The UCLA baseball team will travel 134 miles south of campus today to compete against one of Southern California’s prime college baseball programs.
The Bruins will play only their third midweek away game of the season tonight versus the No. 18 San Diego State Aztecs at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
“Midweek games are really critical for our win-loss record and our RPI,” coach John Savage said. “It’s very important that we get the week started off in a good direction.”
UCLA is coming off a 2-1 series loss to conference opponent Stanford and is now sixth in the Pac-10 with an even 6-6 record. Arizona State has claimed the top spot in the conference and is also ranked No. 1 in the country by Baseball America.
San Diego State won its weekend series against host UNLV 2-1 and now shares with New Mexico the lead in the Mountain West Conference.
In their first meeting of the season versus the Aztecs at Jackie Robinson Stadium, the Bruins entered the ninth inning with a 6-4 lead. However, San Diego State opened the top of the frame with a walk followed by back-to-back singles. The Aztecs went on to accumulate six runs in the inning and the Bruins were unable to respond to the late rally; SDSU won the game 10-6.
Tonight, taking the hill for UCLA will be junior right-hander Garett Claypool. In his last start, Claypool went three innings against the No. 5 UC Irvine Anteaters and gave up just two runs (one earned) and four hits en route to an 8-3 victory.
Senior infielder Cody Decker has been a standout offensively for the Bruins. He belted his 11th and 12th homeruns of the season in UCLA’s sole win versus Stanford on Friday evening. He has also batted in 30 runs for the Bruins, a team high.
“Cody has played well for us,” Savage said. “He’s had some big hits, and it’s good to see a senior step up.”
Decker is one of five seniors on the Bruins’ roster. Two are pitchers, right-hander Jason Novak and left-hander Brendan Lafferty. Lafferty, in his fifth year with the team, has logged a significant number of innings for the Bruins so far this season.
Second baseman Eddie Murray has also had a strong senior campaign thus far, particularly in manufacturing runs as the Bruins’ leadoff batter.
The successes of the seniors may serve as a catalyst to propel the Bruins’ productivity at the plate as they to work through one of the most difficult schedules in college baseball.
“The guys are working hard, and hopefully we will see some improvement,” Savage said.