After a long and difficult journey, reaching the top of the mountain is an elating feeling, but it’s also a fleeting one.
Last season ended with the UCLA baseball players defying expectations and reaching the summit, where they formed their own mountainous dog pile as they hoisted the NCAA championship trophy.
The players are now at ground level once again as trailblazers looking to forge a new path to the top. But as they embark on this new adventure, with their season beginning on Friday against Portland, one question ultimately hangs over their heads: Will they be able to repeat as champions?
“The team has been talking about not repeating, but just trying to win another championship,” said junior pitcher Grant Watson. “It’s a different team, it’s a different year, so we’re going to have to find a different way to get to the end-all goal.”
The climb to that goal could be even steeper this year, with opponents now gunning to take down the defending champions.
“We’re going to embrace the ‘X’ on our back,” said coach John Savage. “We do realize that when you win a national championship, that comes with that. We’re looking forward to it.”
Fork in the road
The team’s challenges did not end with the trophy being placed in the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame.
Six players with remaining college eligibility signed professional contracts after they were taken in the 2013 MLB Draft, including top starting pitchers Adam Plutko and Nick Vander Tuig, setup man Zack Weiss and shortstop Pat Valaika.
It will now be up to the team’s younger players to try to fill the big shoes those players left behind.
“Those guys you can’t really replace,” said senior center fielder Brian Carroll. “It’s difficult to do, but I have the utmost faith, and I know the guys this year – they’re up for the challenge.”
Losing players to the pros was expected, but there was quite the unexpected drama after the June draft.
Savage flirted with the idea of becoming the next baseball coach at crosstown rival USC before receiving a contract extension in mid-July to stay at UCLA through 2025.
However, the predicaments did not end there.
In August, a U.S. district court ruling almost left the Bruins without a home stadium as it struck down the lease for Jackie Robinson Stadium by stating that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs inappropriately leased the land to UCLA. An appeal, which was filed in October, allowed the Bruins to play the 2014 season in the stadium, but this issue still lacks a long-term resolution.
Three steps back
While the Bruins were prepared for the departure of their top players to the next level, they did not expect to have three players sidelined with significant injuries before the season even got underway.
Junior outfielder Eric Filia will miss the entire season as he recovers from labrum surgery to repair a tear in the shoulder joint. He was the Bruins’ best hitter in the College World Series last year. As a result, redshirt sophomore Christoph Bono will take over in right field.
Last year’s starting third baseman, junior Kevin Kramer, was slated to move over to shortstop to take over for Valaika, but could be relegated to designated hitter duties for the foreseeable future because of a shoulder injury.
Furthermore, senior infielder Kevin Williams will be out until mid-March with an undisclosed injury, leaving sophomore infielders Trent Chatterton and Brett Urabe to pick up the slack from the middle.
“We do have some injuries that we’re battling right now,” Savage said. “We have some pretty good depth in spots, but right now we haven’t quite yet decided how we’re going to play it on Friday.”
Putting their best foot forward
Because of the number of players that left or are currently out with injuries, there will be a lot of fresh faces getting playing time for the Bruins this season.
Sophomore pitchers James Kaprielian and Cody Poteet will join the weekend rotation as the Friday and Sunday starters respectively, while Watson bridges the gap on Saturday.
Sophomore Ty Moore and freshman Brett Stephens will split time in left field, and junior Chris Keck will take over Kramer’s spot at third base.
The upperclassmen do not want the young guns to come in and try to replace the players that left for the MLB. Rather, the upperclassmen just want them to be themselves.
“They’re just guys that are talented, and they’re young, but they’re going to go out there and they’re going to compete their butts off,” said junior closer David Berg. “The biggest thing is not really worrying about trying to be as good as they were; just be the best that you can and compete with what you got.”
With all of this young talent expected to contribute this season, it is up to seniors like Carroll and first baseman Pat Gallagher to mentor them.
“We’ve been to Omaha two out of the last three years, and we know how things are run and how things should be handled, so I think it’s a huge part for us to step in and show the guys how UCLA baseball is played and how to win games,” Gallagher said.
Last year’s team did that through pitching and defense while scrapping together for offense. Although pitching and defense will still be the main components of the formula, the Bruins expect to produce more offense this season.
“I think our team identity is going to be pitching and defense, year in and year out, but you’ll see we are going to be a little bit more offensive than we were last year,” Savage said. “(Last year) we were very opportunistic, and it was all situational hitting. It’s not like we’re bunting guys left and right. We want to swing the bats, but we also want to play smart baseball, move runners along and get them in.”
Savage added that the team is currently in the early stages of the process of building new chemistry and a new identity that will be crucial to its success this season.
As the players figure this out and search for their route back to the top of their sport, they will lean on their highly experienced coaches to guide them to the right path.
“They know what’s going to come up throughout a game and throughout a season, and (we) just (need) to really trust in our preparation and the way that they tell us to do things,” Berg said. “We got a lot of talent, but we just got to go out there and execute what they teach us.”