Tuesday must not be the UCLA baseball team’s day.
After clinging to a slim lead through seven innings, UCLA fell
in a hard-fought 5-3 game Tuesday night to No. 10 Long Beach State
(21-11). The loss dropped the Bruins (17-19, 3-3) to 0-6 this year
in Tuesday games and 0-7 in midweek games. It also marked the
year’s first three-game losing streak, which comes at quite
an inopportune time as they head into this weekend’s big
Pac-10 series at cross-town rival USC.
“We were this close to playing a good game,” said a
frustrated head coach Gary Adams. “They are obviously a good
team and took advantage of our few mistakes.”
In a surprise move, Adams chose freshman Daniel Miltenberger to
make his college debut against one of the country’s top
teams. Miltenberger started and pitched three rocky, but effective
innings, allowing a lone run before giving way to experienced
junior Chris Cordeiro. The versatile Cordeiro, who has played every
role from starter to closer and Tuesday’s middle relief role,
turned in an excellent fourth through seventh innings before the
49ers touched him for three runs on a home run and three hits, all
with two outs in the eighth.
“I was impressed with how composed Dan was for being a
freshman in his first outing,” said redshirt freshman catcher
Chris Denove.
“It was also good to see Chris bounce back after a few
rough outings. I didn’t see a difference in how he looked in
the last inning from the first four, they just started getting
lucky and hitting his stuff.”
The eighth inning runs would prove to be the difference in the
game, as the Bruin offense ran up against the wall that is 49er
pitching. Coming into the game, Long Beach pitchers had an
exceptional college baseball 3.35 ERA, and they effectively shut
down UCLA after the third inning.
Cordeiro’s record fell to 0-2 with the loss.
Denove put the Bruins on the board first with a second-inning
rocket over the fence in dead center. RBI singles by sophomore Wes
Whisler and sophomore Ryan McCarthy gave UCLA a 3-1 lead in the
third.
However, Long Beach then replaced its starter Scott Shoemaker
with a string of four relievers that struck out the Bruins seven
times on four hits, shutting them out through the final six
innings.
Though it did not account for the loss, the Bruin defense again
suffered damaging miscues that led to an unearned run in the sixth,
requiring Cordeiro to labor unnecessarily. Being the top team it
is, Long Beach took full advantage of every one of the young
Bruins’ mistakes.
Highlights for UCLA in the game included designated hitter Brett
McMillan’s 2-for-2 performance with a walk and hit-by-pitch.
Sean Carpenter also went 2-for-4.
Thankfully for UCLA, since the match was not a Pac-10 game, the
loss meant little for its record. The downside is that it puts the
Bruins on their heels for three of the more important games of the
year against the ever-tough, but underachieving Trojans (15-17,
2-4).
“The next few days we’re gonna do the same things we
always do: groundballs, BP, the pitchers throwing bullpen,”
Adams said. “We must get better in the next two days of
practice.”