By Jeff Agase
DAILY BRUIN STAFF
[email protected]
Through all the one-run losses, all the late-inning heartbreak,
all Gary Adams asked his team to do was stick with it and
believe.
Tuesday night in the eighth inning at Jackie Robinson Stadium
against Long Beach State, the Bruins lost a one-run lead in a
fashion that had become so typical that you couldn’t blame
UCLA (22-28) for losing hope. A dirty hop on a ground ball opened
up the inning, and the Dirtbags grabbed the lead.
But after already wielding their infallible resiliency,
answering the Dirtbags (28-18) in the first and third innings, they
weren’t about to let it slide away again late.
Nick Lyon scored on a Ryan McCarthy double to tie the game, and
Rashad Parker doubled to send McCarthy home for the lead. Pitcher
Chris Cordeiro survived a mild scare in the ninth to put away Long
Beach St. 7-6 and improve UCLA’s record in one-run games to
2-10.
“When I saw that dirty hop, I thought,
“˜There’s the UCLA baseball jinx,'” Adams
said. “This year, other teams have always gotten that
hit.”
UCLA’s Kevin Jerkens was about to get out of the eighth
with a grounder to second, but Kevin Randel hit the ball hard and
it jumped unexpectedly over Ryan Rasmussen’s head to tie the
game.
And when a passed ball scored another Dirtbag run, nearly every
UCLA fan and player on hand had that “here we go again”
look.
But Adams and pitching coach Gary Adcock stuck with Jerkens, who
put up four scoreless innings in the middle of the game.
“Kevin Jerkens kept us in the game tonight,” Adcock
said. “I’ll always take a guy who’s in his groove
on the mound over a guy in the bullpen in that
situation.”
Jerkens didn’t allow another run, and the Bruins held on
for dear life after answering in the bottom half of the eighth.
They had already scored a single run in the bottom of the first
to answer the Beach’s run in the top half, and scored four in
the bottom of the second to best LBSU’s three, so the two in
the bottom of the eighth were merely part of a logical conclusion.
That is, for most teams.
“This kind of a win is more important for this team than
for other teams I’ve had,” Adams said.
Every facet of the Bruin team ““ including the errorless
defense ““ came through with nothing but heart at the most
crucial times in the game.
Freshman first baseman Wes Whisler, his 11th home run already in
tow, dove for a grounder in the top of the seventh and flipped a
slightly off-center throw that Jerkens still managed to reel
in.
“I just tried to get to my feet as soon as possible, and
Kevin made a great play,” Whisler said.
Sure, it was nice to win the kind of one-run thriller that
they’d been accustomed to losing, but the Bruins aren’t
exactly particular at this point.
“I’ll take a win over anybody right now,”
Adams said.