Every time a member of the UCLA baseball team leaves the clubhouse, he walks past a board.
On the board are six simple statements, standards that the team tries to live up to every time it takes the field: out-compete, out-commit, out-believe, out-scrap, out-sacrifice, be relentless.
“Those are our team goals,” coach John Savage said. “That’s what we want to be. … There are a lot of things that a team is built on, and those goals are the foundation of our team.”
The Bruins (18-14, 3-3 Pac-10) hope to start fulfilling those goals in arguably their most important series of the season this weekend, against the No. 10 Stanford Cardinal (19-11-2, 6-3 Pac-10).
There have been times this season when both players and coaches have felt that they have fallen short of achieving those goals, resulting in what has thus far been an inconsistent season for the Bruins. Yet junior Tim Murphy was quick to dismiss the notion that the season has been a failure so far.
“The season so far is not a disappointment,” Murphy said. “We still control our own destiny and we can still win the Pac-10 championship. But we need to go back to the basics and those (goals) are what we have built this team on.”
If the Bruins wish to have success against Stanford this weekend and earn a crucial series victory in Pac-10 play, the team will need to shut down what has been a high-powered Cardinal offense. Stanford has six players batting .313 or better, and the team has the ability to hit the long ball, led by junior Sean Ratliff’s 11 home runs and 32 RBIs.
“They are very good offensively,” Savage said. “They have a bunch of hitters that are juniors: (Jason) Castro, (Cord) Phelps. They are experienced Pac-10 hitters.”
The Bruins will attempt to quiet the potent Stanford lineup with a weekend rotation that is finally starting to solidify. Murphy will take the mound on Friday night, followed by Charles Brewer on Saturday and Gavin Brooks on Sunday. The rotation has begun to gain stability after early injuries.
“I feel very confident (in our weekend rotation),” Savage said. “It’s kind of how you plan at the beginning of the season with a left, right, left. Murphy needs to be that Friday guy, and Brewer needs to get into the sixth or seventh innings. And everyone knows what Gavin is able to do. He is one of the best Sunday starters in the country. He’s really a Friday guy, but he’s going on Sunday.”
One key for the Bruins this weekend will be to find the offensive potential the team showed in last weekend’s sweep of UC Riverside. UCLA scored 32 runs off 51 hits over the weekend, yet were unable to show the same power last Tuesday, managing only four hits in a 4-0 loss to Cal State Northridge.
With a big series on the horizon and the end of a 13-game home stand coming around the corner, designated hitter Cody Decker believes this team can beat anyone.
“We just can’t stand in our own way,” Decker said. “I have said this since my freshman year and I believe it now: I believe that there is no one that you can put in front of us that we can’t beat. It’s just a matter of if we stand in our way.”