NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Chris Jensen
retreats back to first base after hitting a single against USC
during Saturday’s 26-4 loss. USC d. UCLA 1-0,
26-4, 6-3
By Scott Bair
Daily Bruin Reporter
The final scores tell the story.
The UCLA Bruins lost to the No. 18 USC Trojans three consecutive
times last weekend, but each defeat came from the hands of a
different Bruin deficiency.
Friday, 1-0. Saturday, 26-4. Sunday, 6-3, after losing a 3-1
lead.
Friday’s game was over on the evening’s second
pitch. Trojan center fielder Brian Barre drove a Cordeiro pitch
over the wall in right for the first run of the game.
“You never think that a pitch from the first inning is
going to come back to haunt you, especially with the lead-off
guy,” Cordeiro said. “I just wish that I could get that
second pitch back.”
After that second pitch, Cordeiro completely shut down the USC
hitting machine for the next nine innings. Cordeiro only threw 69
pitches through seven innings, but looked physically fatigued when
he took the mound in the ninth.
Cordeiro shut them down with heart. He shut them down with
determination. He did everything he could do.
But to win a baseball game, hitters have to score runs.
Cordeiro’s gritty performance would not be rewarded with a
win because the Bruins did not get a clutch hit when they needed.
UCLA came out on Saturday determined not to let another great
pitching performance go to waste. However, on Saturday, a great
pitching performance was nowhere to be found. Saturday’s
Bruin pitching lineup allowed 26 Trojans to cross the plate, more
than any other time in UCLA history.
“We had a lot of fans out here and the band did a great
job supporting us and we let them down,” Bruin co-captain Ben
Francisco said. “We let our fans down with the way that we
played today.”
Sunday starter Casey Janssen did not want his Bruins to be
embarrassed in front of the home crowd for the second straight day,
allowing one run through five innings.
The Bruins notched one run when Janssen left, but they were
pressing. UCLA hitting coach Vince Beringhele could see it. They
were trying too hard to get the big hit that had eluded them all
weekend. The UCLA hitters were making mechanical errors with their
swing that they had never done before. They wanted to win so bad
that it actually hurt their cause.
“It was a maturity factor,” Beringhele said. This
was our first big series, and the hitters didn’t take the
mature approach to doing what we’ve practiced all year.
Somewhere in their mental approach to the game the hitter thought
they needed to change. They tried to do more than they needed to
do.”