If UCLA wishes to prove that it is ready to be considered among the elite teams in college baseball, the Bruins need to play well against those elite teams.
This week against 12-time national champion California State University, Fullerton, the Bruins failed to make such a statement.
The No. 3 Bruins (5-3) were handily defeated by the Titans (5-4) in two games ““ 7-1 Tuesday and 13-2 Wednesday ““ ending their modest four-game winning streak.
The Bruins came into this midweek two-game series seemingly the better team, winners of five of their first six games, while the perennial powerhouse Titans were fresh off being swept by Stanford.
Yet that wasn’t the case this week.
“We just got outplayed in every phase (of the game),” coach John Savage said. “Pitching, defense, offense. You have to give Fullerton a lot of credit. They did a much better job of playing the game the last two nights.”
In both losses, the Bruins revealed the reasons why they have struggled mightily in the past against the Titans, notably poor plate discipline and the inability for pitchers to stop innings from escalating into multiple run frames.
“They took advantage of some mistakes that (our pitchers) made,” Savage said. “Our guys paid the price for leaving pitches in the middle of the plate. You just have to give them a lot of credit. They played the game harder, and they were more effective the last two days.”
On Tuesday, the Bruins returned to Goodwin Field for the first time since they were swept in the NCAA Super Regionals, and left with a familiar result.
Freshman pitcher Dan Klein (1-2) made his first collegiate start for the Bruins and was unable to repeat his stellar start to the season, pitching 5 1/3 innings, allowing six runs (four earned) off nine hits.
While the Titans were able to hit and score runs with effectiveness, the Bruins struggled mightily to make contact, a trend that has shown itself early in the season.
“Fullerton pitched us tough the last two nights,” first baseman Casey Haerther said. “They played good defense. I think we were lacking focus this series when it came to our at-bats. We strive for quality at-bats, and not too many of us put together quality at-bats this series.”
Jackie Robinson Stadium offered the Bruins no solace, as the Titans seemed to crush anything and everything that the Bruin pitchers threw at them, using two five-run innings to put the Bruins away.
Sophomore pitcher Charles Brewer (1-1) struggled in his second collegiate start, tossing 4 1/3 innings, allowing eight runs (six earned) off eight hits.
Meanwhile, the Bruin bats were silent yet again, as the Bruin hitters seemed too trigger-happy at the plate, often swinging at the first pitch.
“They just flat out beat us,” Brewer said. “They played like they wanted it more. That was the team that knocked us out of the Super Regionals last year and, I mean, we didn’t play like we wanted to come out and beat the crap out of them like we should have done.”