[Online Exclusive] Baseball: Baseball’s weekend series cut short by rain
The UCLA crew teams may have found a new place to practice, as long as the wet weather continues.
Jackie Robinson Stadium certainly isn’t fit for baseball, and the Bruins’ weekend series against Pacific consequently ended in a rain-shortened split.
UCLA won 6-1 Friday, lost 7-0 Saturday and simply wasn’t able to play any more because of the rain.
“The field was like a swamp,” coach Gary Adams said. “If we had played, it wouldn’t have been baseball, it would have been crew.”
Though the three-game series was scheduled to be played Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a gloomy forecast forced Sunday’s game to be played as the second half of a double-header on Saturday.
The weather did not cooperate with the schedule, and though most of Saturday’s first game was played in a drizzle, the sky completely opened up during the fifth inning of the third game of the series. The game was scheduled to be made up Sunday, but the field was too soggy to play.
In the series opener Friday, senior hurler Casey Jansen struck out a season-high 10 in eight innings of work. Jansen pitched a beauty of a game, making only one mistake, which resulted in a Pacific home run in the top of the seventh.
“Casey really pitched a great game,” Adams said. “He was spotting his pitches well. He had a great assortment of pitches.”
The lone Pacific (5-3) run was not much of a threat to the Bruins (4-3), who on the strength of a two-double day from leadoff man Chad Concolino scored six runs to give Jansen ample run support. The 6-1 win was Jansen’s second of the season.
Just as UCLA’s pitching was pivotal in the first game of the series, the Tigers’ pitching won game two.
Pacific ace Alex Graham threw a complete-game, two-hit shutout Saturday afternoon.
Graham, who struck out seven in his winning effort, took a perfect game into the seventh inning. Billy Susdorf and Wes Whisler each singled in the bottom half of the seventh to represent the only form of UCLA offense in the game.
“What Casey did to Pacific on Friday night, Graham did to us on Saturday afternoon,” Adams said.
Pacific’s offense was not nearly as stagnant as UCLA’s. The Tigers recorded 11 hits and seven runs in the victory.
The second half of the double dip made it to the fifth inning when the weather intervened. UCLA was down 2-0 due to a two-run bomb in the top of the third by Pacific third baseman Jesse Kovacs.
The Bruins were threatening in the fifth just before the game was delayed. Mike Svetic and Sean Carpenter each singled to lead off the inning and then both advanced into scoring position on a passed ball. Then, during a Pacific pitching change, rain delayed and eventually cancelled the game.
According to NCAA rules, the home team must bat five times in order for the game to be official. The Bruins were in the middle of their fifth at bat when the game was called.
The final game of the Pacific series has not yet been rescheduled.
Weather permitting, UCLA will face Pepperdine on Tuesday at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

