A couple of inches here, a couple of feet there, and the UCLA
baseball team might have been celebrating another series win over
USC.
Instead, the Bruins, who entered the weekend having blown leads
in three straight games, dropped all three contests to the Trojans
and lost the season series 4-2.
“I don’t know what to say,” pitcher Mike Kunes
said. “In the last week and a half, we’ve had leads,
but then we always seem to have a breakdown inning, whether it be
with our pitching or with defense.”
UCLA (17-22, 3-6 Pac-10) looked to be in control in Friday
night’s opener, carrying a 6-2 lead into the seventh inning.
But as has become all too customary, the four-run advantage slipped
away, all the way until it was gone and the game was knotted at six
in the top of the ninth.
With the Trojans suddenly coming on and the Bruin bats going
dormant, UCLA second baseman Preston Griffin hit a bloop fly ball
in the top of the ninth along the first base side that veered foul
by about three inches. He popped up the next pitch and the Trojans
(18-17, 5-4) scored on a bases-loaded wild pitch by David Johnson
in the bottom of the ninth to win it, 7-6.
“They grabbed the momentum in the sixth and seventh and we
never got it back,” UCLA head coach Gary Adams said after the
game.
The story seemed to be getting old for the Bruins, who walked
off of USC’s Dedeaux Field Friday night with heads shaking
and teeth gritted.
On Saturday, things went a little differently. Instead of
grabbing the lead and losing it, the Bruins fell behind 7-0 and
tried to scramble back. Disgusted with his team’s
performance, Adams benched four starters.
“I needed to do something to wake us up,” he
said.
UCLA came alive for four runs in the final two innings but
couldn’t maintain any ninth-inning momentum and lost again,
this time 7-4.
In the series finale Sunday afternoon, the Bruins had a
counter-punch for everything USC threw at them. When USC’s
Jory Metropoulos hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the first,
UCLA responded with a sacrifice fly. When the Trojans tacked on a
another run in the second, Bruin catcher Chris Denove hit a solo
home run.
But just as a broken record always repeats itself at the same
point in a song, the Bruins again came up empty in the ninth.
Entering the inning down 8-5, UCLA put runners on first and third
with only one out.
Center fielder Matt Thayer smashed a grounder to the left side,
but it went straight to USC shortstop Anthony Lunetta, who turned a
game-ending double play.
“He hits that anywhere else and we’re in great
shape,” Adams said. “Three feet left or three feet
right and that eats them up.”