The UCLA baseball team is playing with house money this
weekend.
After winning six of its last seven games, including a series
win over Stanford last weekend, UCLA (31-22, 12-9 Pac-10) will be
playing with settled nerves when it travels to Corvallis, Ore., to
take on the No. 5 Beavers (38-13, 15-6).
It’s not so much that the Bruins have nothing to play for.
In fact, a series sweep of the Beavers, as tall of an order as that
may be, would clinch a share of the Pac-10 title with Oregon State,
who is looking to win its second-straight outright
championship.
Only two weeks ago this series was pegged as the decisive moment
for UCLA ““ a final stretch that would decide whether the club
would make the NCAA Regionals. But thanks to the recent tear,
UCLA’s postseason berth is virtually secure and the team can
now play with nothing to lose, but a Pac-10 title to win.
“We need to keep playing well into the weekend ““ the
Oregon State weekend,” UCLA coach John Savage said.
“Hopefully we get the call on Monday (from the NCAA selection
committee) and we can have another season continue.”
UCLA is facing one of the best starting rotations in the
country, as all three of Oregon State’s pitchers have an ERA
under 3.00. Junior Cole Gillespie is the most dangerous hitter in a
lineup filled with potent bats. He is among the Pac-10 leaders with
a .365 batting average, 10 home runs and 47 RBIs. Given all the
talent his team will be pitted against, Savage is looking for
consistent play out of UCLA. Will he be disappointed if the Bruins
don’t sweep the Beavers to split the Pac-10 title?
“No,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s one
of one. We’re planning just to play Friday night ““ we
can’t be thinking too big right now. We’ll let the fans
and other people really talk about what we need to do.”
If UCLA can pull off the sweep to share the conference title,
junior Dave Huff figures to play a pivotal role in what might be a
matchup with another of the best No. 2 starters on the West Coast,
Jonah Nickerson.
It’s tough for the UCLA seniors to quantify what sweep
would mean to them. They’ve witnessed the handover in
leadership from Gary Adams to John Savage, and battled through a
15-41 season a year ago to play for a title contender in their last
year.
“We’re just trying to take it one game at a time and
let everyone else talk about sweep because you can’t really
think about that because they’re such a good team,”
redshirt senior Chris Jensen said.
“It’s been fun here but we’re going to
regionals, obviously, and hopefully may go to the College World
Series ““ so that will be more fun,” senior Sean Smith
said.