UCLA baseball has yet another chance to turn its season around this weekend.
The Bruins, who have lost eight of their last 10 games, are still just one weekend sweep away from vaulting into the top three of the Pac-12 conference standings. They have their conference comrades to thank for that, as there’s only a 2.5 game difference between the No. 3 team and the No. 9 team in the conference.
“You don’t check people off in this conference,” said coach John Savage. “There’s just too much parity.”
UCLA (14-16, 5-7 Pac-12) is currently the No. 9 team in the conference and will face the No. 4 team – Washington (17-11, 7-5) – for a three-game set starting Friday night. The two teams are separated by just two games in the league standings.
The key to the series will likely be the starting pitching, with both teams having struggled to pick up quality starts during the conference season. Washington’s Friday starter – righty Noah Bremer – has been solid outside of Pac-12 play, but has a 4.84 ERA in his four conference starts. Meanwhile, UCLA’s Friday starter – sophomore righty Griffin Canning – has a 5.40 ERA in his four Pac-12 starts.
“We’ve given up a lot of hits; we’ve never given up hits, but we’re giving up hits,” Savage said this past weekend. “There’s just a lot of hits on the field right now.”
The positive for the Bruin starters is that they’ve gone deep in games. In 12 conference games, UCLA’s starting pitcher has gone at least six innings in 10 of them.
The Huskies cannot say the same about their starting pitchers. As a matter of fact, the story of their starters is the complete opposite: Only two of their 12 conference starts have lasted six innings.
On Sundays, Washington has gone with a by-committee approach, using multiple bullpen pitchers based on the situation. The Huskies are yet to have a Sunday starter pitch for longer than two innings in a game.
The X-factor for the Huskies is senior closer Troy Rallings, who has one of the best ERAs in the nation at 0.740. Similar to former UCLA closer David Berg, Rallings can string several innings together at a time, making Washington’s short-lived starts less of a liability. In a 6-1 win over Arizona State this past Sunday, Rallings pitched the final six innings of the game, allowing just one run.
The key for the series, then, will likely be for UCLA to break into Washington’s bullpen early, forcing the Huskies to show their hand and deal Rallings. UCLA knows Rallings well, as he went head-to-head for six innings straight with Berg in last year’s 13-inning duel at Jackie Robinson Stadium.