At this point in the season, the UCLA baseball team is going into every game with a “short-term memory” mentality, not dwelling on past shortcomings.
“It’s not about what’s happening right now,” said sophomore pitcher Cody Poteet. “It’s about where we want to get to and what we need to do to get there. The whole thing is a process.”
Last weekend, the Bruins gave up two out of three games against Cal Poly, losing the series.
In a Tuesday night matchup at the Jackie Robinson Stadium, the Bruins will attempt to learn from their mistakes and move past this blunder as they face the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos in what could prove to be a dynamic contest.
UC Santa Barbara is currently 3-1 after losing to San Jose State once in its three-game series last weekend.
The Gauchos are thriving offensively, recording 19 hits Sunday, a feat not reached by the team since February of 2010.
However, the Gauchos will face tougher competition on Tuesday night, as UCLA has been playing well defensively in the past weeks, despite losing strength up the middle because of position changes.
“When you lose your middle and have to move some things around in the outfield, it’s a blow,” said coach John Savage. “But everybody deals with this.”
In practice, the Bruins have been focusing on improving their consistency in at-bats, which was lacking last weekend, while also trying to gel the players together into their new positions.
Freshman Luke Persico, currently playing second baseman, a position he has never played before, has been flourishing under this change, Savage said.
“With everything that has been going on this year and the previous years, the expectations are really high,” Savage said.
The Bruins have a ways to go before they fully settle into their new roles, but they have hopes that they will slowly but surely get there before the end of the season.
“We just need to work on what we’ve been working on all fall and winter and just take the good from Saturday and Sunday and move on,” said junior catcher Shane Zeile.
The defending national champions have a lot to live up to, but without getting too ahead of themselves, Zeile said they will take it one game at a time, one pitch at a time.
“We feel good about our team,” Savage said. “We know (UC Santa Barbara) will be competitive … but we’re going to focus on Bruin baseball and who we are.”