With highly-regarded No. 14 Texas A&M in town for three
games, the UCLA baseball team accomplished what everyone expected
by winning only one of the three.
Yet, after the game on Sunday, the Bruins felt as disappointed
as if they had been the favorite.
“We obviously didn’t play the way we wanted
to,” shortstop Ryan McCarthy said. “We came out with a
good win on Friday, and things just fell apart from
there.”
Riding a six-game winning streak into the series, the Bruins
(11-4) took Friday’s game 8-6 behind another solid
performance by senior starting pitcher Casey Janssen, but then
proceeded to look overmatched Saturday and Sunday, losing 8-4 and
8-2.
Janssen gave up two earned runs in seven and a third innings
Friday, raising both his record (4-0) and surprisingly his ERA, to
a minute 1.15.
“Janssen was as advertised, he was as good as everything
we had heard about him,” Texas A&M coach Mark Johnson
said.
Saturday, a persistent Aggie offense knocked starter Bryan Beck
out of the game in the fourth inning. Designated hitter Brett
McMillan was the lone UCLA offensive star, hitting his third home
run and knocking in half of the Bruins’ runs.
On Sunday, the Aggies (14-2) jumped out early on starter Wes
Whisler, taking advantage of some UCLA errors to build a 6-0 lead.
McCarthy would homer in the bottom of the seventh to put the Bruins
on the board, but otherwise the UCLA bats could do nothing against
Aggie starter Zach Jackson, who along with Whisler attracted a bevy
of radar gun-touting scouts to the game.
“This weekend we got a little sloppy. We got behind
hitters a little more than we had,” pitching coach Tim Leary
said. “Today, we kind of beat ourselves as much as got
beaten, which you really don’t like as a coach, but it
happens.”
UCLA managed only four hits Sunday, none of which came with
runners in scoring position.
“We had a little bit of bad luck,” hitting coach
Vince Beringhele said. “When we got in situations where we
could score, we hit line drives right at people. That guy was a
pretty good pitcher, the type of pitcher we’re going to have
to handle better.”
Also noteworthy about Sunday’s game was the ejection of
coach Gary Adams for arguing a call at second base. The first Aggie
batter in the sixth inning appeared to be thrown out trying to
stretch a single into a double, but the umpire ruled obstruction on
second baseman Mike Svetlic for blocking the base with his
foot.
“Both our second baseman and the runner who slid into
second base felt it wasn’t obstruction,” McCarthy
said.
Adams may have saved himself some anxiety by being thrown out as
the Bruins made numerous embarrassing mistakes, including
forgetting to cover first base, overthrowing the cut-off man, and
balking in a run.
“I have mixed feelings about the weekend,” Adams
said. “We did some things well, and we did play a good team.
But I expected better from us. All around I expected
better.”