The Bruins will celebrate history as they continue conference play.
No. 12 UCLA baseball (23-9, 8-4 Pac-12) is set to take on No. 22 Stanford (18-10, 9-6) in a three-game series starting Thursday night at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The stadium’s namesake will be honored in the Friday night matchup against the Cardinal as part of Jackie Robinson Weekend.
“It’s a big series in the sense that we’re back home and it’s Jackie Robinson Day,” said coach John Savage. “We love playing at a park that’s named after him. It should be an exciting weekend.”
In order for UCLA to secure its fourth series victory of conference play, the Bruins’ bats will have to go up against the second-best pitching staff in the conference. Stanford’s team ERA of 3.88 is second only to UCLA’s 2.84, and the Cardinal are the only team besides the Bruins with more than 10 strikeouts per nine innings.
Stanford is entering the series on a four-game winning streak, including a sweep of Arizona State last weekend.
Savage said playing a postseason-caliber opponent will be beneficial to his team.
“They’re an Omaha-type team,” Savage said. “(They) went to Omaha last year (and) had a bunch of guys returning from last year’s team. … It’s going to be a really good opportunity for us to be tested at home.”
UCLA has won nine of its last 10 games, including its midweek matchup on Tuesday against Pepperdine. With the win over the Waves, the Bruins tied the season series at one apiece after a loss to the team Feb. 22. Since losing the pair of midweek games to Pepperdine and Omaha in February, the blue and gold has gone undefeated in its Tuesday contests.
Redshirt sophomore right-hander Kelly Austin said the win over the Waves was more than just a confidence booster.
“As much as it’s good to have a good win for momentum, the biggest thing was the fact that we got a win over Pepperdine,” Austin said. “We lost to them earlier in the year, and we wanted to clean that slate up and show that we’re not worse than this team.”
Sophomore outfielder Carson Yates said the victory against the Waves motivated the Bruins for their matchup against the Cardinal.
“Playing a great game against Pepperdine is getting us to look forward to Stanford this next week,” Yates said. “It’s a good win in the middle of the week to get us going.”
UCLA will take the field against Stanford on Thursday at 7 p.m.
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