Hawai’i d. UCLA 6-4, 7-6, 8-7
By Jeff Agase
Daily Bruin Staff
The UCLA baseball team went to the islands hoping to go
Hawai’i 5-0, but left having gone just 2-3, including a
couple of bad cases of late-inning sunburn.
On Wednesday and Thursday, the Bruins won a pair of lopsided
contests against Hawai’i-Hilo, a team with one win in 22
games, and then were swept in Honolulu by the University of
Hawai’i by a total of four runs over the weekend.
The 9-1 and 9-4 victories over the Vulcans (1-20-1) extended
UCLA’s winning streak to five games, dating back to wins two
weekends ago over Florida Atlantic, but the 6-4, 7-6 and 8-7 losses
to the Warriors (5-5) dropped the Bruins’ record to 7-6.
Particularly difficult to stomach, even in the midst of flawless
weather, was Saturday’s 11-inning, 7-6 defeat, where the
Bruins carried leads in the eighth, ninth, and 11th innings but
were unable to hold off the feisty Warriors.
Junior starter Mike Kunes did an admirable job, scattering 10
hits over 7.1 innings and allowing only three earned runs, but the
bullpen combination of juniors Doug Silva and Wade Clark failed to
shut down Hawai’i after the Bruins seized leads in the ninth
and 11th.
Prior to Kunes’ departure in the eighth, UCLA put a pair
of runs up when junior Ben Francisco got to first on one of six
Hawai’i errors, stole second and third base and proceeded to
score on another error, this one by Hawai’i catcher Brian
Bock. Senior Adam Berry gave the Bruins a two-run lead when he
scored off of a Casey Grzecka double.
But Kunes allowed two Hawai’i runs and left with the game
tied at three. Then Silva couldn’t maintain a 5-3 UCLA lead
in the ninth. Neither team scored in the tenth, but freshman Matt
Thayer scored on a Josh Arhart single in the 11th, tilting the
battle the Bruins’ way at 6-5, if only for a few fleeting
minutes.
The Warriors made Clark pay for a hit batsman and a walk that
led off the bottom of the 11th. Scooter Martines singled with the
bases loaded to knot the game at six with one out.
Sophomore Mike Castillo came in, bases still fully occupied, to
try and get a double-play ball and extend the game to another
inning. He got the grounder he needed out of Courtland Wilson, and
shortstop Preston Griffin started the double play with a throw to
second for the second out.
But with the future of the game hinging on the throw to first,
Wilson outran the throw and Brent Cook crossed the plate to seal
the Bruins’ fate at 7-6.
“I thought we had won the game three different
times,” Francisco said. “But we didn’t have our
execution ““ stuff we do in practice every day. We’re
not doing the little things to win the close ones.”
Sunday’s game came an inning short of Saturday’s
theatrical contest, but its finish ““ which capped off a tight
series of games ““ may have surpassed it in drama. Two innings
after the Bruins held off a frightful scoring opportunity,
Hawai’i’s Brian Bock hit Castillo’s third pitch
over the left-center wall for a bottom of the tenth walk-off home
run and a third straight win over UCLA.
Not all was lost, even as the outcomes gradually progressed from
dominating to heartbreaking. Head coach Gary Adams got to see five
different starters in five days and got closer to a steady pitching
rotation, and several Bruins who normally come off the bench
started in the games against Hawaii-Hilo.
“The more games you play, the more you learn about your
pitching,” Adams said. “Trying to establish what each
pitcher’s particular role will be is the hard part of the
beginning of the year.
“The puzzle’s not put together yet. But it’s a
lot further along than it was before we came over here.”
Freshman pitchers David Johnson and Wes Whisler combined for 12
scoreless innings in the two wins over Hawai’i-Hilo, with
freshman Chris Jensen helping out in the first game ““ his
first career start ““ with a 3-for-5 day, and sophomore Casey
Janssen bombing a two-run homer in the second game.