UCLA baseball went to Arizona for a duel in the desert with the conference’s best offense against its superb pitching, but left Hi Corbett Field licking its battle wounds.
Several of the team’s most important players, senior outfielder Brian Carroll and junior closer David Berg, could potentially be out with injuries sustained in Sunday’s walk-off loss to the Wildcats.
Carroll came out of the game in the sixth inning with a shoulder injury after colliding with sophomore outfielder Ty Moore as they both dived for a ball hit to left center. Berg had to leave the game with a biceps injury after warming up to pitch the ninth after throwing 2.2 innings of scoreless relief. Doctors will evaluate both players on Monday to determine the extent of the injuries.
UCLA (19-15, 7-5 Pac-12) wound up losing two out of three to Arizona (17-20, 6-9) to drop its third consecutive weekend series; the Bruins have now lost seven of its last 10.
“We can grow from it. We talked about it – obviously we’re as banged up as any team out there. We need to have guys step up,” said coach John Savage. “Now if Brian and David are out, that even compounds the injuries (even more), but I told the team afterwards that if you weren’t capable of doing the job, you wouldn’t be in uniform. … We’ll only get better from this situation that we’re in.”
UCLA got off to a hot start on Friday night by pounding out 14 hits for eight runs. Carroll had two RBIs and sophomore shortstop Trent Chatterton had three of his own.
Sophomore pitcher James Kaprielian was lights-out as he shut down the top offense in the conference for seven innings in the shutout victory.
“I feel like I’m getting better every outing, which is what it’s really about,” Kaprielian said. “I feel like I’m honestly learning and trying to take in as much information as I can.”
The offensive attack did not carry over to Saturday night, as the Bruins struggled to string hits together against Wildcat redshirt sophomore pitcher Cody Hamlin, who threw a complete game.
UCLA left the tying run in scoring position in the seventh and eighth innings and only hit 1-9 with runners in scoring position for the game.
“We had our opportunities. … We just didn’t make enough early adjustments,” Savage said after Saturday’s loss. “We didn’t (have) enough quality at-bats; I think we had 10 quality at-bats out of 35, and that won’t get it done in a tight game like we had tonight.”
Before the aforementioned injuries on Sunday, UCLA was in the ball game and even held a 4-2 lead up until the fourth when the Wildcats scored three runs. The Bruins tied it at five in the fifth and the game would stay tied until the bottom of the ninth.
After Berg had to come out with the bicep injury, the Bruins ended the weekend in a heartbreaking fashion. Freshman Scott Burke and redshirt sophomore Jake Ehret were unable to stop the Wildcats from pushing across the winning run on a high chopper infield single that prevented a play from being made at the plate.
“They pitched their butt(s) off,” Berg said. “I think that the hardest part is that those guys really were a little bit down on themselves, but I did all I could to tell them ‘Hey, you guys went out there and made good pitches; they just happened to get something to go their way.’”