UCLA
Cal Fullerton
Bruins Lose Wild One
June 21, 1999 | Baseball
April 27, 1999
WESTWOOD, Calif. - The UCLA Bruins came out on the short end of an 11-10 game that featured a combined nine errors committed by both teams Tuesday evening at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The Bruins were charged with a season-high tying five errors, while the Titans left the field with four. The loss was only the third in the last 12 games for the Bruins (24-25, 8-7 Pac-10), who will now set their sights on a three-game showdown at perennial cross-town rival USC, April 30-May 2.
Down 11-6 in the bottom of the eighth, UCLA hung a four-run frame on the Titans to pull within one. After a lead-off single by senior ss Jack Santora, sophomore 2b Chase Utley and sophomore lf Bill Scott dropped back-to-back bombs off Titan reliever Kirk Saarloos to cut the deficit to two runs. Junior rf Brian Baron rounded out the rally with a sac fly scoring sophomore 1b Garrett Atkins. Scott's homer was his team-leading 18th of the year. He has homered in each of the last three games. Utley extended his career-high hitting streak to 15 games with a 2-for-6 evening that included his 12th jack of the year. Atkins' hitting streak also reached 15 games (season-high) with a 3-for-4 performance.
After a lead-off single by sophomore cf Charles Merricks in the bottom of the ninth, the Bruins failed to mount the decisive rally as Saarloos and the #2 Titans escaped Jackie Robinson with an 11-10 victory.
The second-ranked Titans came roaring out of the gate with seven runs in the first two innings and appeared to overmatch a Bruin squad that is in the thick of it's best stretch of the season to date. However, the Bruins refused to be intimidated, as sophomore reliever rhp Tyler Dersom, in his longest outing of the year, shut down CS Fullerton (38-8, 19-2 Big West) by pitching 4.1 scoreless innings in place of freshman starter rhp Brian Strelitz. The strong outing by Dersom allowed UCLA to claw its way back into the game with a run in the third and three in the fifth.
Senior c Jason Green singled home Scott to put UCLA on the board in the third, and sophomore dh Eric Reece and Baron knocked home one and two runs, respectively, with a single and a double. However, Fullerton 3b Ryan Owens would give the Titans just enough of cushion to survive, with an eighth-inning solo shot to right-center. The home run was his second of the game, and rounded out a 3-for-5, 3 run, 3 RBI night that also included two errors.
The Bruins have now faced three #2 teams this season, and have an impressive 3-2 record to show for it. They took two out of three from then-#2 Georgia Tech at Jackie Robinson, Feb. 5-7, and routed then-#2, and currently top-ranked Rice at Houston in front of a record-breaking Cameron Field crowd on Feb. 13.
When it was all said and done, the Bruins matched up quite well with #2 CS Fullerton. In addition to being outscored by just one and committing one more error than Fullerton, the Bruins had just one fewer hit than CSUF (14 to 15) and left the same amount of men on base (10). UCLA will get another shot at the Titans on May 5 at Titan Field.
Next up for the Bruins is another crucial Pac-10 series against archrival USC at DeDeaux Field, April 30-May 2. As both schools are making late-season runs at the postseason, they both will come into the series on fire. The Bruins (24-25, 8-7 Pac-10, 5th place) have won their last seven Pac-10 games, tying the school record, while the Trojans (29-20, 14-4 Pac-10, tie - 1st place) took two of three from Stanford and Arizona State on the road.
