Having fallen out of the four major NCAA baseball polls and accumulated a low RPI with its recent play, UCLA baseball’s playoff chances are very much in question with 14 games left to play in the regular season.
That’s why, for coach John Savage, it’s all hands on deck in terms of using his pitching staff. Or in this case, all arms on deck.
“Every man on deck, no doubt,” Savage said. “We’re (22-19-1) and we have (14) games left, you want to get to that 30-win mark for sure, at least give yourself the opportunity to be on the board when the selection day comes.”
As Tuesday was a bullpen session day for a couple of his starters, he decided to throw starting pitchers junior Grant Watson and sophomore Cody Poteet into the game against UC Santa Barbara instead.
“We’re trying to win games. Every game is so critical right now. We have to get our RPI in position,” Savage said. “I think you may see some of those starters again. They’re willing to do it. … The fact that we need wins, everybody’s on board right now.”
Watson gave up a hit against the only batter he faced to give the Gauchos runners at the corners with two outs, but Poteet relieved him and escaped the jam.
UCSB had multiple opportunities to score against the Bruin bullpen, but UCLA’s relievers threw eight scoreless innings in the tie game that was called because of darkness.
One reason for the bullpen’s dominance was the return of junior closer David Berg, who missed the previous seven games with a bicep injury.
“Well, what do you think?” Savage rhetorically responded when asked if Berg’s return was sorely needed. “Yes, the answer is 100 percent yes. The guy has that calming presence about him and that closing presence.”
His return to the mound allowed junior Max Schuh and redshirt freshman Nick Kern to step back into their normal roles as setup men. This comfort of having Berg back might have helped them rebound from this weekend, as they no longer had to deal with the pressure of trying to fill Berg’s shoes.
“We kinda got back on our feet. A couple of guys who had a rough weekend out of the pen really came back and pounded it and went after it,” Berg said. “Anytime the bullpen throws eight scoreless … usually it means that you won a game, but still we competed and we didn’t give an inch and if we had, it would have been a loss, so it was huge to see guys step up the way they did.”
One unexpected bright spot that stepped up was freshman Scott Burke, who has normally been used in mop-up duty this season. Relieving Berg to start the 10th, he pitched three scoreless frames and according to Savage, could have turned his young career around.
“Whenever you take your closer out after the ninth and you bring in a freshmen on the road against a top-30 team and he throws three shutout (innings) … (it) was a major, major day for him,” Savage said. “He made a major statement, I thought that was his best outing of the year. He may be a different guy from here on out, which we hope he is.”
Playing hurt
Senior outfielder Brian Carroll, who recently returned from a shoulder injury, was lifted from Tuesday’s game in the seventh inning on defense.
Carroll continues to insist that his shoulder is “fine” and that it was a situational move, but Savage revealed that Carroll is still playing hurt and can’t throw runners out at the plate at the moment, resulting in his removal in case that situation arose in the midst of the game with Santa Barbara.