Winless in 11 games in Pac-10 play and down by one run going
into the eighth inning at home against Cal, it certainly would not
have been surprising to see the UCLA baseball team go down meekly
in defeat.
But the Bruins’ bats rose up, starting with Will
Penniall’s game-tying home run and ending with Mike
Metzger’s game-winning single, propelling the Bruins to a 4-2
victory over the Bears to take one out of three in the series.
“It’s nice to get the monkey off our back in
conference,” coach John Savage said.
The proverbial monkey looked like a gorilla after starter Brant
Rustich, who pitched brilliantly for seven innings, nearly threw
the game away with some shoddy fielding.
With the score tied 1-1 in the top of the seventh, Rustich
stumbled when picking up a Mike Van Winden sacrifice bunt and
throwing high to first on a play that seemed like a sure out. The
error, which was issued to first baseman Matt Sharp, gave the Bears
runners on first and third with no one out instead of a runner on
second with one out.
Rustich then threw a wild pitch that scored James Holder and
gave the Bears the lead. But unlike previous Bruin games that
started close and ended in blowouts, Rustich bore down and retired
the next three hitters to get out of the inning and keep the game
close for his teammates. The performance from the 6-foot-6
right-hander drew comparisons to his complete game versus Cal State
Northridge on February 13.
“He got back to what he showed during that game,”
Savage said. “He threw his breaking ball for strikes and had
command of three pitches. It was basic pitching.”
Cal starter Michael Cooper matched Rustich pitch for pitch and
left after six innings, only giving up a Josh Roenicke RBI
single.
He turned the ball over to reliever Matt Swanson, who got
through the seventh inning quickly but ran into trouble in the
eighth. The first batter was Penniall, who took Swanson to a full
count before crushing a fastball over the right field wall for his
first home run of the season.
“I was definitely looking fastball with a full count and I
got a good pitch to hit,” Penniall said.
Swanson was taken out one batter later after giving up a single
to Chris Jensen, but lefty closer Travis Talbott could not close
out the inning.
With runners on second and third and two outs, Savage brought in
Mike Metzger to pinch hit for Sharp, who had struggled against
left-handed pitching.
After four consecutive sliders and a 2-2 count, Metzger sharply
grounded Talbott’s fifth slider up the middle to score both
runners and break the deadlock.
“They had been consistent with the sliders and I knew
another was coming,” said Metzger, who only had 11 hits in 47
at-bats this year.
Brian Schroeder (2-5) pitched a perfect eighth and ninth innings
to earn the win for the jubilant Bruins.
In the first two games of the series, the Bruins were close but
could not pull out victories over the Bears. On Friday a five-run
eighth inning blew open a 2-1 game as Cal prevailed 7-1. Saturday
saw a five-run second inning for the Bears and they held off a UCLA
comeback to win 6-4.