UCLA Puts Itself in a Hole with 3-2 Opening Loss to Saint Mary’s
The Bruins struggled at the plate, which would prove to be the difference.
The UCLA Bruins have made a bad habit in recent weeks of needing to stage a late-inning comeback, and it only makes sense that it finally caught up to them.
There are a few ways to break down UCLA’s 3-2 regional opening loss to the Saint Mary’s Gaels, starting with the UCLA offense. The Bruins have been very streaky at the plate in recent weeks, and that was evident against the Gaels. UCLA managed only six hits and three walks against a Gaels pitching staff that came into the weekend with an ERA over five. The UCLA offense is built around the idea of having a strong top six in the order, and with normal center fielder Will Gasparino out serving a suspension for an ejection during the Big Ten Championship game, and with outfielder Peyton Brennan leaving the game early with an injury, that left UCLA’s lineup particularly vulnerable. The Bruins stranded nine runners throughout the game, as the team failed to do the little things offensively.
Obviously, not having Gasparino and Brennan in the lineup hurt, but I’d also point out that UCLA was relying on a few players in the game who have seen little to no action this year. Credit to guys like Jarrod Hocking and David Mysza, but these players have not seen anywhere near consistent at-bats this year (Mysza had his third at-bat of the season in this game), and asking them to make big contributions when they’ve sparingly played does not seem like great coaching. In the process of chasing regular-season greatness, the regular players also seem more run-down, with none more so than Big Ten Player of the Year Roch Cholowsky; the potential #1 pick was a miserable 0-4 from the plate, and while he did drive in one of the two UCLA runs with a sac fly, he also struggled to see the fastball and consistently found himself behind in counts.
UCLA’s pitching was generally up to stuff, with Wylan Moss looking very good for five innings, while Cal Randall and Zach Strickland had impressive outings. Unfortunately, coach John Savage’s bullpen moves did prove costly. In the sixth inning, after Moss walked the first batter of the inning, Savage turned to Landon Stump. Stump was the Sunday starter for much of the year, but that did not mean much - he tended to only pitch a few innings and give up plenty of runs, and sure enough, Stump gave up a double to the first batter he faced to tie the game. He did well to battle back and exit the inning without any more damage, but at that point Saint Mary’s was back in the game.
Savage’s turn to Easton Hawk will be a bit more controversial. Hawk has had a tremendous year, leading the country in saves, but he’s also been prone to blowing up. Last weekend during the Big Ten tournament was a great example of this, as Hawk gave up two runs to let Southern Cal retake the lead in the ninth, only to follow that up with three scoreless innings to help UCLA get the win over Oregon in the championship game. Today we got the bad version of Hawk, as he gave up a home run that fell just out of the reach of Hocking in right field and generally struggled with his command through the inning. In both cases, Savage seemingly stuck to a script rather than let the flow of the game dictate his decisions, and in a game of fine margins, it ended up costing the Bruins.
Full credit here should go to the Gaels, who played a tremendous game. Starting pitcher John Damozonio was sensational, pitching seven strong innings and only giving up two runs, while the Gaels infield kept making excellent defensive plays. Sometimes, that’s just how baseball happens, and you tip your cap as much as you can. Saint Mary’s played some mostly mistake-free baseball, and that proved to be the difference.
Still, for a UCLA team that entered this year with so much promise and had a regular season to remember, this was as bad an opening outing as you could have. The Bruins are not out of things yet, but as ESPN pointed out, 93% of regional winners started by winning their opening game. There is no longer a margin for error.
Go Bruins.
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Are they going to have a full squad next game?