Mired in its second losing streak of the season, the UCLA
baseball team came through in more ways than one for its coach John
Savage.
Coaching in his first game at UC Irvine since leaving the
Anteaters last season to coach for the Bruins, Savage was able to
reach a milestone as the Bruins notched a victory over UC Irvine
11-1, marking Savage’s 100th win of his career.
“It’s really exciting,” Savage said.
“It’s ironic because my first victory as a college
coach came against UCLA and now my 100th victory comes against
Irvine coaching for UCLA.”
UCLA (12-33) seemed to catch fire on the offensive end for its
coach. After an anemic weekend, the Bruins’ offense exploded
for 11 runs on 13 hits against the Anteaters (25-21).
“We just kept on pecking away,” Savage said.
“We were really resilient and played a good nine innings of
baseball.”
UCLA has picked up its game recently, winning three of its last
six games in the first two weeks of May after having gone 2-16 in
the month of April.
Recently the Bruins have committed numerous errors, but against
Irvine the Bruins failed to record a single one.
Another one of the major reasons why the Bruins have improved
has been in large part due to junior Chris Jensen, who has been the
main bat in a cold lineup. Jensen once again lit up the opposing
team, this time to the tune of four hits in five at bats, including
his fourth home run of the season.
“It was nice to get back on track,” Jensen said.
“Last weekend I didn’t do that great, so it was nice to
get some hits and help us win.”
Jensen, hurt for much of the season, now boasts a 16-game
hitting streak and has entrenched himself in the No. 3 slot of the
Bruins’ batting order.
“He’s been swinging the bat really well,”
Savage said. “With the type of numbers he’s put up, you
wonder what he could have done over a full season. Once he got in
the field, he hasn’t stopped.”
The Bruins got a nice pickup from starting pitcher Paul
Oseguera, who went five innings for the win and allowed only one
run while striking out three. The much maligned Bruin bullpen shut
down the Anteaters’ offense over the last four innings,
allowing just three hits.
But the Bruin offense was the story of the day. Playing against
a good team, the Bruins jumped on everything the Anteaters threw
near the strike zone.