NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Senior Josh Karp
pitches in a game last week. Karp won the only game for the Bruins
this weekend, a 3-1 decision Saturday. ASU 7, UCLA
3 UCLA 3, ASU 1 ASU 12, UCLA
9
By Jeff Agase
Daily Bruin Reporter
Aware that its season had already been counted out, the UCLA
baseball team insisted on going down swinging.
Fighting to their final at-bat in Tempe against No. 18 Arizona
State (36-18-1, 14-10 Pac-10), the Bruins (30-27, 9-15) were unable
to overcome a 12-6 deficit, losing 12-9 in the final contest of a
season-ending three-game series. The Sun Devils took the first
game, 7-3 on Friday night, while UCLA won Saturday’s evening
game 3-1.
“I told them if we swept the series, that would give us a
great shot of going to the playoffs,” UCLA Head Coach Gary
Adams said. “If we won two out of three, it depended on what
other teams did, and if not, it wasn’t good
enough.”
Only one win in a series that concluded a month full of must-win
games just wasn’t enough. The Bruins dropped their fourth
weekend series out of their last five and will miss the NCAA
playoffs for the second time in six years.
But this team, a team that has been decimated by injuries and
fallen upon the unfortunate luck of facing Pac-10 teams at their
hottest, once again turned in a gutsy weekend performance to
conclude this often difficult season.
After falling behind 8-1 in what was essentially a meaningless
Sunday game, the Bruins dug deep, if only to show the Sun Devils a
resolve uncharacteristic of a team on its last gasp.
In the top of the sixth, senior Matt Pearl led off with a walk
then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Junior John Campanella
lined a single to left to put runners on the corners and promising
freshman Brandon Averill followed up with an RBI single. Senior
first baseman Eric Reece stepped up to connect on a home run to
right, his 10th of the season.
“Even when we were down 8-1, their coach made two pitching
changes, because he knew we would keep fighting,” senior
second baseman Josh Canales said.
Down just 8-5 now, UCLA added another run in the top of the
eighth to pull within two and looked as though it may have just one
more dazzling, unexpected comeback left in the tank. But the Sun
Devils answered the challenge, posting four runs in the bottom half
of the inning to put the Bruins down 12-6.
“A lot of teams would have just rolled over dead after ASU
got ahead 12-6,” Adams said. “But we had the tying run
come to the plate. We’ve done that a lot this year. It really
indicates the kind of character of this team.”
Despite the Bruins’ best efforts, Randall Shelley grounded
out to pitcher Bryce Kartler to end the game.
The Sun Devils took Friday night’s game 7-3 behind a
three-run home run from freshman Rod Allen, but the Bruins bounced
back in Saturday’s game with yet another brilliant
performance from draft-bound ace Josh Karp, who went five innings
without giving up an earned run for his fifth win of the year.
Senior Brian Baron finished the season with 105 hits and a
UCLA-record .443 batting average.
But once again, one win out of three against a streaking
opponent was unable to extend this tumultuous and unpredictable
year any further.
“I’ve never played on a team that has had this kind
of fortune or luck one way or another,” Canales said.
“The ball has bounced against us a number of times, but we
kept battling and battling.
The battle is now over, set to resume next February.