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UCLA Baseball Falls to Maryland in College World Series Regional Final, Ends Season

By Nathan Eberhardt

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So, that was awful.

Maybe the Bruin hitters got so excited by the Entourage premiere across campus at the Westwood Regency Village Theatre that they couldn’t focus. Maybe the Terps drew strength from Jerry Ferrara, AKA ‘Turtle’, attending said premiere. Maybe sports are just the worst. Who even knows?

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In any event, UCLA dropped game seven of the College World Series LA Regional to third-seeded Maryland by a score of 2-1, ending the Bruins’ season and dashing their hopes, as the tournament’s top overall seed, of winning the title.

The only discernable weakness plaguing the Bruins heading into Monday night’s rubber-match was pitching depth. Without injured freshman starter Griffin Canning, and having played four games in three days, the Bruins were forced to turn to sophomore setup man Grant Dyer, making his first start of the season.

But Dyer acquitted himself well. He pitched three flawless innings and only began to falter, giving up a run, in the fourth as he stretched beyond his usual 2-3 inning setup role. He was replaced by junior ace James Kaprielian, coming in off of short rest after having pitched Friday night. Kaprielian gave up another run and handed the game over to senior closer David Berg who held the Terrapins scoreless for the remainder of the game.

Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

No, pitching was not the Bruins’ downfall on Monday. It was the bats that disappeared. As I’ve noted before, UCLA’s pitching has been pretty consistent this season, but the hitting comes up big in wins and shrinks away in losses. The Regional was a perfect example: in UCLA’s three wins, they scored 7, 9, and 4 runs; in each of the two losses, they scored a single run.

On Monday before the game, I noted that probably Maryland starter Tyler Bloom was 1-3 with a 4.55 ERA on the season and was last seen in an uninspiring losing effort to Michigan in the Big Ten championship game. I said this was to UCLA’s advantage as Maryland’s bullpen had been overworked and that the Bruins should have no trouble knocking Bloom out of the game and feasting on the tired Terp relievers. What I didn’t say is that I’m a fool who should not be trusted.

More: LA Daily News Photo Gallery from Monday Night’s Game

UCLA Bruins
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UCLA Bruins

The Bruin hitters made Bloom look like an ace. Bloom threw six innings of one-hit ball before ceding the mound to junior closer Kevin Mooney, who allowed two hits. If my math adds up, that’s three whole hits for the Bruin offense against a pitching staff I called tired and vulnerable. Yup.

Most notably, the hitters were pressing, swinging early in their at-bats, and generally straying from their offensive philosophy all year long: make the other team work, wear them down, and win with depth and endurance. Instead, Bloom threw just 58 pitches in six innings, including a seven-pitch first and a five-pitch second.

Bloom threw just 58 pitches in six innings, including a seven-pitch first and a five-pitch second. That’s insane.

That’s insane. Those two innings looked like this: fly out, ground out, ground out, ground out, fly out, fly out. That’s not what working the count looks like. That’s not even what making the pitcher work for strikeouts looks like. That’s just plain hacking.

Kevin Kramer (7) is congratulated by a teammate, 2013. Mandatory Credit: Dave Weaver-USA TODAY Sports

Yes, there were some questionable calls. Darrell Miller was called out on an illegal block of the plate and a dodgy tag by Maryland catcher Kevin Martir. Miller looked at a called third strike up out of the zone to end the game with runners on the corners. But an offense that averages over six runs per game shouldn’t let a few bad calls get in the way of scoring two runs in a game.

As disappointing as this loss was, for the fans and the team, it doesn’t take away from the team’s overall quality and its great season. They’ll miss a lot of key guys next year – Berg, junior shortstop Kevin Kramer, Kaprielian, senior starting pitcher Grant Watson, junior left fielder Ty Moore – but Coach John Savage has built a solid foundation for a dominant program.