The Wolf Pack is in the midst of its hottest stretch of the season, one even the Bruins haven’t matched this year.
No. 18 UCLA baseball (30-16, 14-10 Pac-12) will host Nevada (21-17, 18-9 Mountain West) in its final midweek game of the season Tuesday night. The Bruins are 7-0 in such games so far in 2021 and are 14-5 since April 11, but the Wolf Pack has won 11 of its last 12 games and currently sit atop the Mountain West standings.
“Nevada’s a very, very hot team,” said coach John Savage. “Nevada’s playing as well as anyone in the West right now, and they’re winning the Mountain West. They’re coming in here with a lot of confidence, so we need to be ready to go on Tuesday.”
The other three teams UCLA has played in midweeks this season – Loyola Marymount, Cal State Fullerton and Pepperdine – are all several games below .500, making this a relatively unique Tuesday matchup.
Nevada’s top four hitters – third baseman Tyler Bosetti, second baseman Joshua Zamora, center fielder Dario Gomez and first baseman Dillan Shrum – are hitting a combined .369 with a 1.098 OPS. Assuming all four play Tuesday, they could make up one of the most prolific tops of a lineup the Bruins have faced all season, regardless of conference or day of the week.
“They’re a good club,” said redshirt senior left fielder Kyle Cuellar. “So they’re going to come here and they’re going to give us their best shot.”
The Wolf Pack’s only loss in its last dozen games came a week ago when another Pac-12 program, Arizona State, outslugged them 14-11 in the midweek contest. Earlier in the season, USC swept them in a three-game set in Los Angeles, and they boast a 12-13 road record.
Savage, however, was more focused on Nevada’s recent success.
And while the skipper did not say he would use this final Tuesday chance to experiment or give certain guys an extra shot, he said he would take full advantage of the lack of roster size limits during nonconference games one last time.
“It gives you a little more freedom to play guys, pitch guys, pinch hit, do whatever,” Savage said. “So at the end of the day, it just gives us a little more flexibility and depth of roster.”
Senior right-hander Adrian Chaidez said he had faith Savage would make every decision with winning the game as his top priority.
“I’m pretty sure coach is going to manage it the same way (as normal),” Chaidez said. “We’re still trying to win ballgames. He knows what he’s doing. He’s going to call on the guys he thinks are ready and needs to put in.”
Freshman right-hander Jake Brooks will be making his second-straight midweek start after going 2.1 innings deep and not allowing an earned run in UCLA’s win over LMU last week. Brooks racked up 42 pitches in a bullpen appearance Friday against UC Santa Barbara – a season-high for the fresh face – and more than his 40 pitches during his most recent start.
Brooks owns a 12.27 ERA as a starter and a 3.38 ERA as a reliever this season.
Once Tuesday’s game is behind Brooks and the Bruins, they’ll have two weekend series to try to make up ground in the Pac-12 as they currently sit three games back of first place.
But for now, UCLA has a chance to close out an undefeated midweek season for the second time in three seasons.
