By Nick Taylor
Daily Bruin Contributor
UCLA needed someone to perform damage control, and Jon Brandt
answered the call.
Brandt threw six innings of one-hit relief as the Bruins stormed
back from a 6-1 deficit to win 8-7 against California Sunday. With
the victory, UCLA (30-22, 13-5 in Pac-10) took two of three from
the Golden Bears (25-27, 11-13), losing on Friday 13-7, but winning
on Saturday, 18-7.
“Jon was huge for us. We needed a guy to come in and stop
them. Jon shut “˜em down,” leftfielder Bill Scott
said.
Brandt, suffering from a horrible blister on his pitching hand,
entered the game in the fourth inning as Cal had UCLA on the ropes.
The Golden Bears knocked out Bruin starter Bobby Roe in the third
inning, and Kevin Jerkens fared no better, exiting after allowing
two runs in two-thirds of an inning. Cal was also bringing its
3-4-5 hitters to the plate with two on and nobody out.
Brandt hit Mike Tonis to load the bases, but forced Xavier Nady,
perhaps the best hitter in college baseball, to hit a grounder,
resulting in a double play.
“Brandt came up with a key pitch. He did a hell of a
job,” Cal coach David Esquer said.
Brandt retired the next batter, ending the inning and
“preserving” the five-run deficit. Preserving because
with six innings left, UCLA felt they still could come back.
“I knew we could creep back into it,” UCLA head
coach Gary Adams said. “They should have put us away today,
but we didn’t let them.”
Scott refused to let UCLA lose. He singled in his team’s
first run in the third. His two-run homer in the fifth cut the lead
to 6-3. In the seventh, he followed teammate Garrett Atkins’
two run homer with a solo shot, tying the game at six.
“We came together in the middle of the game. I was fired
up. I wanted to help the team out,” Scott said.
The Bruins took the lead in the eighth on Chase Utley’s
clutch two-out RBI single. Up until then, Brandt had thrown five
innings of no-hit, shutout ball. But Brandt didn’t stay
perfect.
He walked Nady with one out in the ninth, bringing Clint Hoover
to the plate. Hoover then hit a hanging splitter to right for a
triple, scoring Nady and tying the game. With one out and a runner
on third, Cal had a golden opportunity to take the lead.
But Brandt induced a shallow fly to center, forcing Hoover to
hold at third. With two out, Cal’s John Baker grounded to
deep short, where Josh Canales’ throw beat him by a step.
In the bottom half of the ninth, Jim Hemming and Charles
Merricks singled with one out to put the winning run on second.
After an out, Canales stepped up with the chance to win it.
Canales had bunted in his three previous at bats, twice to
sacrifice and once for a base hit. Though he may not have been the
man the Bruins wanted hitting with the game on the line, Canales
stroked a fastball down the rightfield line for the game
winner.
“It’s great to see Josh come through for us. It
couldn’t happen to a better guy,” Scott said.
Perhaps Canales was due for good fortune, because his three
errors on Friday aided the 13-7 UCLA loss.
In that game, the Bruins held a 6-2 lead but couldn’t hold
it. Cal scored five runs to lead, 7-6, but UCLA tied it in the
bottom of the seventh.
Then the wheels fell off. Cal scored six runs in the eighth but
only one was earned, as a key Canales error led to five unearned
runs.
UCLA rebounded the second game to pound Cal, 18-7. The Bruins
hit six home runs, including two by Atkins and Forrest Johnson.
Sophomore Josh Karp pitched five innings for the victory despite
allowing seven runs. Paul Diaz provided pleasant relief, throwing
four innings of one-hit, scoreless ball.
With the win, UCLA stay a half-game behind Stanford in the
conference race, even though the Cardinal has one more loss than
the Bruins. California fell two games under .500 in the conference
and overall, likely ending their season. Had they won on Sunday,
the Bears would have been .500 in conference ““ probably
enough to get them into the tournament.
“It’s a tough loss for us,” Esquer said.
“(To finish 25-27) is a little disappointing, but UCLA is a
very good team. They deserve to be in the playoffs. We had chances
today, but we couldn’t add to the lead.”
Adams, on the other hand, can rest a little easier.
Second-guessed for his coaching decisions all year long, he
resisted pitching Brandt many innings on Tuesday. That allowed
Brandt to throw effectively, bailing the team out when they needed
it most.