Baseball Looks To Keep Rolling And Clinch Gauntlet Versus SC

Get yourselves out to the ball game in this weekend of honoring number 42. GO BRUINS. -N

The UCLA baseball team will play a 3 game series (Friday 7:30, Saturday 1:30, Sunday 1:00) this weekend versus USC at Dedeaux Field with a chanc to clinch the Lexus Gauntlet. Following a rough stretch in which the Bruins lost 9 of 11, they responded by winning 7 of their last 9. Now, in 2nd place in the Pac 10 with a 5-1 record, the Bruins look to solidify their status as a threat for this year's Pac 10 title by beating the Trojans. The Trojans come into this series having lost their last two games, but are a very strong team and have been ranked for the majority of the season.

Friday night's game will match 2 of the Pac 10's best pitchers. For the Bruins, Sr. RHP Tyson Brummett will get the nod, while Fr. RHP Brad Boxberger will toe the rubber for the Trojans. Brummett has a 2.96 ERA this season and leads the Pac 10 in strikeouts. Boxberger brings in an equally impressive resume with a 2.13 ERA and .186 opponents batting average. This series opener is expected to be low scoring and it may come down to which bullpen pitches better, a situation that favors the Trojans.

Saturday afternoon's tilt with be shown live on FSN Prime Ticket and will feature a matchup between the Bruins' So. LHP Tim Murphy and the Trojans' So. RHP Ryan Cook. Murphy, the Bruins' starting centerfielder when not on the mound, has come on strong as of late, showing a dominance predicted by head coach John Savage in the preseason. Murphy has given up a mere 2 runs in his past 2 games, both wins. His fastball has shown velocity in the 92-95 range lately and he has shown great command of his curveball. Cook a solid, not spectacular pitcher for the Trojans. With a 4-2 record and 4.42 ERA, he has given the Trojans a pitcher that will keep them in the game, but will rarely win one for the team. If the Bruins can touch him up early, Cook has shown a tendency to lose his head and be taken out of his gameplan. Meanwhile, if Murphy can pitch like he has lately, the Bruins should win. If he does not locate his curveball, Murphy will get hit hard and this game can turn into a shootout.

Sunday's season finale is the most unpredictable of the 3. It matches UCLA's Fr. LHP Gavin Brooks and USC's So. LHP Anthony Vasquez. Brooks has been extremely effective as of late, but he is a freshman in a rivalry series so nobody knows how he will perform. Vasquez has been up and down all season and not even he knows what Sunday will bring for him. One game Vasquez will shutdown a team, only to give up an astronomical number the next game in a very short outing.

At the plate, the Bruins have been rejuvenated by the return of So. 3B Jermaine Curtis, who missed the 1st half of the season due to academic ineligibility. Now with Curtis leading off and Jr. 2B Alden Carrithers batting second, So. SS Brandon Crawford, So. 1B Cody Decker and Fr. OF Gabe Cohen have gotten many RBI opportunities and converted them. Since Curtis' return, the Bruins are averaging 8.4 runs per game. Offensively for the Trojans, they are led by possibly the Pac 10's best hitter in Jr. IF Matt Cusick. Cusick is batting .302 this season, but has a .421 on base percentage. The Trojans' other offensive threat is Jr. 1B Lucas Duda, who leads the team in RBI and slugging percentage. One player to watch for the Trojans is Fr. C/P Roert Stock. The 17 year old Stock graduated from Agoura High School a year early to enroll at USC and has been the Trojans starting catcher and closer this season.

This weekend's series is an opportunity for UCLA to clinch the Lexus Gauntlet. If the Bruins win the series (as they did last season) they will clinch the Gauntlet and register an impressive series win for their resume. Again, the games are Friday at 7:30, Saturday at 1:30 and Sunday at 1:00. Saturday's game will be shown live on FSN Prime Ticket and all 3 games can be followed on Gametracker via uclabruins.com. For those heading out to the games, tickets are $8.50 and can be purchased either at the gate or online at usctrojans.com. Dedeaux Field is located on the USC campus and will hopefully have a strong true blue showing this weekend. Last season, Trojan fans came into Jackie Robinson Stadium and filled nearly 1/2 the seats, so let's do the same at Dedeaux Field this weekend and cheer our Bruins on to a Gauntlet win and Pac 10 title.

Pac 10 Standings:

Arizona-            6-0, 28-6
UCLA-               5-1, 15-16
Arizona St.-       7-2, 26-10
Washington-      5-4, 16-15
Oregon St.-       2-4, 26-7
USC-                2-4, 19-15
California-         2-4, 17-17
Washington St.- 1-5, 16-14
Stanford-          0-6, 14-15