Equally important as the UCLA baseball team’s win over
Loyola Marymount is long-awaited peace of mind.
After losing four of their last six games, the Bruins (13-8)
will break for finals on a positive note after a tense 7-5 victory
over the Lions on Tuesday.
Though LMU (11-8) got to Bruin starter Bryan Beck early with a
first inning run, Beck virtually shut the door for the next five
innings, allowing only a fifth-inning solo home run en route to his
second win of the season.
“Bryan did a very good job even though he started off on a
sour note, hitting a batter and walking a batter. That’s not
like Bryan,” coach Gary Adams said.
“It took me a while to get my touch back. Just going after
the hitters later in the game gave me more confidence,” Beck
said.
“It seemed like I could throw my curveball over for a
strike whenever I wanted to today, and my fastball seemed to pick
up speed as the game went on.”
UCLA also struck early, scoring a run in both the first and
second innings and three runs in the third.
The Bruins manufactured their first five runs in a truly
unspectacular fashion, with a mix of hits, walks, hit batters,
sacrifice flies and even a catcher’s interference.
“We took a patient approach with these pitchers because
most of their guys aren’t necessarily overpowering, so we
didn’t really have to commit ourselves to speeding up our
bats for a 95-mph fastball,” said designated hitter Brett
McMillan.
McMillan provided what proved to be the winning runs in the
seventh inning, with a two-out, two-run single up the middle.
“I had a pretty standard approach,” McMillan said.
“If it was a couple feet to the right, the second baseman has
it. But it just happened to get through, and it turned out to be a
really good break for us.”
The Lions made things interesting in the top of the eighth
inning, touching reliever Brant Rustich for three runs and even
bringing the winning run to the plate.
But then junior reliever David Johnson entered and killed the
rally, striking out the Lion’s Chris Pettit with runners on
first and second and two outs.
The top of the ninth inning brought similar tension as
LMU’s first two batters reached base.
But reliever Scott Botterman shut the door, picking up his first
save of the season.
In all, it was a team win for the Bruins, as they used six
pitchers and eighteen players in total.
“We knew going into today that it was going to be a staff
win,” Adams said.
UCLA now can breathe a little easier while it has nine days off
for finals before its next game against USC.
“(Winning before the break) is the most important thing,
because sitting on a loss for a week and a half with finals and
everything is the last thing we want,” McMillan said.