By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Contributor
UCLA senior Aldo Pinto was making history Tuesday night, playing
his ninth position of the game.
As the crowd cheered him on, Pinto delivered a pitch to Long
Beach State rightfielder Chuck Lopez. Lopez stepped in, ripped his
bat through the strike zone and drove the ball to deep center.
Pinto turned his head, well aware that the bases were loaded. To
his relief, teammate Charles Merricks was there to make the catch
and seal the 17-6 win for the UCLA baseball team (31-22).
For Pinto, a utility player who had seen limited action
throughout the year, the game against Long Beach State (29-21) may
have been the last he would ever enter wearing a UCLA uniform. With
only conference games and the NCAA playoffs remaining on the
Bruins’ schedule, Pinto may not play again this season.
“I was just having fun out there,” he said.
“I’d say it was my second best memory here at UCLA,
behind making the (1997) College World Series.”
UCLA head coach Gary Adams had prepared Pinto’s send-off
for quite some time. He thought he could play Pinto at every
position during the Bruins’ last non-conference game of the
season, but hesitated because he was not sure how the team would
react. Never in his 31 years of coaching had Adams tried anything
like it.
On the day of the game, Adams met with the three team captains
““ leftfielder Bill Scott, second baseman Chase Utley and
relief pitcher Chad Cislak ““ and went over the idea with
them. They liked it. The rest of the team, which was consulted
shortly thereafter, did as well.
“I thought it was great,” Utley said.
“Aldo’s been here four years and he’s done a
great job. We owed it to him.”
Come game time, UCLA went out swinging. 49er starting pitcher
Chad Bentz was knocked out in two innings, as UCLA scored four
runs.
Reliever Bob Cremer’s stint on the mound was even shorter.
In his single frame of work, Cramer gave up four runs, including
two driven in by a Pinto double.
The UCLA attack did not slow down, though. Through the first
six, the Bruins had scored in each inning and were ahead, 12-2.
“They took it to us,” Long Beach State head coach
Dave Snow said. “They really swung the bats.”
On the defensive end, while Pinto was rotating around the field,
UCLA got stellar pitching performances from junior Nick Lyon and
freshman Mike Kunes.
Lyon, a rightfielder hitting .341, made his pitching debut by
starting the game. Adams had seen him throw in the bullpen on
several occasions and wanted to see what he could do in a game
situation. Lyon went two innings and yielded just one run.
Kunes, who followed, blanked the 49ers over the next three
innings. He wound up being charged with five earned runs in six
innings, but four of those came on a grand slam by Long Beach State
rightfielder Jeff Jones.
In the bottom of the eighth, UCLA extended its lead, adding five
more runs. During the rally, Utley recorded his sixth hit of the
night and Scott hit his team-leading 21st home run of the season.
Designated hitter Forrest Johnson followed Scott by hitting his
19th homer.
Heading into the ninth with UCLA up, 17-6, Pinto replaced Kunes
as the pitcher. Although a pair of errors and a walk loaded the
bases, Pinto got out of the game unscathed.
After Merricks caught the fly ball to end the contest, Pinto was
engulfed by his teammates.
“He’s done an awful lot for this program,”
Adams said, pausing a second to note that Pinto became the first
player in school history to play all nine positions in one game.
“He’s been a team guy all the way through. I’m
going to miss him.”
Pinto’s teammates, in the meantime, were pleased with the
gift they gave the senior.
“I hope he had fun out there,” Scott said. “He
looked like he did.”