Last Friday, the UCLA baseball team beat No. 14 Texas A&M
8-6 to increase its winning streak to seven games and jumpstart
hopes of a successful run through the non-conference schedule.
But after Tuesday’s loss to UC Irvine, Friday seems very
far away.
Two losses to the Aggies over the weekend combined with Tuesday
night’s 6-0 loss now have put the Bruins (11-6) squarely on
their heels.
“Especially with our win against Texas A&M, we
expected to do better over the weekend and tonight,” junior
shortstop Ryan McCarthy said.
Coach Gary Adams felt similar to McCarthy.
“I’m disappointed in the team and what resulted in
today’s game,” Adams said.
The obvious problem with the Bruins’ play was terrible
clutch hitting.
Down 2-0 in the top of the fifth inning, junior Matt Thayer and
McCarthy hit singles with one out to provide the first real threat
of the game for UCLA.
But UCI’s (13-3-1) freshman starting pitcher Justin Cassel
(1-2) induced a fly-out and a strikeout by the next two Bruin
batters to end the inning with the Anteaters unscathed.
Two innings later with the score 3-0, McCarthy and senior
Brandon Averill hit singles with two outs to provide another
opportunity for UCLA to get on the board.
But Anteater reliever Steve Schroer got sophomore catcher Chris
Denove to ground out and end the threat.
“The main difference in this game was they got timely
hitting and we did not. We never put our hits together while they
did,” Adams said.
The stats verify Adams’ opinion. UCI had only eight hits
to score six runs, while UCLA had seven hits, which resulted in
nine zeros on the scoreboard.
Bruin starter sophomore Hector Ambriz (2-2) had a quality start
against UCI, going six innings and giving up three earned runs,
while striking out a career-high seven batters.