With this past weekend’s series win over Washington State,
the UCLA baseball team has kept itself in good position in the
Pac-10 Conference to compete for an NCAA regional spot.
Heading into tonight’s game with UC Irvine, the Bruins
(29-24, 10-8 Pac-10) are now tied for third place with Arizona
State with only two conference series left.
But the Pac-10 is very tight this year, and the Bruins are only
a game and a half ahead of fifth-place Arizona and only two games
ahead of sixth-place USC.
“We’ve tried to stay in the front row of the middle
teams rather than the back row of the middle teams,” UCLA
coach Gary Adams said.
To stay there and make regionals, the Bruins will likely need to
at least split their last six conference games.
This weekend, UCLA plays second-place Washington and next week
the Bruins take on seventh-place Oregon State to finish out the
regular season. Both series will be on the road.
An intriguing subplot to tonight’s game is that UCI coach
John Savage is believed to be a contender for the UCLA job, which
will open up after the season when Adams retires.
Savage was hired at Irvine by then- UCI Athletic Director Dan
Guerrero, who is now UCLA’s athletic director.
When asked about his interest in the UCLA job, Savage had no
comment.
ROTATION IMPROVES: Before this past weekend’s Washington
State series, UCLA’s Saturday and Sunday starters, juniors
Bryan Beck and Wes Whisler, were 0-3 in the Pac-10 with a ghastly
9.00 ERA.
But against the Cougars, Whisler and junior David Johnson, who
has replaced Beck in the rotation, pitched 15-1/3 innings on
Saturday and Sunday and only allowed one run in the two Bruin
wins.
Johnson threw 6-1/3 innings on Saturday, giving up a lone run
and six hits.
The lefty Whisler did even better, throwing a complete game
shutout on seven hits Sunday to win the rubber game of the
series.
“I thought David Johnson’s performance (Saturday)
was spectacular, and now Wes allowed one fewer run than David
did,” Adams said.
The pitching performances were also key in giving the overworked
bull pen some rest.
“What a lift that was,” Adams said. “We
didn’t want to use our bull pen. We’ve been wearing
them out.”