Mother Nature and Lady Luck had conspired to give the UCLA
baseball team two consecutive comeback wins against Oregon State,
but a third was simply too much to ask. UCLA (22-26, 7-8 Pac-10)
won the first two games 8-7 and 10-9 before dropping the final
weekend contest 7-6 to the Beavers (19-24, 5-13).
On Friday night, the Bruins found themselves down 4-0 through
four innings, but heavy rain suspended the game overnight. When the
action resumed Saturday morning UCLA trailed 5-0 after five
innings. In the bottom of the fifth, however, the team exploded for
six runs highlighted by a bases-clearing double from Brett
McMillan. The Beavers would respond to tie the game at six, but a
two-run home run from Ryan McCarthy in the eighth gave the Bruins
an 8-7 victory.
In the second half of the doubleheader, the Beavers roughed up
Bruin starter Wes Whisler, posting four runs in the top of the
fifth to take a 5-0 lead.
But, just as it had in the first game, UCLA rallied late. The
Bruins scored seven runs in the eighth inning, starting with a solo
home run from Whisler and ending with a three-run shot from Warren
Trott.
Up 8-6, senior Doug Silva blew the save, giving up three runs in
the top of the ninth. But the Bruins responded with an RBI single
from McCarthy to send the game to extra innings. Silva redeemed
himself by pitching a perfect inning in the top of the tenth,
giving UCLA a chance at victory. Oregon State then chose to
intentionally walk Trott and Whisler, a questionable move
considering the batter it chose to go after, Billy Susdorf, already
had three hits in the game. Susdorf made the Beavers pay for their
decision, notching the game winning hit in the tenth inning.
The sun finally peeked out from behind the clouds on Sunday, but
the Bruins certainly didn’t enjoy the pleasant weather. The team
once again found itself in a five-run deficit after two innings,
down 6-1. Sophomore starter David Johnson was beaten badly, giving
up six hits and six runs in only 1 1/3 innings.
“They made an adjustment to (Johnson’s) off-speed
stuff,” pitching coach Gary Adcock said. “They decided
they weren’t going to strike out and just put the ball in
play.”
Head coach Gary Adams felt that Johnson was rattled and nervous
making his first start of the season.
“He’s much better than what he showed today,”
Adams said. “He let the event get to him, especially when
runners started getting on base.”
The bullpen for UCLA, however, was stellar. Hector Ambriz,
Garett White, and Casey Janssen pitched 7 2/3 innings, giving up
only one run between them. With the Oregon State offense held at
bay, the Bruins had a chance to rally once again. Although slow to
start the game, the Bruin offense finally began to get comfortable
swinging against Beaver starter Stephen Copeland, a soft-throwing
lefty.
“We just started staying back, using the whole
field,” Preston Griffon said. “We knew what he was
trying to do and we made our adjustments.”
A two-run blast from McMillan in the fifth, a two-run single
from Griffin in the sixth, and a pitch-hit single from Brandon
Averill in the seventh brought UCLA within one run of tying the
game. But in the bottom of the ninth, with the tying run on base,
Whisler and Trott each grounded out weakly to second base, ending
the threat.
“I thought the vibe was there,” Griffin said.
“We almost got it back but came up short.”