It's the Bruins and the Ducks out at Jackie Robinson Stadium tonight. The top ranked Bruins enter the weekend 26-3 on the year and 4-2 in the Pac-10, a half game out of first place. The Ducks are 21-11 in their second season since their baseball program was revived and they're 4-5 in conference play. Oregon boasts an outstanding pitching staff, just like the Bruins, but the struggle to catch the ball so that could be a decider. Likely, the Ducks' hopes rest on their ability to hit, which isn't a great proposition for the green and yellow. UCLA definitely has the edge on paper, but tonight they'll have to prove it on the field in the opener of the three-game Pac-10 series.
Tonight's match-up features a pair of the nation's premier sophomores. For UCLA, it's flamethrower Gerrit Cole, who is 6-0 with a 2.37 ERA this year. He's leading the conference in strikeouts and he's second in the Pac-10 in batting average against at .156 as well. Oregon will go to battle with Tyler Anderson, a southpaw who is 5-3 with a 2.16 ERA. Like Cole, Anderson holds oppiosing batters to a very low batting average at .205.
The game gets underway at 6 pm PDT at Jackie Robinson Stadium, where the Bruins are 16-2 in 2010. As is the case fro all games, you can listen to it or follow it on GameTracker. You can also stay up to date on all things UCLA baseball from game updates to news to analysis to links on my UCLA baseball twitter. This is your game thread for tonight's contest so have at it.