UCLA senior closer David Berg toed the rubber as the baserunners on first and second took their leads.
Berg was in his second inning of work, but this was his most tense situation yet. With the game tied at 4-4 with two outs in the top of the ninth, Berg had to deliver a critical 2-1 pitch to Washington’s RBI leader, Branden Berry.
Berry, itching for the go-ahead hit, was ready to swing. The veteran Berg then delivered a sweeping slider, and Berry was way out in front, swinging and missing.
As the count went full, Berg went back to that slider again, achieving the same result, keeping the score tied and drawing cheers from the fans as he headed to the dugout.
UCLA’s closer did the same thing the next inning, and the next inning, and the inning after that – all the way until the 13th inning.
In the bottom of the 13th, Trent Chatterton finally made Berg’s career performance pay off in a win, as the junior second baseman lofted a walk-off sac fly to deep right-center field, unleashing a frenzy on the field.
In a back-and-forth rubber game that featured momentum swings and game-saving diving plays on both sides, the walk-off 5-4 win was a cathartic moment for No. 9 UCLA (14-5, 2-1 Pac-12).
“We hadn’t really had a good comeback win yet, so it was just big time,” said Berg, who finished with a career-high six innings pitched and eight strikeouts. “Just in terms of belief, you feel that, it builds for you when you can get a win like that.”
Berg’s ability to persist inning after inning, far beyond his normal pitch count, served as inspiration for a UCLA offense that struggled to produce runs all weekend against Washington (13-7, 1-2).
“It was definitely up and down the whole game.” Chatterton said. “Bergy did a great job out there, I don’t know how many innings he pitched. He was supposed to pitch one, and then he went (six) and it was unbelievable.”
Chatterton added that games like Sunday’s extra-inning win can serve as turning points in the season. He compared it to UCLA’s 10-inning game at Arizona State back on March 30, 2013, which the Bruins won 12-10 to avoid a three-game sweep.
Berg said the big thing about Sunday’s game is that it will be in the team’s collective memory moving forward, restoring players’ confidence in pressure situations.
“You always have that in the memory banks now – like ‘Hey, just like Washington, we got this. Keep battling, and we’ll go from there,’” Berg said.
Coach John Savage immediately acknowledged after Sunday’s game that Berg’s career outing will inhere in his memory for not only the rest of this season, but a long time to come.
“David Berg has been the best closer I believe in the country for let’s call it three years. And (Sunday), what can you say?” Savage said with a laugh. “I don’t know if it was his finest moment, but it ranks up there as one for the memory banks, because that performance there was as good as it gets.”