The UCLA baseball team should have a pleasant weekend. For one,
instead of spending it in dreary Westwood, it will be enjoying the
comfortable high-70s temperatures and sunny skies of Hawaii.
Second, it will be enjoying the comfortable competition of 4-15
Hawai’i-Hilo. “I don’t know what I am going to do
yet; I’ve never been there, but it sounds like a lot of
fun,” freshman Brant Rustich said. “I plan to hit the
beaches up for sure, but we don’t have a lot of time, though,
to do that stuff.” “Practice and games are going to
take up most of our time there,” sophomore Hector Ambriz
said. “We even have a practice after the flight on
Wednesday.” Indeed, the Bruins have games Thursday, Friday,
Saturday and Sunday, which give them a prime opportunity to improve
their 5-3 record. With four weekend games instead of three, more
Bruins should see action as more or less the same lineup has
appeared in the first eight games. Ambriz will take the mound
Thursday, senior Casey Janssen on Friday, junior Bryan Beck on
Saturday and junior Wes Whisler in the finale. The Vulcans are on a
seven-game losing streak and were outscored 35-11 by
Hawai’i-Manoa last weekend. This will be the 11th-consecutive
year the Bruins travel to Hawai’i. UCLA has beaten
Hawai’i-Hilo all seven times the two teams have played since
1990.
SHORT HOPS: Janssen is 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA and
27 strikeouts in 18 innings…Junior Billy Susdorf leads all
starters with a .406 batting average and five stolen bases…The
three UCLA home runs in the win over Pacific on Tuesday nearly
doubled the team’s season total and leaving it with seven on
the year.