Tuesday, February 24, 1998
Defensive failings let upset slip through Bruins¹
fingers
BASEBALL: Top-ranked Stanford justifies rating by sweeping UCLA
series
By Kristina Wilcox
Daily Bruin Staff
Patience almost paid off for UCLA baseball fans on Sunday night
when the team loaded the bases with one out and was in the position
to tie the score with Stanford.
But Cardinal closer Tony Cogan slammed the door on the Bruin
rally by striking out cleanup hitter Eric Byrnes and forcing a
fly-out by Chase Utley.
Stanford (13-0-1, 3-0 in Six-Pac) swept the three-game series by
winning the finale, 12-9, showing why they are the top-ranked squad
in the nation.
Sunday¹s contest was delayed for three hours because of
rain and poor playing conditions on the field.
The 322 people who showed up for the game got in for free
because of the delay, and were treated to a closer game than the
previous two had been, 18-6 and 23-4.
As before, UCLA (7-7, 2-3) had the lead at some point in the
game but blew it because of poor infield fielding and struggling
pitching.
³If our pitching fails us, then the infield defense should
step up, but they didn¹t this weekend,² UCLA head coach
Gary Adams said.
In the case of Sunday¹s game, the Cardinal pushed two runs
across in the first inning, and the Bruins came back to tie in the
bottom of the inning. UCLA got the lead in the bottom of the
second, but Stanford came up with four runs on the top of the
third, and kept the lead for good.
³We¹ve done a really good job with the bat,²
Stanford head coach Mark Marquess said after the game.
Despite the relatively low-scoring battle between the two
squads, the series finale lasted for over four hours. Friday¹s
24-run blowout lasted 3:39 and Saturday¹s 23-4 fiasco was 3:42
long.
The bottom of the fifth inning was especially excruciating for
the fans and the UCLA bench, as the inning lasted thirty minutes
overall.
Cardinal reliever Justin Wayne (2-0) labored meticulously
against four batters. He worried consistently about the baserunner,
Byrnes, throwing a countless number of times to first base. Before
the end of the inning, Byrnes worked his way over to third on a
stolen base and balk. But Wayne prevailed in the end, striking out
the last two batters.
In the meantime, jeers and cheers radiated from around the
stadium. The crowd jeered Wayne, hoping that he would speed things
up, while the UCLA bench eventually started cheering Wayne whenever
he made a move to the plate.
³It doesn¹t really faze me,² Wayne said about the
raucous fifth inning. ³I was trying to get guys out as quickly
as possible. If anything, the cheering pushed me a little harder,
making me throw the pitches I needed to throw.²
Stanford pitchers did what they had to all weekend  pitch
effectively, while UCLA struggled to keep up with the colossal
Cardinal squad.