By Andrew Howard
Bruin Sports senior staff
ahoward@media.ucla.edu
After a punchless and frustrating loss to Pepperdine on Tuesday, the UCLA baseball team was looking to gain some momentum heading into a crucial home stand against No. 4 Arizona State this weekend.
With six runs in the first two innings and a brilliant performance from a taxed bullpen, the team found the momentum it was looking for on Wednesday.
The Bruins (23-18, 6-6 Pac-10) scored six runs in the first two innings against Loyola Marymount (21-24, 5-10 West Coast Conference), which proved to be more than enough to secure a 6-2 victory at Jackie Robinson Stadium on Wednesday night.
“It was a well-played game,” coach John Savage said. “I mean, we jumped on them early. We scored four in the first with a couple outs. … So we got the early lead and we held on to it, and we got good pitching and good defense. That’s what wins baseball games.”
The Bruin hitters were able to take advantage of Lion starter Ernie Cho (1-1), chasing him out of the game after scoring six runs off five hits in just 1.1 innings.
The big blow came in the first inning with two outs and the bases loaded. Right fielder Brady Dolan stepped up to the plate and hit a changeup down the left field line for a triple, clearing the bases and giving the Bruins an early 3-0 lead.
“I saw that they intentionally walked Brandon (Crawford), and I was thinking, “˜Just get a pitch to hit and put it in play, see what happens,'” Dolan said.
After another run in the first inning and two more in the second, the Bruins seemed well on their way to a blowout. But the Lion relievers were able to shut the Bruins down for the remainder of the game, allowing one hit and a total of four base runners the rest of the way.
“They brought in a guy that was throwing pretty well,” Dolan said. “I think he had us off balance a little bit; (we) couldn’t get timely hits. We had a second third opportunity with less than one out, and we didn’t get a timely hit there. But it’s baseball ““ we didn’t come up with timely hits, but luckily we jumped out to the early lead.”
While the offense fell silent, the UCLA’s pitching remained solid throughout. Freshman pitcher Matt Grace made his first collegiate start, turning in a respectable 4.1 innings of work, allowing two runs off six hits while striking out three.
“Mainly I just kind of wanted to take some innings up, because our bullpen’s been pretty taxed lately,” Grace said. “I would have wanted to go a little longer and take some innings off, put some relief on the bullpen. But I thought I hit spots pretty well, mixing up pitches with change, slider and curve pretty good.”
Another positive for the Bruins was the performance of relief pitcher Jason Novak (1-0). The junior had struggled so far this year, battling an early season arm injury and spotty command. Yet Novak turned in arguably his strongest outing of the season, pitching a season-high 3.2 innings, allowing no runs and one hit while striking out three.
Savage said he believes that Novak is still not 100 percent recovered from the elbow injury that kept him from opening up the season and guesses he was around 80 percent recovered.
For Novak, the solid outing was a tremendous relief and provided a wealth of confidence.
“I was actually pretty down on myself before this game,” Novak said. “It started really getting to me, and to have an outing like that kind of bumps your self-esteem up a little bit. You know that there’s still a chance, and you still have to go out there and compete.”
RASMUSSEN RETURNS: After missing 36 games due to a fractured left foot, freshman pitcher Rob Rasmussen returned for the Bruins, making an appearance in the ninth inning. Rasmussen pitched one inning, allowing no hits and one walk.
“(Rasmussen) we know is going to be a legitimate guy down the road, but he has been hurt with the foot,” Savage said. “But I think that you have to give him a lot of credit for not being rusty and coming out and pitching pretty much at the same level he left at.”
Rasmussen was injured on Feb. 27 against UC Santa Barbara after taking a comebacker off his left foot.