Tonight’s game against Long Beach State (16-17-1, 4-1-1
Big West) will be a mixture of old and new for UCLA (20-15, 5-4
Pac-10). The two teams have played against each other once this
season, with the Bruins defeating the No. 15 Dirtbags 6-3 in Long
Beach on Feb. 28.
Junior Brian Schroeder had a strong outing, allowing three runs
in seven innings to give the Bruins their first win at Long
Beach’s Blair Field since 1995.
This time the Westwood Nine will play host and enter as the
favorite. Freshman Jason Novak is scheduled to take the mound in
the first start of his Bruin career. The Agoura Hills- native was
scheduled to start against UC Irvine earlier in the year, but the
game had to be postponed because of the rain.
Novak has made 13 relief appearances this season and owns an ERA
of 5.21 over 19 innings of work. One of those appearances was
against the Dirtbags, when the right-hander came on in relief of
Schroeder. Novak retired the first batter he faced and was taken
out after giving up a single.
In the opposing dugout, freshman Scott Turmail (1-1) gets the
nod for his fourth start of the year. Turmail also appeared in the
February game, giving up an RBI double to senior Chris Jensen and
an RBI single to Jermaine Curtis in the fifth that allowed the
Bruins to tie the game at 2-2.
Jensen remains weary of his neighbors to the south and of how
stingy their can pitching can be.
“Long Beach is a good team,” Jensen said.
“(They) always play low-scoring games.”
Over the course of the season, Long Beach has kept themselves in
games, allowing the opposing team to score more than six runs only
four times.
Coach Mike Weathers is in his fifth year at the helm, leading
the team to regionals the past four years and making the super
regionals in both 2003 and 2004.
“Long Beach is always well-coached,” said UCLA coach
John Savage. “They’re a team that can pitch and is
opportunistic on offense. They go to regionals almost every
year.”
The Dirtbags come into town after a series at Cal State
Northridge. The Dirtbags traded games with the Matadors to open the
series before the rubber game was suspended because of darkness,
with the teams locked at three after nine innings.
UCLA, meanwhile, is ready to kick off its homestand tonight
after a road series win against Arizona. The team dropped the
opener in Tucson and rebounded to sweep the rest of the
weekend.
A lot has changed in the matchup between the Bruins and the
Dirtbags since late February. The baseball team takes the field
hoping to keep at least one thing the same in this game: the
result.