The streak goes on.
The UCLA baseball team extended its win streak to seven games on Tuesday when it snuck past UC Riverside 4-0.
Freshman pitcher Grant Watson excelled yet again in his midweek starter role, limiting the Highlanders to just two hits and improving to 3-0 as a starter on a chilly night at Jackie Robinson Stadium. Watson was efficient early on, throwing just 60 pitches through the first five innings and setting the Highlanders down in order three times.
“It’s been an unbelievable experience throwing for this team,” Watson said. “I’m enjoying it.”
The win streak wasn’t the only streak on the line Tuesday, as junior catcher Tyler Heineman extended his season-long hit streak to 12 games when he laid down a bunt single in the bottom of the fifth inning.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a streak this long,” said Heineman, adding that first-year hitting coach Rex Peters called for the bunt. “I’m not hitting it as well as I want to, but they’re finding holes. I’m lucky and our team is winning.”
In the top of the sixth, after Watson was pulled, freshman Shane Zeile walked two batters. Redshirt junior Chase Brewer then gave up a single to load the bases before hitting Eddie Young, seemingly sending in a run for the Highlanders. Home plate umpire Stephen Fritzoni determined, however, that Young turned into the pitch and beckoned him back to the plate.
Brewer then worked out of the bases-loaded jam and got an inning-ending double play to keep UC Riverside off the board.
Redshirt sophomore pitchers Ryan Deeter and junior Scott Griggs combined to finish the shutout.
On deck
UCLA will head to Athens, Ga., this weekend for its most important series of the season to date when it takes on No. 9 Georgia (10-2). It will be UCLA’s first road test of the season as it has played every game at home except a 19-7 win over Cal State Northridge on Feb. 21.
Georgia played the nation’s toughest schedule last season and made it to the final of the Corvallis NCAA Regional before falling to Oregon State to end its season.
This season has been the opposite, as Georgia has played series against Presbyterian, Winthrop and Western Illinois.
Still, Georgia is the highest-ranked nonconference team UCLA will play, and this is likely the team’s most daunting road trip since it traveled to Miami in 2007.
Coach John Savage knows extending the win streak past this weekend is unlikely and stealing even a game in Athens would be a feat, but he expects his junior-laden roster to be up to the challenge.
“You’re talking about a top-10 SEC team,” Savage said. “It’s a great experience for our players, and there’s a lot of things that could come out of this trip for us to learn from, but it’s not like this group hasn’t traveled. These guys have been places, so we don’t expect to be the rookie show.”