By Scott Bair
Daily Bruin Staff
Last Saturday’s 6-1 victory against Oregon State was a
turning point for UCLA baseball. It wasn’t the fact that the
game was the initial victory in the Bruins first conference series
win. It wasn’t the fact that freshman Wes Whisler pitched his
first complete game of the season to add to his perfect 3-0 record
in conference play. The turning point in the UCLA season occurred
on one play in the bottom of the fourth inning.
OSU right fielder Aaron Matthews hit a slicing line drive to
right field off of Whisler that was destined to be a double. Team
captain and 2000 All-Pac-10 right fielder Ben Francisco took off
for the place where his instincts told him the ball would be. As
the ball was nearing the ground, Francisco went horizontal, making
a diving grab to rob Matthews of a hit. It’s not the first
time that Francisco has made a diving catch like that one, but it
will be the last that he makes for six to eight weeks.
Francisco injured his collarbone on the spectacular play and
will sit on the bench with Sunday starter Casey Janssen, who was
injured in last Friday’s game.
Such is life for the hard-luck Bruins, who must find a way to
carry the momentum from Whisler’s performance and their first
conference win into this weekend’s contest against the
Cougars of Washington State.
Enter redshirt freshman Matt Thayer, who will have some big
shoes to fill in right field this weekend.
“It’s never easy to lose a player of Ben’s
caliber,” Thayer said. “I’m not going to try to
replace him because I’m a different player. My job this
weekend will be to get on base as much as I can, and use my speed
to set the table for the big guys hitting behind me.”
While Adam Berry and Josh Arhart will have to make for
Francisco’s run production, UCLA pitching coach Gary Adcock
will have to juggle his pitchers in order to account for
Janssen’s absence. Adcock will convert starter Chris Cordeiro
to a closing role for Friday and Saturday’s games, which Mike
Kunes and Whisler will start. If Cordeiro doesn’t pitch in
the first two games, he’ll throw on Sunday and if not, Adcock
will look for his bullpen to provide some quality innings.
“We’re going to take it one game at a time,”
Adcock said. “It’s a big loss to be without one of your
top three pitchers, but we’ll need some guys to step up until
Janssen gets healthy.”
The Bruins must rely on their depth to continue the momentum
they started last weekend and make up for Francisco and
Janssen’s absence.
“We’re a deeper team than most people think,”
Whisler said. “We’re all going to have to do our part
to get through this tough situation with a winning
record.”