Bruin bullpen comes through

NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Staff Freshman Billy
Susdorf throws in a ball hit to the outfield early in
Tuesday’s 4-3 win against UC Riverside.

By Dylan Hernandez
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
[email protected]

This time, a UCLA reliever didn’t leave the mound toward
the end of the game with his head hung, cursing, punching the heel
of his glove in frustration.

Chris Cordeiro came close to departing the hill in such fashion
on a couple of occasions, but the sophomore righthander hung on
““ or, rather, willed his way on ““ to give the Bruins a
4-3 win over UC Riverside in front of 259 devoted fans at Jackie
Robinson Stadium on Tuesday night.

Cordeiro inherited the one-run lead when he entered the game in
the seventh inning with two out and a man on third, seemingly being
set up for unavoidable failure.

The former starting pitcher was, after all, now part of the UCLA
bullpen, a collection of pitchers loved only by their mothers and
opposing hitters. They don’t save games, they put torches to
them. They make Bruin head coach Gary Adams clutch his heart and
leave pitching coach Gary Adcock scratching his head.

But on this night, disaster was averted and UCLA improved to
25-29 while dropping the Highlanders to 29-23.

Cordeiro got out of the seventh unscathed and closed the game in
the ninth after allowing another baserunner to reach third.

“I just had to bear down,” said Cordeiro, the last
of five relievers put in the game by Adams. “I couldn’t
think about (being nervous) out there.”

“I liked the way all of our pitchers pitched
tonight,” Adams said. “There were a couple of (leadoff)
walks that aggravated me, but besides that, they did their
jobs.”

Starter Mike Kunes threw two frames of scoreless ball for the
Bruins, who opened the score in the bottom of the first when Josh
Arhart singled home Rashad Parker.

Kunes was replaced by David Johnson, who was roughed up a bit,
yielding a pair of runs over the next two innings.

UCLA scored in both the fourth and fifth to gain a temporary
advantage.

Scott Powis homered off Bruin Kyle Wilson in the top of the
sixth, but Adam Berry scored the go-ahead-for-good run in the
bottom of that inning.

Powis would be the last Highlander to cross home, as Mike
Castillo, Daniel Reid and Cordeiro blanked UC Riverside over the
final three innings of the contest.

“Our relief pitching came through today,” first
baseman Wes Whisler said. “Everyone was on top of their
game.”

Wilson (2-0) earned the win and Cordeiro got the well-earned
save, his second of the season. The Highlanders’ starting
pitcher, Jaymie Torres, was charged with the loss.

Next up for UCLA is a three-game homestand against Stanford
(35-15), the No. 7 team in the country. The first of those games
will start at 6 p.m. on Friday. Saturday and Sunday’s
contests will begin at 1 p.m.