At first glance, the numerical difference between the No. 3 and No. 5 teams in the country is a mere two: the spots separating them in the national rankings.
More like 18, as in the number of runs by which No. 3 Arizona State outscored No. 5 UCLA in sweeping this weekend’s three-game series at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The Sun Devils (38-5, 14-4 Pac-10) capped their perfect weekend with a 12-3 victory on Sunday.
Arizona State also won Friday’s game 5-1 and Saturday’s game 6-1.
In the finale, UCLA (30-10, 7-8) was once again victimized by the long ball. Arizona State hit three two-run home runs off of Bruin starter Rob Rasmussen, including a first-inning blast by second baseman Zack MacPhee. The round-trippers allowed the Sun Devils to build an insurmountable 8-2 lead after five innings.
“You’ve got to give credit to Arizona State, they played really well,” UCLA first baseman Justin Uribe said. “I think we made strides offensively, and our defense was pretty solid. We got quality starts for the most part, they just really swung the bats well.”
Uribe was one of the few Bruins whose hard-hit line drives did not land in Sun Devil gloves. The senior went 2-for-4 on Sunday, including a double that started a two-run rally in the second inning.
But the UCLA bats were mute in comparison to their Arizona State counterparts. One of the bigger thorns in the sides of UCLA pitchers was Sun Devil center fielder Johnny Ruettiger, who went 6-for-10 over the three games and added a diving catch in right center to rob catcher Steve Rodriguez of extra bases in Sunday’s game. The Bruins also had problems retiring brothers Riccio and Raoul Torrez who each had an RBI in every game and combined for nine over the course of the weekend.
“It was just one of those weekends where a couple things here or there, maybe things are different,” Uribe said. “Nothing really to hang our heads about I guess.”
Another key theme of the weekend was the production of UCLA’s young hitters ““ or, in this case, lack thereof. Freshmen Cody Keefer and Cody Regis, among others, had their fair share of toils both at the plate and in the field, and were left out of the lineup Sunday after struggling in Saturday’s defeat.
“We really have a lot of young players, and they’re having good years, and right now they’re getting an education,” UCLA coach John Savage said. “It’s not uncommon that you see young position players go through something like this and this is the time of the year that unfortunately they’re getting hit with it.”
The three losses drop the Bruins to 7-8 since they opened the season with a 22-game winning streak. Most of those games have come against foes from the Pac-10, which Savage called the “best league in the country right now top to bottom.” It is the second consecutive series loss at home for UCLA, with Oregon recently taking two out of three from the Bruins.
Despite the sweep, the Bruins felt that they were a few bounces away from being right in the series.
“It was one of those weekends where a lot of things went in their favor,” Savage said. “That’s baseball and you’ve got to deal with the ups and downs. They were the better team this weekend, that was clear.”