College baseball has a long season and teams want to make sure they get hot at just the right time. UCLA has found exactly the right time to be on top of its game.
This weekend, it swept Washington on the road.
“This is just where we want to be playing our best,” junior outfielder Jeff Gelalich said. “Everyone has struggles in the middle of the season, but hopefully all those are behind us.”
The first game of the series was a display of sophomore pitcher Adam Plutko’s finesse, a 2-0 shutout in which he handled seven innings. Although the Bruin bats were not on fire, the defense managed to hold down the lead.
“We played defense really well all weekend,” coach John Savage said. “They didn’t score a lot of runs. We needed to do that well down the finish here.”
Although Saturday began with a 3-1 deficit for UCLA, a combination of power hitting and disciplined defense carried the Bruins to an 11-3 win over the Huskies.
“The term “˜Hitting is contagious’ really held true. … We just steamrolled through,” junior first baseman Cody Regis said.
For most of Sunday’s series finale, UCLA held a 2-0 lead until Washington tied it in the seventh. It took runs from sophomore infielder Pat Valaika and junior center fielder Beau Amaral to earn the 4-2 victory as well as the sweep.
While UCLA ended up with the third win, Savage acknowledged that it was not easy.
“It’s very difficult to sweep anybody, let alone a really good team. We were very fortunate today,” Savage said after Sunday’s game.
It’s been said time and time again, but the Bruins have been a tough road team all season. Now at 16-3 on the road and at neutral sites, the Bruins seem to know what they need to do to make opposing ballparks theirs.
“We pride ourselves on coming into opposing stadiums; we have the mentality that we want to take it over and feel as at home as possible,” Regis said.
It would appear the Bruins are just where they want to be ““ in contention for first in the Pac-12 with strength on both sides of the plate.
“Everybody’s playing for seeding, so this was a critical series. We have big weekends ahead of us, and we need to finish strong,” Savage said.