Someone’s losing streak will come to an end Tuesday night when UCLA baseball hosts Cal State Northridge.
The Bruins (12-13, 4-5 Pac-12) have dropped five in a row heading into the matchup with the Matadors (20-8, 0-3 Big West), who have fallen in four straight.
When the two teams met on a Tuesday in early March at CSUN’s offense-friendly home ballpark, UCLA lost a 20-12 slugfest.
It’s the type of result that’s become all too common for the Bruins, who have lost all four of their midweek games, giving up double-digit runs in each.
“Pitching on Tuesdays has been really bad,” said coach John Savage last week. “The guys can’t get out of their own way, can’t throw strikes, not competitive enough. That will continue if they don’t turn it around.”
Savage has tried three different pitchers in the midweek slot – all have faltered. Last week against Cal State Fullerton, it was sophomore righty Jake Bird who started and took the brunt of a 14-7 loss to the Titans. Bird lasted just four outs and gave up six earned runs.
He will get another chance Tuesday against CSUN though, and Savage still believes the sophomore is the solution in the Tuesday starter slot.
“He struggled in getting into good counts and it’s easy to hit when it’s 3-1, 2-1, 2-0 constantly – then you’ve got to throw the ball over the plate,” Savage said after Bird’s start against Fullerton. “We know he’s capable, he just tried to do too much tonight.”
Aside from the poor performance against Fullerton, Bird has been a strong option as a starter and out of the bullpen, producing a 3.26 ERA in just under 20 innings.
He has recorded half of his outs this season on groundballs, working with a low-90s sinker that should be important in limiting the Matadors’ pair of talented power hitters, Branden Berry and Albee Weiss. Each have cranked six home runs this year.
Berry blasted one of his long balls and drove in six runs in CSUN’s earlier win over UCLA, which came as part of a 13-game win streak for the Matadors.
In the recent string of four losses for CSUN, Berry has struck out eight times, more than doubling his season total.
Weiss, on the other hand, has been prone to the punchout all season, striking out in over 30 percent of his at-bats. The right-handed-hitting catcher has also displayed massive platoon splits, producing a slash line of .381/.480/.524 against lefties and just .207/.271/.402 against righties.