UCLA Falls To Stanford In 10 Innings

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Apr 9, 2009 10:55 PM PDT in Baseball Comment 6 comments

The Bruins and Cardinal entered Thursday's series opener tied for fourth in the Pac 10 at 5-4 and with both in need of a series win to ignite their regional hopes. The Bruins jumped out to an early lead over the Cardinal and the lead seemed secure with starting pitch Gerrit Cole, but Cole began to tire in the seventh and head coach John Savage was slow to give the hook. The Cardinal were able to even up the game in that seventh inning and went on to win the contest in 10 innings.

The Bruins got on the board in second inning thanks to a Stanford error. Cody Decker reached on an error to lead off the inning and moved to third on a double by Alex Weber-Shapiro. The with one out, Steve Rodriguez grounded out to third to score Decker and give UCLA a 1-0 lead.

UCLA built upon that 1-0 lead in the third inning thanks to a bit of fortune. With two out, Blair Dunlap struck out, but reached on a dropped third strike call. That extended the inning for the Bruins and Casey Haerther took advantage of it when he hit a two run blast over the right field fence to put UCLA up 3-0. The Bruins then loaded the bases with a single, walk, walk sequence, but Brett Krill grounded into a fielder's choice to end the inning.

While the Bruin offense has put three across the plate, Cole was cruising on the mound. In Cole's first six innings, he allowed no runs and only three hits to go along with seven strikeouts. In fact, between the second and sixth innings, Cole retired 15 of the 16 batters he faced.

In the seventh inning though, everything changed. Cole began to fall behind in some counts and his pitches were catching more of the plate. As a result, the Stanford batters began to hit the freshman and Cole began to make some mistakes. The inning started with a double and that was followed by a single. Then, Cole faked to third and threw back to first, but was called for a balk, allowing a run to score and the runner on first to take second. The next batter grounded out to second, advancing the runner to third. The following batter doubled, scoring a run to make it 3-2 and the next batter singled up the middle to tie the game at three.

It was only then that Savage went to the mound to get the ball from Cole, but by then it was too late and the two clubs were even. The scene was eerily similar to one last weekend against Washington St. when Cole was cruising, but ran into seventh inning trouble and by the time Savage pulled him, the Bruins were behind.

Savage brought Gavin Brooks in to replace Cole and Brooks got UCLA out of the seventh inning still tied, 3-3. While the Stanford offense had just woken up, the UCLA offense had gone to sleep. After a pair of fifth inning singles, the Bruins tallied only one hit the rest of the way.

Brooks made it out of the eighth and ninth unscathed, but ran into trouble in the tenth. Brooks hit the leadoff batter and walked the second batter to put runners on first and second with nobody out. That ended Brooks' day and Matt Grace came in to try to keep the Bruins alive. It wasn't to be though as Stanford executed a sacrifice bunt to put runners on second and third before a ground ball brought home the winning run.

Haerther led the Bruins at the plate with a 2-5 effort that included a home run, two RBI and a run. Niko Gallego continued his hot hitting with a 2-4 game, while Dunlap and Decker each scored a run. Cole's line finished with three runs, seven hits and seven strikeouts in 7.1 innings of work.

The Bruins and Cardinal will resume their series tomorrow at 5:30 pm PDT with two freshmen on the mound. Trevor Bauer will take the hill for UCLA against Stanford's Jordan Pires in the second game of the three game set.

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SO furstrating

it has been like this the entire freaking season.

by Nestor on Apr 10, 2009 4:26 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Is UCLA baseball snakebit?

Not sure where we are with the baseball program. I agree with Nestor. It is frustrating and Rye is doing yeoman’s work in recording the details of the games. One item that keeps me hoping for the best is that DG played baseball at UCLA and has high standards for performance in other sports, so we can only hope he will ensure that the baseball program does well too. Neither SC nor UCLA seem to be up to snuff this year. With SC being down, it is the time for the Bruins to take advantage of that fact.. SC can be formidable in baseball when they set their minds to it.
Bill

BillSouthBay

by Mensgym on Apr 10, 2009 10:52 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I had high hopes considering DG was a baseball player

but the support the program has gotten from the Morgan Center is deplorable and frankly, I don’t think it will get much better.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Apr 10, 2009 12:15 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

AD support

Well, and this is going back to the 60’s, there was a time when the coach bought the uniforms because the school had no budget and the team traveled by train overnight to the UA (no sleepers for our team, overnight sitting up…), and literally bunking in a visitor’s dorm under the east side of the football stadium with common showers and toilets. And this was a team that won the Easter Tournament at L.A. State where SC and ASU (a good team) competed as well…. So perhaps the tradition of not supporting the baseball program is well ingrained at UCLA and that tradition is apparently continuing…..
Having said that, if decent talent is being recruited, the coaches job is to prepare the team for each game. IMO baseball is pretty much like Tommy Lasorda said, “You will win 1/3 of the games and lose 1/3. The trick is what do you do with the 1/3 in the middle”. And coaches have a job of seeing to what happens in the middle 1/3 of the games.
Bill

BillSouthBay

by Mensgym on Apr 10, 2009 7:56 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Another factor that gives me confidence

DG and Savage built the UCI baseball program which is now one of the bests in Southern California and seems to be a factor as a regional power.

And you are right about Rye. I can’t write enough how much I appreciate and look forward to these posts. I have become a UCLA baseball fan thanks to his posts.

by Nestor on Apr 10, 2009 1:35 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

DG and Savage built the UCI baseball program

but they did it with a huge commitment to the program. They built a beautiful new stadium. They did a lot to encourage people to attend games. They did a lot to get as much information about the program to fans. UCLA hasn’t done any of that.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Apr 10, 2009 2:06 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs