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Well, at least our Bruins made it respectable this past weekend against #2-ranked Oregon State. In a series that was shaping up to be a complete beat-down by one of the national title contenders against the defending national champs, the Bruins made a bit of show of it at first, but got progressively worse over the weekend and got swept in Corvallis by the Beavers, losing on Friday (4-2), Saturday (9-3), and Sunday (11-2). With the Bruins well below .500 on the season and eliminated from Pac-12 contention, Coach Savage's crew is playing only for pride at this point.
With the season lost, the Bruins will be looking to build for next year, in a bid to return to the College World Series after what UCLA fans hope is only a one-year absence. Tonight, UCLA heads down the 405 to Orange County to take on #24-ranked UC Irvine in the final mid-week game of the season. Taking the hill for UCLA is right-handed freshman hurler Grant Dyer (6-4, 3.55 ERA) who will have a shot at breaking into the weekend rotation next season with both Grant Watson (4-8, 3.75 ERA) and Cody Poteet (3-4, 3.95 ERA) not exactly coming up as models of consistency (unlike ace James Kaprielian, who is 6-5 on the year with a 2.63 ERA). Facing Dyer will be Irvine's left-handed junior Evan Manarino (3-3, 2.93 ERA). Dyer will have a chance to impress against a top-25 team, so we'll see if he's ready to seize the opportunity for next year afforded by this year's less-than-stellar performance from our Saturday and Sunday starters.
In case you missed it, you can check out the official website's preview of the game here. First pitch tonight is set for 6:30 p.m. PST at Anteater Ballpark on UC Irvine's campus. If you can't make it down the 405 for the game, you can listen in live to the audio broadcast, being called by John Ramey and Tim Wilhelm. Or you can track the game live on the official website's Gametracker.
This is your Tuesday night, playing-only-for-pride game thread, so fire away in the comment thread with your comments, takes,o r what you're hearing or seeing as you watch, listen in, or track the game.
GO BRUINS