The preseason college baseball polls have been released, and for
the first time in years, UCLA is ranked highly. The Bruins are
ranked No. 13 by Baseball America and No. 26 by Collegiate
Baseball.
The Bruins have not been in the top 15 since 2000, when they
went to a super regional and finished the season at No. 15.
“(The ranking) is recognition (of) a lot of hard work from
a lot of players,” UCLA baseball coach John Savage said.
“It goes to show you that the players have worked hard and
the coaches have worked hard on the recruiting side of it.
We’re still in the process of building the
program.”
Savage, entering his third season as the Bruins’ coach,
inherited a program that was in rebuilding mode after 2004, when
former coach Gary Adams retired and nearly every significant
contributor to that NCAA Tournament team left either to graduation
or the MLB Draft.
But Savage has put together some deep and talented recruiting
classes; the one which included this year’s freshmen was also
ranked No. 13 by Baseball America. That, combined with a berth in
the NCAA Regionals in 2006, has led to UCLA’s current
national recognition.
“It helps with recruiting, but last year’s success
on the field helps the most,” Savage said. “The fun
part is you’ve got to go out and see where you’re at.
When the season starts, the rankings don’t mean a
thing.”
What makes the preseason ranking even more surprising is that
UCLA lost a lot of players from last year’s team. The Bruins
had a record 12 players drafted in June.
“A majority of our players are sophomores and
freshman,” Savage said. “If you really look at the
classes, we have very few juniors and seniors. We’re still
young. We’re still learning.”
Unlike the 2004 season, when the nine players were drafted after
the Bruins made the tournament, this year’s team has six key
players who were freshmen a year ago returning to the lineup.
Shortstop Brandon Crawford played on the U.S. National Team over
the summer, third baseman Jermaine Curtis led the team in batting
average last year (.336), and catcher Ryan Babineau won Freshman
All-American honors from Collegiate Baseball.
“They’re much stronger. More experienced. Had great
summers, so the expectations (are) on them. We know that those guys
have to get better,” Savage said.
On the mound, Savage will be looking for young pitchers to
replace Dave Huff and Hector Ambriz, who were the team’s top
two starting pitchers a year ago and were both drafted. Savage said
highly recruited high school All-American Charles Brewer will be
one of the team’s starting pitchers this year, and among
players battling for the other spots in the starting rotation
include Tyson Brummett, Brendan Lafferty, Jason Novak and Paul
Schmidt.
UCLA’s season begins on Feb. 2 with a three-game series at
home against No. 23 Winthrop.