By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Contributor
In Saturday’s series opener against Arizona, the UCLA
baseball team beat the Wildcats and their star pitcher, Ben
Diggins. But before doing so, the Bruins went through their share
of pains.
The Bruins were well aware of who Diggins, the top-rated
prospect available in this June’s professional baseball
draft, was. From his 6-foot-6 frame, he could launch fastballs that
have been clocked as high as 98 miles per hour.
Bruin designated hitter Jim Hemming, thinking about what would
be coming at him on Saturday, had trouble sleeping on the eve of
the game. An incident during the summer of his sophomore year in
high school repeatedly ran through in his head.
Playing in a game against a team consisting of many Division
I-bound seniors, Hemming came to bat. On the mound was a
hard-throwing lefthander, hurling pitches in the 90 mph range.
Hemming, a left-handed batter, was hitting out of an open
stance. When one of the pitches was thrown toward him, he could not
get out of the way. The ball hit him square in the face.
For three weeks, Hemming had a black eye. His eye was bloodshot
and the seam marks remained imprinted on his cheek. He would
frequently get bloody noses. Hemming’s parents were worried
that he had fractured his skull.
“Don’t get hit in the face,” Hemming told
himself on Friday night, ignoring the unlikeness of that happening
since Diggins is right-handed. “This time it’ll be
worse.”
But once Hemming arrived at the ballpark on the day of the game,
the fear was gone.
“When you’re getting ready to play,” Hemming
said, “you’re too focused to be scared.”
Catcher Forrest Johnson, on the other hand, didn’t allow
himself to go to sleep the night before without having rid himself
of his fear.
“You can’t let it affect you,” he said.
“By the time you’re preparing mentally, you have to be
taking your normal approach.”
Leftfielder Bill Scott, in the meantime, never thought of the
possibility of being hit. He was too practical.
“You know, if a guy’s throwing that hard,
there’s no way I’m getting out of the way. It’s
no use worrying about it,” he said.
Worried or not, when the game started, the Bruins could not
touch Diggins. Delivering fastballs at 94 mph, he struck out five
of the first six hitters, including Johnson. Scott grounded out
weakly to short.
With two outs in the bottom of the second inning, Hemming came
up. He took a few heaters, then fouled a couple out of play.
As Diggins released the 3-2 pitch, Hemming knew he had his
chance: the ball was coming down the middle. His intuition was
right. He hit the ball perfectly, sending it over the wall in
right-center to give UCLA a 1-0 lead.
“I just reacted,” Hemming said. “You have to
start swinging as soon as the ball leaves his hand. It looked good,
so I swung.”
The home run halted Diggins’ momentum. He walked two
hitters in the following inning and by the fourth was no longer
even throwing in the 90s. The ridiculous amount of innings he had
thrown early in the year ““ 101 1/3 innings and four complete
games going into the contest ““ was taking its toll on the
pitcher.
“I’m sure I’m not throwing as well as I had
been earlier in the season,” Diggins said. “But we
needed those (early) wins and I had to pitch a lot.”
Against Diggins, whose fastball was now topping out at 88 mph,
the Bruins added another run in the fifth.
Second baseman Chase Utley hammered a triple into the right
field corner and was brought in by a Atkins single. Both hitters
had struck out in their first at-bats.
Diggins left the game after the sixth inning, having already met
his pitch count. He had yielded four hits and two runs, both of
which were earned. His team was down 2-0.
“We made Diggins throw a lot,” UCLA head coach Gary
Adams said. “That was our goal. Get him out of there and make
Arizona get in its bullpen.”
The plan worked. Although the Wildcats scored three runs, their
bullpen allowed three runs of its own and UCLA won the ballgame
5-3.
While UCLA may have gotten the best of Arizona’s pitching
ace on Saturday, Diggins will still strike fear in the hearts of
his opposition. Only next year, he may be doing it in a big league
uniform.