The starting rotation allowed just one walk over the course of the UCLA baseball team’s three-game series versus Stanford. Yet despite high-quality pitching efforts, the Bruins could not muster a series win.
UCLA suffered its second consecutive Pac-10 series loss in two weeks and managed to secure only one win versus the host Cardinal at the Sunken Diamond in Palo Alto.
UCLA dropped Saturday’s contest to Stanford, 7-2, after losing the series’ opener Thursday night, 4-3 in 10 innings. UCLA’s sole win in the set came Friday, when the Bruins defeated the Cardinal 8-5.
UCLA registered only five runs total in its two losses. On Saturday, the Bruins went 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position.
Coach John Savage said the inconsistencies at the plate for the Bruins have been frustrating, and the team is working to amend the offensive struggles that have plagued the Bruins for much of the season.
In such situations, the mental aspect of the game becomes a crucial factor in a team’s offensive success, but not something, Savage said, that needs to be overly emphasized.
“It’s something you don’t want (the players) to overthink,” Savage said, “because you want them to react and take advantage of their scoring opportunities.”
Despite the absence of clutch hits, a different Bruin went yard in each contest during the series, highlighting UCLA’s potential at the plate. Junior infielder Casey Haerther belted his sixth home run of the season Thursday night.
Senior Cody Decker rounded the bases twice Friday night, recording his team-leading 11th and 12th round-trippers.
Junior outfielder Blair Dunlap’s homer on Saturday batted in the only two runs during that game.
Consistent with the storyline for much of the season, the Bruin starting pitchers performed well, while the offense struggled to find its rhythm.
Freshmen pitchers Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer delivered solid starts in the first two games for UCLA, granting little opportunity for the opposition to cause much damage.
Cole recorded seven strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings of work Thursday night, surrendering only three runs on seven hits. In his eighth start of the season, he issued no walks.
Bauer had a similarly impressive outing that went six innings, in which he only gave up five runs (four earned) on eight hits and he notched five strikeouts.
Charles Brewer spoke highly of the freshmen tandem that anchored the weekend’s starting rotation.
“Cole has one of the best arms I’ve ever seen,” Brewer said, “And Trevor has done a great job adjusting to the college game.”
Junior Charles Brewer had a strong start as well, allowing only three runs in six innings during Saturday’s series finale. He has not allowed more than three earned runs in any of his starts this season.
Next up for UCLA is a visit down south to the No. 18 San Diego State Aztecs on Tuesday evening. The Bruins will use this mid-week game as another opportunity to improve their production at the plate as the season approaches its 30th game.
“We’re going to continue to work hard, stay positive and somehow we’re going to come out of this,” Dunlap said.