Wednesday, April 3, 1996
Bruins hold fast for five innings, Fullerton steps up to capture
18-8 winBy Brian Purcell
Daily Bruin Contributor
Tuesday night’s baseball game between No. 10 UCLA and No. 1 Cal
State Fullerton was a close, hard-fought game for about five
innings. After that, the flood gates opened and the Bruins were
overwhelmed by an 18-8 score.
UCLA (19-12) led 8-5 entering Fullerton’s half of the fifth, and
starting pitcher Nick St. George seemed to be out of the inning
when, with two outs, he got a Titan batter to lift a fly ball that
appeared to be the third out of the inning. Unfortunately for the
Bruins, the ball was dropped in the outfield, and Fullerton would
end up scoring five runs in the inning. From there, the Titan lead
would just continue to grow.
"After the fifth inning, I felt like some of our players just
quit," UCLA head coach Gary Adams said. "Some of them kept playing
hard, but I could see others just give up. That’s what really
disappointed me, and it’s exactly what I talked to them about after
the game."
Early bright spots for the Bruins included St. George (1-2), who
pitched effectively for four-and-two-thirds innings before becoming
the hard-luck loser, and leftfielder Jon Heinrichs, who was
three-for-five with three RBIs including a three-run home run in
the fourth inning. The home run to straightaway left field was the
first of the year for the junior leadoff hitter.
The decisive blow for the Titans (31-2) was Steve Chatham’s
three-run home run off of the left field scoreboard in the fifth
inning, which gave them a 10-8 lead. These were the last runs they
would score in the fifth, but they would continue to tack on runs
in every inning thereafter.
Chatham was 4-for-4 with six RBIs for the Titans until being
pulled for a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning. The player who
pinch-hit for him, former UCLA outfielder Scott Seal, would go on
to hit a two-run home run of his own in the bottom of the eighth
inning. This drive off of the screen in right field capped the
scoring in the game.
UCLA helped Fullerton’s cause during the game by committing four
errors after the fifth inning that were attributed to a "lack of
intensity," according to Adams.
Adams hopes that his 25-minute postgame talk will help point his
team in the right direction as it continues Six-Pac play this
weekend with a three-game set at Cal. UCLA is currently 10-5 in
league play, which puts them in second place, one game behind USC.
The top three teams from the Six-Pac will most likely advance to
regionals, so winning league games is clearly the most pressing
issue for the Bruins.
"League games are definitely most important, so I understand
that non-league games may be played with a little less intensity.
But I would think that a game against Fullerton is as close to a
league game as you can get," Adams said. "We need to play better
than this when we play Cal. They are games we have to win."
* * *
Troy Glaus was again unable to play for the Bruins, as he is
still suffering from the effects of being beaned in the head during
Saturday’s game against Arizona State.
"We’d love to have him back for the Cal series, but it is really
up to the doctors," Adams said.
FRED HE/Daily Bruin
Despite the Bruin loss, Jon Heinrichs was three-for-five,
including a three-run homer.