Don’t do it.
Please refrain from flipping open the transparent covering and hitting that red PANIC button as if you were declining an offer from the Banker on “Deal or No Deal.” It’s not worth it.
Last week, I wrote how this year’s UCLA baseball team is better than last year’s edition. At that time, the Bruins were 2-2 and ranked No. 9 in Baseball America’s Top 25.
Now, a week later, the Bruins are 2-6, riding a seven-game losing streak and have plummeted out of the top 25 rankings.
Put in this position, I could be pressured into changing my stance and write about how yet again the Bruin baseball team gets your hopes up with preseason hype and fails to ever live up to it. That this team simply lost too many key players. That it will be a long year at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
I could do it. It would be the easy thing to do.
But I’m not Bill Plaschke. I don’t flip-flop.
This team is better than last year’s team; it’s just going to take some time.
Of the Bruins’ seven losses this season, only one stands out as a really bad defeat: an 11-1 loss to UC Riverside at home on Feb. 25.
That game was bad from the start, as Gavin Brooks, who was expected to open as the No. 1 starter on the squad, continued to struggle with what coach John Savage describes as “mechanical problems.” In the loss, Brooks lasted just one inning, allowing six runs, five of them earned.
But the other losses were games in which the Bruins had an opportunity to win late in the game.
The first loss of the season, an 8-7 defeat to UC Davis in extra innings, was a game the Bruins did not play well in at all, yet they were still one out away from escaping with a series sweep.
The Bruins should have won last Tuesday against UC Santa Barbara, yet they stranded 10 runners on base en route to a 7-6 loss.
This past weekend, the Bruins traveled to Texas for the Houston College Classic, arguably the toughest tournament in college baseball. UCLA faced three top-10 teams in three days, falling to all three. But in each game the Bruins were close.
Friday night against No. 10 Rice, the Bruins lost 5-4 in 10 innings. Saturday night against No. 6 Baylor, UCLA freshman pitcher Gerrit Cole had another solid outing ““ six innings, two hits, one unearned run and eight strikeouts ““ but the Bruins found themselves trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth when a controversial start to a triple play helped lead to a loss.
On Sunday, the Bruins rounded out the weekend with a 7-4 loss to No. 5 UC Irvine.
A glance at the box scores from the six losses tell it all: 60 men left on base, including 28 on the weekend.
This is the stat that is keeping the Bruins from finding their way back into the win column.
The pitching is there. The hitting is there. It’s taking advantage of the opportunities presented to them and driving runners in that the Bruins are failing to do so far, and that is the primary reason their record is 2-6.
The ability to come through in the clutch is something that comes with experience, but with the daunting schedule the Bruins have, which continues with a three-game series at No. 16 Oklahoma this weekend, there isn’t much time for learning on the job.
But for now, do not panic. Do not be rash and jump to any early conclusions.
As for me, I will remain confident in my opinion that the Bruins are better this year than they were last year.
I will not flip-flop, unlike someone else across town.
If you think he should pull a Bill Plaschke and write a column about how the Bruins will not make the Regionals, e-mail Howard at [email protected].