After UCLA baseball’s 10-2 win over Pepperdine on Tuesday, Ty Moore tried to describe the factors that led to his standout four-RBI performance at the plate.
“I definitely felt comfortable in the box,” said the junior left fielder.
Then Moore paused a moment. After contemplating briefly, he attributed his success on Tuesday night to something that had happened over a week earlier.
“I think this confidence that I’ve gotten lately started back when we played that Sunday game at Stanford,” he said.
Entering that game on April 26, Moore was in his biggest slump all season. He hadn’t recorded a hit in 12 at bats, an oddity for someone who leads the team with a .363 batting average.
In his first at bat during that Sunday game, Moore’s slump looked to be continuing. He was behind in the count 1-2, on the verge of striking out for the fourth time in the series.
But then Moore made contact. It was only a grounder on the infield, but it was enough. Moore reached base with an infield single. The hitless streak was over.
“That’s what I try and do when I go up there, is just make solid contact and let the ball go where it goes,” he said.
After that play, the hits started getting bigger and bigger for Moore. In his next at bat, he doubled to right field. In the at bat after that, he laced a single through the left side for an RBI. In his last at bat of the game, he lined out to the pitcher, but Moore’s solid contact foreshadowed the hitting surge that was to come in the near future.
“Sunday (April 26), things started really clicking,” Moore said. “Ever since then I’ve been seeing the ball really well and just making solid contact.”
Other than a slight relapse Tuesday, when Moore went 0-for-4 against Long Beach State, the junior slugger has been on fire. He went 6-for-12 in the Gonzaga series this past weekend, including a walk-off single in the ninth inning on Sunday.
On Tuesday night against Pepperdine, Moore started the game off by doing something that coach John Savage constantly emphasizes: hitting the ball up the middle.
“(Tuesday) was a big night for using the middle of the field,” Savage said. “We took advantage of (Pepperdine’s) lack of command a little bit, we had 10 walks – that’s always productive.”
Moore specifically took advantage. He showed discipline at the plate all night, getting ahead in the count in three of his four plate appearances. The one time Moore didn’t gain an advantage in the count, he slammed the ball over the right-field fence for a three-run homer.
With Moore’s 2-for-3 night on Tuesday, his batting average since the start of that Sunday game at Stanford is .500 – he’s recorded 12 hits in 24 at bats.
Pitcher overcomes mini slump
Junior pitcher Cody Poteet was in a slight slump of his own during his start on Tuesday night against Pepperdine. He hit the first batter of the third inning and then totally lost command of the strike zone a few pitches later. Poteet threw eight balls in nine pitches, loading the bases with one out in the frame.
“I mean sometimes you get out of rhythm,” Poteet said. “Here at UCLA, we have a mental training coach, just stuff to get you back on that rhythm as quick as possible.”
Poteet did just that. He came back and struck out the next batter on a strong changeup and escaped the inning unscathed by inducing a groundout from the following batter.
“You gotta give (Poteet) credit – he got out of it,” Savage said. “(The game) could have been a little bit tighter if we hadn’t pitched out of problems as well as we did.”