NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Senior Jon Brandt unleashes a
pitch in a game against Arizona in March. UCLA 6,
Stanford 4 Stanford 9, UCLA 0
Stanford 11, UCLA 2
By Jeff Agase
Daily Bruin Reporter
A flash of excitement flared Saturday at Stanford’s Sunken
Diamond when the UCLA baseball team upset the Cardinal 6-4 in the
first game of a three-game series.
Unfortunately for the unranked Bruins (21-11, 4-5 Pac-10), the
No. 1 Cardinal (27-7, 7-2) quickly turned out the lights. Stanford
answered back in the second game of a Saturday doubleheader with a
9-0 thrashing and on Sunday with a convincing 11-2 win, leaving the
Bruins in the dark.
After a Friday rainout forced the Saturday twin bill, UCLA got
to work early on the Stanford pitching. Brian Baron slammed a
two-run homer over the center field fence to put two huge runs on
the board to start.
Pitching from both squads held the offenses in check until the
top of the fifth, when Bruin second baseman Josh Canales singled
and was advanced to second on another single from Matt Pearl. Ben
Francisco laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Canales to third, and
left fielder Adam Berry grounded out to send Canales home.
Bruin ace Josh Karp pitched five sparkling innings, allowing
only five hits and two walks while striking out six. Mike Kunes
came in for an inning and a third of flawless relief.
“Karp threw well and our relief pitchers came in and kind
of shut them down,” third baseman Randall Shelley said.
Armed with a 3-0 advantage in the top of the seventh, UCLA
padded the lead for its solid bullpen with an RBI double by
Francisco.
But the Bruins knew Stanford had a big inning in them. With
Kunes still on the mound in the seventh, Chris O’Riordan sent
a solo home run over the wall with one out to get Stanford on the
board.
It was only the beginning. Centerfielder Sam Fuld hit a bunt
single and then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Jason
VanMeetren reached on a throwing error by Bruin shortstop Preston
Griffin.
Kevin Jerkens entered in relief but beaned Andy Topham to load
the bases. Scott Dragicevich then cleared them with a three-run
double. Jerkens retired the next batter to stop the bleeding, but
the Cardinal had cut the Bruin lead down to just one.
Undaunted, the Bruins responded in the top of the eighth with
another run, this time on a solo homer from first baseman Eric
Reece. UCLA had answered the Stanford surge.
Jerkens and Doug Silva combined to get two huge outs with two
runners on base in the bottom of the inning and Silva finished off
the nation’s top-ranked team with two strikeouts and a ground
out in the ninth.
Karp (3-0) got his third win of the year and UCLA its second
victory over a top-ranked team this season.
The angered Cardinal lashed back at the underdog Bruins in the
second game of the doubleheader when it put up nine runs in four
innings and utilized a masterful pitching performance from starter
Jeff Bruksch to shut out UCLA 9-0.
Bruin pitcher Jon Brandt was shelled for seven earned runs and
reliever Casey Janssen came in during a disastrous fourth inning to
allow two more runs.
“We knew we could take another game from them but it just
depended on our pitching coming through,” Shelley said.
“Our pitching faded off and theirs stayed strong.”
The Bruin offense that had faithfully backed the UCLA pitching
went dormant. Thirteen Bruins struck out , twelve at the hands of
Bruksch, who notched his seventh win.
“I wanted to pick up the team and get another win, but I
try to go out with the same focus every time I pitch,”
Bruksch said in a statement.
Sunday’s rubber match brought more of the same as a
dominating performance from Stanford’s Mike Gosling (2-0)
denied the Bruin offense anything substantial.
Shelley hit a solo homer late but VanMeetren went three for four
with a home run and four other Stanford players had two or more
hits.
“It wasn’t like we let down,” Shelley said.
“They just pretty much dominated us.”
Wade Clark (2-1) suffered his first loss of the year after
lasting only 2 2/3 innings and the usually reliable Bruin bullpen
surrendered six runs in relief.
Gosling, on the other hand, only struck out three Bruin batters
but walked none in eight innings
“I felt like I was getting stronger as I went
along,” Gosling said in a statement. “UCLA has very
aggressive hitters and you have to be able to use that against them
a little bit.”
The Cardinal has defeated the Bruins in five straight series
dating back to 1997 and took over sole possession of first place in
the Pac-10 with the Sunday victory. Last year’s Pac-10
champion Bruins dropped to the middle of the conference pack after
losing the final two games of the series.