After locking up the championship trophy in the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame display case, the players on the UCLA baseball team weren’t ready to lock their cleats in storage. Fresh off winning the program’s first national title, the Bruins weren’t about to take any time off.
Just a week after returning home from Omaha, 21 UCLA baseball players went back on the road, dispersing across the country to join various summer league teams.
The Bruins are looking to use the extra games to improve so they can pick up next season right where they left off.
“It’s just a huge learning process over the summer and I think that’s something that you just carry on to the season when it comes around the corner,” said rising sophomore pitcher James Kaprielian. “I think (the) summer’s a great time to get better and something all baseball players should take advantage of.”
The Cape Cod League in Massachusetts is considered the top league in the country, where the nation’s best players spend their summers training. Kaprielian, rising junior third baseman Kevin Kramer and rising junior right fielder Eric Filia earned a spot in the top league.
Other leagues, such as the West Coast League in the Pacific Northwest and the Northwoods League in the Midwest, are filled with younger, less experienced players.
Regardless of the prestige, Kaprielian sees all summer leagues as more useful than simply staying in Westwood and throwing a bullpen session. Having an actual batter to face allows him to work on areas of his such as jamming batters by pitching in on their hands and adding a few pitches to his repertoire. That wouldn’t be possible by simply playing catch at UCLA, he said.
Younger players also use summer league as a chance to get more playing time. While Kaprielian pitched only several innings of relief per week during UCLA’s season, he is making the transition to a starter this summer, providing him with more in-game opportunities.
Facing off against some of the best college players from around the country, such as LSU outfielder Mark Laird and Oregon outfielder Scott Heineman, allows Kaprielian and his fellow Bruins to make the most of their valuable in-game experience this summer, Kaprielian said.
“There’s guys who can play out here so you really got to be on your A-game. … That really sharpens me,” Kaprielian said.
While they are playing against the nation’s top players, the Bruins are also improving by playing alongside them. Kramer’s team, the Orleans Firebirds, includes Arizona’s Riley Moore and San Diego State’s Greg Allen, teams UCLA faced during its season.
Kramer said he is learning from his new teammates about different approaches to the game.
In his first week with his summer league team, Kramer said he already learned a new approach to batting from talking with the hitting coach and his teammates that he hopes to test out throughout the summer.
Beyond just getting more in-game experience, coach John Savage said the life experience of being put in an unfamiliar situation is just as valuable, both on and off the field.
“It’s different getting comfortable in uncomfortable settings,” Savage said. “Going on the road, crowds, different uniforms. Baseball is a game of repetition and it’s a game of doing it every day and this allows them the opportunity to do that.”
UCLA baseball was in unfamiliar territory itself after recently winning the program’s first-ever national title. Yet despite the high of winning a championship, Kramer said it wasn’t difficult to put that behind him and continue training.
“It’s been kind of a whirlwind, but at the same time, when it’s done, you got to get back to reality and get back to work,” Kramer said.