Baseball suffers sweep in USC weekend series

A season of celebrating the sweet spoils of a national championship has quickly turned sour.

UCLA baseball (22-19, 9-9 Pac-12) has lost four of its last five weekend series and is potentially in danger of missing the postseason as its RPI continues to plummet.

The latest series loss came at the hands of crosstown rival USC (24-17, 12-9), which swept UCLA at Jackie Robinson Stadium this weekend en route to its ninth straight victory.

The sweep is UCLA’s first since 2010, when the Bruins lost all three home games against the Arizona State Sun Devils. It is the first weekend series loss to USC since 2008 and the first season series loss to USC since 2005, which was coach John Savage’s first season at the helm for the Bruins.

“We got to learn from this. It’s just too easy to be negative,” Savage said. “I could chew out the team (but) … I learned from (coach John Wooden) in terms of reading everything about him that when they need you (most) is when they’re at this critical time.”

The Trojans got off to a fast start on Thursday night, staking a four-run lead before the Bruins even had a chance to bat. Bruin sophomore starting pitcher James Kaprielian had shaky command in the inning, eventually giving up a three-run home run.

“I’ve got to learn from my mistakes, learn from past outings I’ve had and continue to try to get better during the week,” Kaprielian said. “I think I had two of my probably best bullpens that I’ve had this week, but it obviously didn’t translate to the game.”

Kaprielian recovered to throw five scoreless innings before giving up a run in the seventh. The Trojans added five runs in the ninth inning to cap the 10-0 shutout.

Junior pitcher Grant Watson did not start off Friday’s game with great command either, as he walked and hit a batter in the first inning, leading to an early run for USC.

UCLA would take the lead in the second as redshirt senior third baseman Aaron Weimer knocked in his first career RBI on a fielder’s choice. A second run scored on the play as a result of an error.

The Trojans scored two more runs in the fourth off Watson. These were all the runs that USC would need as, despite Watson’s quality start, he would lose his fifth straight game.

Saturday looked like a different story for the Bruins as they took a 4-0 lead to the ninth behind seven scoreless innings from sophomore pitcher Cody Poteet.

With junior closer David Berg sidelined with a biceps injury, Savage turned to redshirt freshman Nick Kern, who had earned saves in his previous two attempts, to close it out. Kern proceeded to give up three straight singles, a walk, and another single to make it 4-2, before Savage called in junior pitcher Max Schuh.

The southpaw could not find the strike zone and walked the only batter he faced on four pitches. Freshman pitcher Grant Dyer was brought in to try to stop the bleeding, but three singles later, USC had a 7-4 lead and the sweep.

“(Kern and Schuh) have been so good. They’ve set up all year and now they gotta close and closing’s different,” Savage said. “It’s unfortunate, but it’s baseball. It happens and we got to bounce back.”

The Bruins need to rebound quickly, because as the losses pile on, their chances of having the opportunity to return to Omaha only grow slimmer.

“You never want to get swept by anybody, no matter who it is,” said sophomore outfielder Ty Moore. “We can’t afford to get swept at this time of the year.”