Going into last weekend’s showdown against the high-powered No. 10 Arizona State Sun Devils (37-12, 14-4 Pac-10), the Bruins had everything going for them. They had won all five of their conference series, they were sitting atop the Pac-10 standings, and they had just defeated a playoff-caliber team in Pepperdine while on the road.
Yet, with one trip to the desert, all that changed.
The No. 21 Bruins (28-22, 12-6 Pac-10) dropped their first conference series of the season in disappointing fashion this past weekend and now sit in second place, two games behind the Sun Devils.
While the team did not achieve the desired results against Arizona State, both the players and coaches believe that there were positives and lessons to be learned. Additionally, the team is confident that it has the ability to come back after three losses, each in which they had an opportunity to win.
“We have to bounce back after three heartbreakers,” coach John Savage said. “But playing with anyone anywhere helps our confidence so we can grow as a program. Our team is definitely heading in the right direction knowing we were, in each game, at a tough place to play.”
The Bruins led in each game of the three-game series, yet were unable to hold on to their leads late in the game. In Friday’s 16-14 marathon of a game, the Bruins took a 14-7 advantage into the seventh inning after trailing 7-1 earlier in the game. Yet the Bruin pitchers were unable to completely shut down the potent offensive lineup of the Sun Devils and allowed nine unanswered runs en route to defeat. On Saturday, the Bruins took a 4-3 lead into the last half-inning, yet fell 5-4. And on Sunday’s finale, the Bruins led 7-0 at one point, but eventually fell 11-10.
Although the Bruins were unable to close out any of the games, the players said they gained a tremendous amount of experience that will make them a better team come regional time.
“Our team will get better from this,” catcher Ryan Babineau said. “We can battle with a very good team and hopefully we see them or a team like them in the future, because we know we will be ready for them.”
“This gets us ready for the playoffs,” shortstop Brandon Crawford added. “Playing in such a tough atmosphere leads to experience and knowing we can play at tough stadiums against tough teams.”
The Bruins are now putting the disappointing weekend behind them and taking the lessons learned into next weekend against the Washington State Cougars (25-22, 8-13 Pac-10). The team will head up to Pullman with the self-assurance that it played hard against Arizona State and with the hunger to climb back up to first place.
“We learned that, if we come up with quality at-bats and are competitive, we will be fine,” Crawford said. “We are going to learn from the good things and get back in the weight room. We have to get after it in practice this week. I know we’ll be ready this weekend and I can’t wait to get back on the field. We’ll bounce back fine. We played well and we just have to keep playing well. I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”
With reports from Blair Angulo, Bruin Sports contributor