The UCLA baseball team’s mission statement this season is “find a way.”
Coach John Savage will readily admit that he’s had to find a different way to win games early on ““ different from last year when power pitching and complete game appearances ruled Jackie Robinson Stadium.
Last weekend against Sacramento State, UCLA reverted back to finding a way to win games from the mound. The hits were there; No. 17 UCLA had 30 hits on the weekend, but Savage’s rotation that struggled mightily in the first two weekends of the year showed why the eighth-year coach has so much faith in it.
UCLA’s (8-3) three weekend sophomore starters combined to limit Sacramento State (4-7) to just six runs in the team’s first series sweep of the season, extending its win streak
to six.
“We need good starts for us to be any good down the road,” Savage said. “We have to have good, quality starts. Our expectations on the mound are very high. We’ve been good for several years.
The most redemptive outing of the weekend came from sophomore right-hander Nick Vander Tuig, who struck out seven in eight innings, both career highs, on Saturday in a 6-2 win. Vander Tuig could never mount confidence last season as the team’s closer, as he attempted to recover from Tommy John surgery, blowing five saves.
Savage hoped moving Vander Tuig to the more traditional starting role would re-energize him, but Vander Tuig couldn’t get deep into games in starts against Maryland and Baylor.
That wasn’t a problem Saturday.
“I learned a lot from those two outings,” Vander Tuig said. “I feel like I’m just going to get more comfortable as the season goes. It felt good to go longer than five innings and it definitely builds confidence.”
Sophomore shortstop Pat Valaika, one of six Bruins hitting over .300, said momentum has a lot to do with the team’s success at the dish.
“Last weekend we really turned it on and carried it over,” Valaika said.
“We’ve been really consistent. There’s not a weak portion in our lineup, and we’re all just trying to get the next guy to the plate.”