Baseball prepares to face UC Irvine en route to being undefeated in midweek games
Junior right-hander Felix Rubi made his first start with UCLA baseball April 7 against Long Beach State. Rubi went five innings deep, allowing one earned run and recording four strikeouts. He had notched 5 1/3 innings of work out of the bullpen prior his start. (Andy Bao/Daily Bruin)
Baseball
UC Irvine
Tuesday, 6 p.m.
Irvine, California
No TV info
By Sam Connon
May 14, 2019 12:58 a.m.
The Bruins are one game away from finishing undefeated in midweek play.
No. 1 UCLA baseball (41-8, 19-5 Pac-12) will visit UC Irvine (31-15, 12-6 Big West) in its final Tuesday game of the season. The Bruins will have a chance to finish the season without a midweek loss for the first time since 2012 – a season in which they lost in the College World Series.
UCLA played UC Irvine in its final midweek game of that season as well, winning 6-2. The Bruins have played the Anteaters once already this season, winning 9-3 at home April 9.
“UCI’s a really good team. We just have to go in there and play our game and we’ll be fine,” said freshman centerfielder Matt McLain. “They’re a good team, a lot of tough guys, (we have to) go out there and compete.”
McLain went 0-for-3 in his last outing against the Anteaters, but he launched three home runs this weekend against Washington State.
The first matchup against UC Irvine was UCLA’s sixth midweek victory of the year. Now, the Bruins have a chance to win their 12th straight, dating back to last year.
Freshman right-hander Nick Nastrini started the first two midweek games of the season for UCLA, but he was ruled out for the season with thoracic outlet syndrome in March. Junior right-hander Ryan Garcia got one Tuesday start before he moved back into a weekend role and freshman right-hander Jesse Bergin took over the Tuesday hole for the next five weeks.
But when sophomore right-hander Zach Pettway went down with a forearm strain, coach John Savage elected to go with a starter-by-committee approach to midweek matchups. Both junior right-hander Felix Rubi and freshman right-hander Sean Mullen have gotten starts since then, but neither have topped 70 pitches.
“We just value Tuesday as much as any day of the week,” Savage said. “Those guys have done a really good job of beating a lot of good teams on Tuesdays.”
Mullen and Rubi have combined to allow two hits and one earned run as starters over the past two weeks.
Redshirt junior right-hander Jack Ralston was the Bruins’ Tuesday starter for the second half of 2018, owning a 6.44 ERA by the end of the season.
Ralston has moved into the Saturday role this year and has notched four straight starts of six-plus innings and one or fewer earned runs.
He won’t be back on the mound Tuesday, but he said midweek games are no different to the Bruins.
“The Pac-12 is a good conference, but I treat every series the same,” Ralston said. “I just go out there and try to win every single game.”
Savage said Rubi is expected to take the mound Tuesday, but that nothing is set in stone just yet.
First pitch Tuesday will be at 6 p.m. in Irvine, California.
Pitchers on road to recovery
Pettway was ruled out around four weeks ago, but Savage said he could possibly return by mid-June.
Nastrini will be re-evaluated Wednesday. Savage said he is feeling better and hopes the freshman will be back this season.
