When the No. 2-seeded Bruin baseball team takes the field against No. 3 seed Pepperdine (35-20) today at Blair Field in the Long Beach Regional, it will be the start of a new season.
No longer will the Bruins be 30-26 overall and 14-10 in Pac-10 play; their record will stand at 0-0. In the minds of the players and coaches, this weekend’s regional in Long Beach is a new chapter and a fresh start for the team.
“We have made it a new season,” coach John Savage said of the team’s mentality going into this weekend’s Long Beach Regional. “We are 0-0. We are looking to take a step further this season and taking it one pitch at a time, one game at a time. Our goal is to win the tournament this weekend, but we can’t do that if we don’t win the first game. We are focused on (today’s) game, working hard in practice, and we should be ready for the weekend.”
The players echoed the sentiments of their coach regarding their approach to this weekend’s regional, which also includes No. 1 seed Long Beach State (37-18) and No. 4 seed Illinois-Chicago (34-19).
“We are looking at it like a second season,” senior pitcher Tyson Brummett said. “We are 0-0 and have a new outlook. We hold our destiny in our hands and need to go out there and get the first win, and then keep the wins coming. It’s a new chapter for us.”
That first game comes today against Pepperdine, a team the Bruins have had tremendous success against this season. On April 17 at Jackie Robinson Stadium, the Bruins won 6-2 with relative ease. The two teams faced off again at Pepperdine on May 8 and the Bruins won 4-1.
Still, the team is adamant about not taking the Waves lightly in their regional matchup just because of their success against them this season. Unlike the previous two meetings, both teams will be throwing their No. 1 arms. The Bruins will start Brummett, a three-time Pac-10 Pitcher of the Week. During the regular season, Brummett posted a record of 9-5, a 3.60 ERA, struck out 103 batters, and had seven complete games.
On the mound for the Waves will be junior Barry Enright, who posted a 12-4 record and an ERA of 1.73 during the regular season. Enright has also received many accolades this season, such as being a third-team All-American and a semi-finalist for the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award. Enright will present a new challenge for the Bruins this time around.
“Enright is a good pitcher and we haven’t seen him yet this year, so he presents a challenge to us,” sophomore Brandon Crawford said. “They are a good team and have been a Top 25 team for most of the year, so we have to come out and play well.”
Brummett, who has yet to face Pepperdine this year, believes he will need to bring his A-game against the speedy Waves if the Bruins are to come away with a victory.
“They are a team that has great team speed,” Brummett said. “It’s important to get the first guys in the lineup out. Their first three players have good speed and it is important to keep them off the base paths. When those guys get on, they jump-start their offense.”
If the Bruins win against Pepperdine, they will play the winner of the game between Long Beach and Illinois-Chicago on Saturday at 7 p.m. The championship game is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Sunday. The Bruins are familiar with Long Beach as they have played the Dirtbags twice this season. But the Bruins did not have the same kind of success against the Dirtbags as they did against Pepperdine. The Bruins lost both meetings against Long Beach, 14-1 on Feb. 20 at Blair Field and 4-2 on March 13 at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
While the Bruins are familiar with Pepperdine and Long Beach, they do not know much about the fourth-seeded Flames of Illinois-Chicago, as the teams have yet to play one another. The Bruins knows that each team in the regional will present a competitive challenge.
“Illinois-Chicago is a legitimate fourth seed,” Savage said. “They are well-coached and played Vanderbilt tough. So they do present a challenge and I believe they are one of the best fourth seeds in the country. Then you have Long Beach. Long Beach played the toughest schedule in the country and was the only team to beat Arizona State twice at Arizona State. The teams will be difficult to get by but we have a great opportunity to achieve something great.”
This weekend, the Bruins will be looking for a different result from last year’s regional, which was played at Pepperdine. Last year, the Bruins won their first game against the UC Irvine Anteaters 3-2 before falling to Pepperdine 6-0 in the second game, and to the Missouri Tigers 2-1 in the final game. The Bruins believe the cause for their early exit last year was their inability to hit and drive in runs, and look to improve upon that facet of the game this weekend.
“We need to hit,” Crawford said. “We only scored four runs in three games last year, so we need to hit and score some runs. Playing at a big field like Blair Field it will be difficult to hit but we need to go out and play like we are capable of.”
While the Bruins did not achieve the desired results last year, it gave the team much-needed experience in postseason play. The team believes its experience in the postseason last year has prepared it for this weekend’s showdown.
“Whenever you have postseason experience, you will react better the second time,” Savage said. “It’s human nature, whether in sports or not, that you should be able to handle a situation better the second time around. We will be playing locally and there will be many distractions and a good crowd. But we have played in tough environments before, so we should be ready.”
Today at 3 p.m, the new season for the Bruins begins.