In Gary Adams’ last game at Jackie Robinson Stadium, the
Bruins made a valiant comeback but could not pull it out for their
retiring coach, losing 7-5 against UC Irvine.
Unlike Sunday’s 14-0 blowout over Washington State where
Adams admitted he started to get emotional, last night’s
close game forced him to focus on the game at hand and not on 30
years of memories as coach.
“This time, I resolved to think only about the
game,” Adams said. “The game was close, so I
didn’t have time to think about that stuff. I had to think
about pinch-hitters and relievers and that sort of
thing.”
Adams was forced to think about those things in the bottom of
the seventh, when the Bruins, down 7-2, put a scare into the
Anteaters. With one out, sophomore center fielder Jarrad Page
worked a walk after being down 0-2 in the count.
Then, senior third baseman Preston Griffin hit a double to left
field to chase UCI reliever Jimmy Alstot out of the game. In came
left-hander David Huff to face pinch-hitter Billy Susdorf.
Susdorf hit a 0-2 fastball to right field to drive in Page and
Griffin and pull the Bruins within three. Junior shortstop Ryan
McCarthy was then hit on the foot by a Huff curveball, which
brought up Wes Whisler.
Whisler would hit an easy ground ball to second baseman Jeff
Fisher that should have been turned into a double play. However,
Fisher’s backhanded flip sailed past shortstop Kyle
Ryckebosch to make the score 7-5.
But junior right fielder Matt Thayer would strike out against
new UCI reliever Steve Schroer and senior left fielder Brandon
Averill would ground out to end the Bruins’ last serious
threat.
UCLA (29-25) fell into an early hole because of two miscues by
sophomore starting pitcher Daniel Miltenberger.
With runners on second and third in the second inning,
Miltenberger threw a wild pitch that allowed UCI’s (32-17-1)
Mark Wagner to score. Then with two outs and Ryckebosch up,
Miltenberger balked, which allowed David Kennedy to score.
Miltenberger’s troubles did not end there. With the Bruins
down 3-1 in the top of the fifth, Miltenberger gave up a two-run
home run to center fielder Jordan Szabo to put the Bruins down by
four.
“I struggled a little bit with my command and getting my
curveball over,” Miltenberger said. “They were able to
get deep into counts, and I gave them some good pitches to hit, and
they swung the bats well.”
Chris Nicoll picked up his sixth win for UCI, pitching five
innings and striking out eight.
“(Nicoll) kept us off balance, never doubled up on
pitches,” Whisler said. “He moved the ball all around
the zone, and his breaking ball was pretty good.”