After a sweep at Stanford, Bruins look to go Husky hunting in Seattle

One pitch at a time, one inning at a time, one game at a time. To not dwell on or be content with the past, while also not looking too far ahead. That has been the motto and the mantra of the Bruin baseball team this week going into this weekend’s series against Pac-10 foe, the Washington Huskies (15-11, 4-2 Pac-10).

The Bruins (13-14, 3-0 Pac-10) are coming off a sweep of Stanford in Palo Alto and are riding a season-high five-game winning streak. The team looks to stay mentally focused and prepared going into this weekend’s home stand, and hopes to continue what they have been doing well.

“Main focus is we’re just trying to carry over from last week,” sophomore catcher Ryan Babineau said. “We’ve been really concentrating on keeping our defense and pitching solid. That’s one of our main things. Just trying to do the same things and keep working hard, and it seems to be paying off so far.”

Coach John Savage echoed his catcher’s viewpoint, highlighting consistency on both sides of the ball as being key.

“This week, we are just trying to accomplish the mentality of playing defense and keep on executing offensively,” Savage said. “This weekend we have to play well to be able to keep up in the Pac-10 standings and make sure we take care of our ballpark. We did such a good job last year of winning every Pac-10 series at home and we want to continue that trend. We want to come out this weekend and play good baseball.”

Prior to the team’s winning streak, the Bruins were in the mires of another season-high: a six-game losing skid. However, the team has shown as of late that it has learned from that losing streak and has been able to bounce back with a vengeance.

“I think the main thing it shows is that you can’t just run out there and roll the dice,” Babineau said. “Just because you work hard in practice doesn’t always mean it’s going to carry over into the game.

“We knew that we had some adjustments that we needed to make, and I think that it is carrying over for us so far this week.”

Sophomore standout shortstop Brandon Crawford believes that the winning streak is more telling than the losing skid, and that the team has shown its true potential during the recent streak. That potential will need to be actualized for the Bruins to have success in the coming weeks.

“From the winning streak, we’ve learned that we can play with anyone,” Crawford said. “Stanford is a good team, they have always been a good team, and we swept them at their place. I think that it just proves it to us that we can beat anybody.”

In order to keep the wins coming, both players and coaches stress the importance of staying in the moment and taking care of business. Also, the team focuses on having all three of the key ingredients to success in good starting pitching, solid defense, and quality at-bats.

“It’s contagious,” Savage said. “I use the word contagious because last weekend we looked like a team that could really put up some numbers. … We really are a program that concentrates on winning that pitch and winning that inning.”

Going into the tough weekend against Washington, a team that took two of three from the Bruins last year, UCLA will play Pac-10 Pitcher of the Week, senior Tyson Brummett. It is the second time that the right-hander from Utah has won the award this year, and it is the third such award of his career. Both Brummett and the rest of the team were very excited with the award.

“It’s a good feeling and an honor,” Brummett said. “It’s a huge award. It is a confidence booster and makes you appreciate all the hard work when you get rewarded for something like that.”

“He deserves it,” third baseman Jermaine Curtis said. “He’s by far the best pitcher I have seen, and I’m glad that he is on our team.”

With the attitude that the team has, and the high level of play that they have been displaying, the Bruins hope to add another piece to their motto ““ one pitch at a time, one inning at a time, one game at a time, and one win at a time.