Thursday, April 18, 1996
Season-high four homers cannot overcome AztecsBy Brian
Purcell
Daily Bruin Contributor
If it were a home run contest, the No. 13 UCLA baseball team
would have squeaked out a win against San Diego State last
night.
The Bruins hit a season-high four home runs, while the Aztecs
hit two. At the end of the game, however, the scoreboard read 8-7
Aztecs, and the Bruins were left scratching their heads about a
comeback that fell just short.
Prospects looked dim for UCLA (23-16 overall, 14-7 in Six-Pac)
when it fell behind 6-0 in the fourth inning. Instead of accepting
a dismal defeat, however, the Aztec lead seemed to awaken UCLA
bats.
The comeback started with two consecutive swings in the bottom
of the fifth inning. With two outs and runners on first and second,
catcher Tim DeCinces took a pitch deep the other way, sending it
well over the 365-feet marker in left-center field for a three-run
home run.
Troy Glaus immediately followed DeCinces’ homer with one of his
own, this one just to the left of straightaway center.
This quick power surge made the score 6-4 until the top of the
sixth, when SDSU All-American first baseman Travis Lee hit a
two-run home run to right-center field, putting the Aztecs up,
8-4.
"We just couldn’t get someone to put their finger in the dyke
when we needed it," said UCLA head coach Gary Adams. "We have some
guys really hitting the ball right now, but we didn’t get the stops
that we needed."
UCLA continued to peck away at SDSU’s lead, however, and it
continued to use the long ball to do it. Right fielder Eric Byrnes
lined a solo homer over the left field fence in the sixth inning to
cut the lead to 8-5, and Glaus hit a two-run seed in the seventh
that appeared to still be rising as it whistled over the
left-center field fence.
But Glaus’ second home run of the game was only enough to pull
the Bruins to within one, and despite advancing runners into
scoring position in both the eighth and ninth innings, they
couldn’t complete the comeback.
UCLA put runners on second and third with two outs in the ninth
inning, and had designated hitter Benny Craig coming to bat against
Aztec closer Desi Herrera. Craig has the biggest single hit of
UCLA’s season so far, a two-run pinch-hit home run to beat USC
earlier in the year.
This time around, however, Craig was the victim of questionable
umpiring, taking strike-three on a pitch that appeared to be well
below his knees. Herrera had his third save of the season, and the
Aztecs had a win that moved their record to 28-17-2 on the
season.
Ryan O’Toole (2-3) started on the mound for UCLA and was saddled
with the loss. He allowed just six hits and two earned runs in his
three and two-thirds innings of work, but he was out of the game
before Bruin bats started clicking.
UCLA has now lost four of its last five games heading into what
Adams calls an "extremely important series" against Arizona State
this weekend. The Bruins are still solidly in second place in the
Six-Pac, four games ahead of third-place Stanford, and one game
behind first-place USC.
"I like our position in league, but I’d feel a lot better if we
were winning more games recently," Adams said of his team’s current
mini-slide. "Hopefully we’ll put it back together this
weekend."
FRED HE/Daily Bruin
Despite pitching decently, starting pitcher Ryan O’Toole was
tagged with Wednesday’s loss.