NICOLE MILER/Daily Bruin Junior Wade
Clark and the rest of the UCLA baseball team travels to
face the Pepperdine Waves today.
By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
He’s seen it before, done it before and survived it
before.
Adam Berry, once the UCLA baseball team’s free-swinging,
strike-out prone youngster, is now a fifth-year senior, one of the
squad’s elder statesmen and most patient hitters.
He’s been through the grind of a collegiate baseball
season enough to know what a midweek non-conference game can and
can’t do for the Bruins.
Berry has seen such contests ““ like the one UCLA (14-19)
will play today at Pepperdine (17-18) ““ give the team an
emotional boost as it heads into a weekend three-game Pacific 10
series.
Yet, he knows that a Tuesday game won’t demoralize the
team to a point where it cannot return from, which probably
explains why Berry is so calm heading into today’s
contest.
“These games are important because they are confidence
builders,” he said. “If you hit well and pitch well, it
gives you confidence. But if you lose, it’s not the end of
the world.”
Berry, naturally, would prefer to beat Pepperdine ““
especially after UCLA’s game on Sunday.
In that outing, the Bruins battled Cal for 15 innings, only to
be clipped 10-6. Over the weekend, UCLA dropped two of three games
against the Bears.
“We were pretty down,” said Berry, who has hit a
team-high 14 home runs this season. “We put ourselves in
positions to win the game, but didn’t. Many of us, including
myself, had a chance to win the game.
“It’s a matter of putting all phases of the game
together. On Sunday, our pitching was outstanding, but our clutch
hitting was not there.”
Bruin head coach Gary Adams said he wished his team could be 2-1
in conference instead of 1-2, but was nonetheless pleased with what
his team showed him against Cal.
“With two losses in three games, one in 15 innings, we got
a fresh start,” he said. “We just have to look to get
better every day.”
Adams, who used nearly all of his pitchers last weekend, will
turn to freshman David Johnson to be his starting pitcher on the
mound today.
Johnson, who is 2-2 with a 7.08 ERA in eight appearances, will
be making his second career start in today’s game.