The UCLA baseball team certainly will not shed a tear over
having played its final midweek game of 2003. However, the Bruins
have done a good job of salvaging a midweek record that began 0-9
by winning their third-straight game over Pepperdine (34-19) on
Tuesday, 4-3.
UCLA used a small-ball strategy and some baseball trickery to
give themselves another come-from-behind one-run victory. Each of
the Bruins’ last five wins have been by a lone run.
Trailing 3-2 entering the ninth, Ryan McCarthey led off with a
walk. Brandon Averill next employed a play called
“slash,” where he faked a sacrifice bunt, pulled the
bat back, and slapped a grounder through the hole vacated by the
shortstop covering second base.
In another successful use of small ball, Adam Simon laid a
perfect sacrifice bunt down the third base line, and both the
pitcher and third baseman charged for the ball, leaving no one for
the pitcher to throw to when he initially looked at third. By the
time he changed his mind and attempted to go to first, it was too
late to catch the speedy Simon.
Now with the bases loaded, Preston Griffin hit a sacrifice fly
to tie the score. A few batters later, Wave pitcher Paul Coleman
uncorked a pitch in the dirt that trickled a few feet away from the
catcher, but was enough for pinch-runner Sean Carpenter to score
the winning run.
“Our score is a little deceiving as far as the four runs
and seven hits go,” head coach Gary Adams said. “We hit
six balls right on the nose that their outfielders made nice
running plays on, but the real key to the game was that they had
three errors and we didn’t have any.”
Freshman Hector Ambriz started and went five innings, allowing
seven hits and all three runs. Ambriz then made way for little-used
junior Mike Castillo, who came in and pitched three innings without
allowing a single base runner.
“Castillo was a surprise today,” Adams said.
“He’s been doing real well in our scrimmage games, so
we decided to give him a shot today and he dominated.”
Castillo recorded the win and senior Doug Silva picked up the
save with a scoreless ninth. Averill hit a home run in the sixth
inning, his eighth of the year, giving him a share of the team
lead.
The win left the Bruins’ midweek record at a more
respectable 3-9 and improved their overall record to 25-28. Most
importantly though, it kept their dim post-season hopes alive.
UCLA has six regular-season games remaining and they are all on
the road. The team will play three with Stanford (35-14) this
weekend and then travel to Washington State (17-32) May 23. The
Bruins must win five of the six games to make the playoffs.
“I’m really proud of the team because it shows we
haven’t nailed the coffin shut yet,” Adams said.
“We might be backed into the corner, but we’re still
battling for it.”