With two outs and one runner on base in the top of the ninth inning, pitcher Nick Kern felt more excitement than pressure as he threw on his gloves, walked up to the batter’s box and swung hard.
The redshirt freshman homered to left field on his first collegiate plate appearance, scoring a two-run home run to give the Bruins a 3-1 lead Thursday night.
“It all happened so fast,” said Kern. “I wasn’t really thinking too much, but I had a lot of adrenaline running, so I just went up there and it was kind of the fastest night of my life.”
Kern finished Thursday off strong, registering his first save of the season as he pitched a scoreless ninth inning to secure UCLA baseball’s first of two wins in its three game series against Utah this weekend.
With momentum from Thursday’s win, the Bruins went on to play an energetic series, despite losing 8-6 in Friday’s game.
“We fell short a little bit on Friday but that’s baseball, and we came back (Saturday) to have a good one and finish off the weekend right,” said senior infielder Kevin Williams.
What made the difference this weekend was that there was an undeniable aggression about the team’s performance, said junior catcher Shane Zeile.
“We all played well and we were aggressive,” Zeile said. “We got our swings off and good things happen when you’re aggressive.”
In previous games this season, the Bruins had trouble capitalizing on at-bats, being too passive on offense.
Both Zeile and Williams agreed there was more fervor out in the field against Utah.
Utah would return the favor Friday though. Heading into the bottom of the fifth inning, the Bruins held a solid 5-1 lead, until junior pitcher Grant Watson and freshman pitcher Grant Dyer allowed a seven-run inning, giving Utah an 8-5 lead.
“I don’t think we played badly,” Kern said in regard to Friday’s game. “We just had one inning that got away from us and stuff just didn’t fall our way.”
From the very beginning of Saturday’s game the Bruins had their eyes on the series win, scoring their first run in the second inning followed by four more in the third.
The Bruin offense simmered down in the next three innings before putting two more runs on the board in the seventh inning to give UCLA the 7-3 win.
“Whenever you win the series in the Pac-12 on the road, you feel good about it,” said coach John Savage. “It would have been nice to sit here and say that we swept them, but it’s just not that easy and to win that third game and to win the series was a big opportunity for us.”