher
Josh Arharttags out a Gonzaga baserunner at the
plate. Unfortunately it was too little, too late as Gonzaga
defeated UCLA 14-10 on Saturday. UCLA d. Gonzaga
5-2, 10-14, 12-6

By Jeff Agase
Daily Bruin Staff

Plenty of questions surrounded the UCLA baseball team’s
first three-game series of the season.

What would the Bruins do to replace three weekend starting
pitchers? Would they have enough offensive firepower to stay in
high-scoring games? Who would throw out of the bullpen?

After a 5-2 win, a 14-10 loss, and a 12-6 win against Gonzaga
(1-2), just about the only thing for sure is that this team proves
to be a work in progress.

Consider Friday night’s home opener, during which junior
starter Mike Kunes scattered seven hits over five impressive
innings and yielded a single run.

Freshman reliever Kyle Wilson stepped in with four equally solid
stanzas and picked up the save.

The Bruin hitters parlayed a series of singles, a double and an
error into a three-run second to take the lead for the remainder of
the game.

After the 5-2 victory, Kunes said, “We’re going to
have to put it all together. We can’t rely just on pitching
one day and hitting another day.”

“I was trusting my stuff, and my fastball was flying out
of my hand, like normal,” Davern said.

“I was hitting my spots, then in the fourth they had a few
bloop hits, a few things didn’t go my way, then the next
thing you know it all starts to roll over,” he added.

Freshman designated hitter Wes Whisler came in for Davern and
managed all of eight pitches before Gonzaga took a 7-6 lead. Kevin
Jerkens replaced Whisler and closed out the inning with a fly ball,
but balked in the game-tying run in the sixth.

Freshman David Johnson replaced Jerkens and, like the rest of
the UCLA pitchers on the day, came in strong but couldn’t
keep the Bulldogs off the board.

Mike Castillo closed out a forgettable afternoon for the UCLA
staff.

UCLA head coach Gary Adams and the other coaches expect the kind
of growing pains Davern and the others suffered on Saturday. With
the departure of all three weekend starters, it will be tough to
get three fantastic performances every weekend. Still, they have
their sights set on five strong innings from every starter.

“We need to have our starters go five innings,”
Adams said.

“If they can get us into the sixth, then we’ll be
all right after that,” he continued.

On a positive note, the Bruins (2-2) got ten runs from a
surprising offense. Berry went 3-for-5 with a two run homer and
three RBI, and junior center fielder Ben Francisco went 3-for-4 and
scored two runs. Senior catcher Josh Arhart scored four times.

And in game three on Sunday, the Bruins jumped out to an 11-2
lead behind two Francisco home runs, including one base-clearing
grand slam in the sixth. And after sophomore Casey Janssen went
five strong innings, it appeared as though UCLA had put an entire
game together.

Doug Silva and Wade Clark allowed two home runs in four innings
but only four runs, and the Bruins doubled up on the Bulldogs,
12-6.

The pitching wasn’t quite as consistent as the hitting,
and it’s unclear whether or not they’ll be able to put
up double-digit run totals to bail out the pitching.

But for now, they’ve won their first series of the season
and have another 56 games to answer all the questions.