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George Bush (the second one, not the first) was the president the last time that UCLA lost back to back games in baseball to Southern Cal: April of 2008 to be exact. The Bruins lost again last night at home to the hated cheaters from across town, 3-2. This puts UCLA at 22-18 on the season, 9-8 in conference play. The loss drops UCLA behind a sad Southern Cal team in the standings (ouch) at sixth place.
Grant Watson (7.0 IP, 3 ER, 4 K, 6 H, 4 BB) took the loss, to move his record to 4-6 on the season, as the Bruins lost their fifth straight Game 2 match-up in a three game weekend series. Even if the team could make it into the tourney (which looks increasingly unlikely), the inability to win back to back games would probably make for a very short postseason.
UCLA is now 7-8 in one run games. This does not reflect our recent woes, as the Bruins have lost four straight one-run games. Last year, by comparison, the Bruins were 16-2 in one run games. This inability to win close games, in addition to losing games where we score at least five runs, are the biggest indicators of why the Bruins are looking to have zero chance of defending their national title this year.
The only small solace to be found is the fact that the teams at the top have not pulled away more. UCLA remains four games behind Washington, three-and-a-half games behind Oregon State, one-and-a-half games behind Oregon, one game behind Arizona State, and just half-a-game behind Southern Cal. There are still thirteen games left in the season, which is plenty of time to make up ground.
Cody Poteet (3-2, 4.44 ERA) will attempt to stop the slide for the Bruins. He will face off against Southern Cal's Bob Wheatley (3-3, 3.86 ERA), and UCLA will need to put forward their best effort to avoid an embarrassing sweep at Jackie Robinson Stadium by the Trojans.
First pitch is set for 2 p.m. PST and if you can't make it out to Jackie Robinson Stadium, the live audio feed can be found here, and the live stats feed can be found here.
This is your Saturday afternoon baseball game thread. Fire away with updates, thoughts, random musings.
GO BRUINS