After a rough weekend in Miami in which they were swept by the No. 5 Hurricanes, the No. 15 Bruins (6-4, 0-0 Pac-10) were looking to rebound against the East Carolina Pirates (2-4, 0-0 C-USA) this past weekend.
Mission accomplished.
The Bruins swept the Pirates, taking Friday night’s game in dominant fashion 6-1, coming from behind on Saturday with an eighth-inning grand slam by sophomore Brandon Crawford to win 9-7 and outlasting the Pirates in a 7-6 win on Sunday afternoon.
Coach John Savage was very pleased with the performance of his team over the weekend and how they were able to bounce back from three tough losses to the Hurricanes.
“East Carolina is a very good team,” Savage said.
“They are a Conference USA team with a tremendous schedule and had a tremendous RPI last year. It really makes up for our lost weekend last weekend. We needed this and we stepped up and got it done.”
The Bruins began the weekend series with the ace of the staff, senior Tyson Brummett, on the mound.
Despite having the first pitch of the night bounce off his leg, Brummett fought through and pitched a complete game in which he scattered six hits, one run, struck out nine and did not give up a walk.
“He’s established himself as our No. 1 guy,” Savage said.
“He competed from the first pitch. I think it says a lot about his character, says a lot about his toughness, and he is a guy that needs to step up for us and right now he is doing that.”
The biggest at-bat of the night came when freshman Gabe Cohen came in as a pinch-hitter in the sixth and proceeded to hit a two-run home run to give the Bruins a 6-0 advantage.
“He’s been swinging the bat real well the last couple days,” Savage said. “They brought in a left-hander, so we went to him and he hit a ball out of the ballpark.”
Saturday’s game was, as Savage described it, “a crazy day game at Jackie Robinson Stadium.”
Crawford hit a grand slam with two outs in the eighth inning to give the Bruins a 9-7 lead, which would turn out to be the final score of the game.
“I was trying to get a couple runs in because we were down by a couple,” Crawford said. “I was just trying to score them. Opposite field, it carried out. Definitely wasn’t trying for that.”
On Sunday, freshman Gavin Brooks picked up his first collegiate win. The left-hander went 5.0 innings, giving up five hits, two runs and one walk while striking out four.
“I think that you see the development of Gavin Brooks,” Savage said.
“He’s getting better and better. He’s commanding the fastball; he’s throwing harder. He was throwing 88, 89 (on Sunday) with a good changeup.”
In the sixth inning, sophomore Cody Decker drove in three runs with a double down the left-field line to give the Bruins a very comfortable 7-2 lead.
But the Pirates fought back, scoring four runs in the final three innings.
With one on and one out in the ninth inning, Savage went to junior closer Brant Rustich, who had his share of trouble earlier this season.
However, this time Rustich came up on top, forcing first baseman Corey Kemp to ground out into a game-ending double play on the first pitch.
The Bruins will travel to Long Beach State tonight to face the No. 20 Dirtbags (5-4, 0-0 Big West), who are coming off a series loss to No. 6 Rice.
Freshman Matt Drummond has been named the starter for Tuesday.
NOTES: Sophomore third baseman Jermaine Curtis has been ruled ineligible for the remainder of winter quarter. Savage hopes to have him back for the conference games after March 30.