The UCLA baseball team stumbled out of the conference gate over
the weekend, losing two out of three to the Washington Huskies
(20-11, 3-3 Pac-10) in Seattle.
The Bruins (16-13, 1-2), winners of 10 of 12 before facing
Washington, did not have the offensive firepower they have grown
accustomed to over the course of the season, as they scored only
four runs in the three-game series.
“It was tough losing this first series,” UCLA coach
John Savage said. “Every weekend is going to be as tough as
this. If you look at the scores, they pitched us very well.
We’ve got to be able to stand up to that kind of
pitching.”
The Bruins were shut out in Friday night’s game 5-0 behind
a stellar performance from Husky ace Tim Lincecum, who allowed only
two hits and struck out 18 in his complete game masterpiece.
The Bruins received a decent start from their own ace Hector
Ambriz, who allowed four runs in seven innings, but they were still
in awe of Lincecum’s performance.
“I thought we played pretty well,” junior pitcher
Dave Huff said. “On Friday night, that guy was just
dealing.”
Huff helped pitch the Bruins back into the series on Saturday,
when he went nine innings and allowed only two runs. Leading 2-0
going into the ninth, Huff was able to pitch the Bruins out of a
jam and escape with only two runs given up. The Bruins went on to
win 3-2 in the 11th inning on Eric Taylor’s RBI single.
“I wish I could have done better,” Huff said.
“The result (of the ninth inning) wasn’t what I wanted.
I got out of the ninth, but I was angry with myself. I didn’t
make the right pitches.”
On Sunday the Bruins dropped the rubber game of the series to
the Huskies 4-1. UCLA junior pitcher Tyson Brummett went five and a
third innings, allowing three runs. The Bruins’ lone run came
on a sacrifice fly by senior outfielder Josh Roenicke.
“Expectations have been raised for us,” Savage said.
“We are disappointed we couldn’t win this series. If we
had won today, we would have been 17-12, 2-1 in the Pac-10, which
would have been a good way to start. But we can’t have our
heads down after a series like this.”
Roenicke had his first career home run in Saturday’s game
to put the Bruins ahead 2-0 in the seventh, and he knocked in two
of UCLA’s four runs over the weekend. Despite the lack of
runs, he doesn’t feel the offense was terrible this
weekend.
“We had good at-bats,” Roenicke said.
“Sometimes the balls just don’t fall for you. We
pitched well, we played defense well. It just wasn’t our
weekend, I guess.”