Bruins and Anteaters At JRS Game Thread

We're just about ready to really gear up for this weekend's huge Pac-10 series at home versus Arizona St. I have posts lined up for tomorrow, Thursday and Friday previewing the series and getting everyone ready, but before we, or the Bruins, can worry about the Sun Devils, there's the Anteaters of UC Irvine to take care of tonight. Irvine was a preseason top five team, but they had a lot of issue and while they're still a Regional team, they're a #3 seed at the moment with a chance to move up to a #2 seed by the end of the year. The Anteaters will definitely be looking at tonight as a chance to pick up a nice RPI boost, plus it's always fun when Coach Savage plays his old team that's managed by one of his mentors, Mike GIllespie.

As has become the norm on Tuesdays, Garett Claypool will start for UCLA. Claypool struggled last week when he allowed three runs in four innings, but he still has an excellent 5-1 record and sensational 2.27 ERA. It will be interesting to see how Claypool fares as a fastball pitcher against a decent fastball hitting team in Irvine. Last year, Claypool allowed four earned runs in 8.2 total innings against the Anteaters. Tonight, he will be opposed by Even Brock, a talented freshman who is 3-2 with a 2.78 ERA on the year.

The game gets underway at 6 pm PST at Jackie Robinson Stadium, where the Bruins are 17-5 this year. As is the case for all home 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.