The dichotomy between UCLA and USC was apparent Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.
The USC baseball team paraded onto the infield, jumping around and celebrating after its 8-4 victory over UCLA. Meanwhile, the Bruins shuffled off the field listlessly after allowing the Trojans to outscore them 4-1 over the game’s final four innings.
Up in the stands, the Trojan fans on the first-base side of the stadium were in full swing, chanting their fight song, band and cheerleaders in tow. The UCLA fans and band on the third-base side slowly walked up the bleachers after a three-hour-and-21 minute investment ended in a double play.
In a crosstown rivalry where seemingly everything between the schools is night-and-day, black-and-white, up-and-down, this weekend was not much different.
No. 6 UCLA (11-4) finished the annual Dodger Stadium College Baseball Classic with a 0-3 record. No. 25 USC (15-1) finished 3-0.
“We were riding pretty high going into the weekend, feeling pretty good about ourselves,” said coach John Savage. “We knew it was going to be a pretty competitive weekend and it was certainly disappointing.”
UCLA’s weekend got off to an inauspicious start Friday night, as the Bruins allowed a leadoff walk and committed a key error in the first inning against the No. 1-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores (11-4). The Bruins appeared to be bit rattled throughout the inning, as a throw from the outfield nearly sailed over the cutoff man and another throw skipped into the dugout.
From that point forward, UCLA threatened to score several times, loading the bases in the bottom of the second and getting the leadoff man on in the third and fifth. But every time a Bruin rally gained momentum, UCLA ran into outs, either by getting caught stealing or by failing to make contact in hit-and-run situations. The same theme held true all weekend, Savage said.
“It just seemed like we couldn’t get out of our own way a lot of times,” Savage said. “Every mistake we made on the mound, we paid for, (or) we had an at bat that wasn’t good enough in a crucial situation.”
On the other side of town, USC held the exact opposite fate. On Friday night against the No. 7-ranked Texas Christian University Horned Frogs, the Trojans executed a suicide squeeze play to win in walk-off fashion. Less than 24 hours later, the Trojans won in walk-off fashion once again, defeating Vanderbilt with a home run in the ninth.
“I’m proud of these kids … they faced really good pitching, they manned up to it, they got hits in big spots, they drew walks,” said USC coach Dan Hubbs.
Meanwhile, back in Westwood on Saturday night, UCLA’s woes continued, as the Bruins fell 3-1 to the Horned Frogs after taking an early lead.
On Sunday, UCLA produced far more offensively – four runs on 11 hits – but was unable to keep up with USC’s offense. The Trojans scored a run in six different innings, never allowing the Bruins to take a lead.
“We’ll definitely use this (experience) moving forward,” said redshirt junior center fielder Christoph Bono, who hit a two-run homer against USC.
After Sunday’s game, Savage said he’s not getting too caught up in the implications of this three-game weekend. The UCLA coach said he’s seen weekends like this before during seasons that produced winning outcomes.
“I can remember going into different years and looking at one weekend in 2010 we got swept against ASU and played for a national championship,” Savage said. “So you can’t blow it up too big, either way.”