A nice contingent of Bluejay faithful made the trek out to L.A. (Photo by Tim Krueger for WBR)
Bluejay Banter’s Tim Krueger is in Los Angeles covering the Jays in the NCAA Regionals, and files this report for White & Blue Review.
Coming into the game my main question was: Can Ty Blach pithch toe to toe with one of the best pitchers — and pitching staffs — in the nation? The answer is yes, as after allowing 3 runs in the first two innings Blach shut down the Bruins the rest of the way. Without the infield hit in the first and the seeing eye single in the second, both of which extended the inning, this game well could have been a scoreless tie heading to the bottom of the ninth.
“We got off to a slow start, which was the one thing we couldn’t afford to do,” head coach Ed Servais said after the game, “especially against the pitching they have. We just looked a little uncomfortable the first inning or two, and then we played pretty well.”
Adam Plutko, the UCLA starting pitcher, was everything CU thought he would be. “We had an excellent scouting report on him, but he was able to execute his plan a little better than our hitters were able to execute theirs,” Servais told me afterwards.
However he began to labor in the sixth and the Jays put pressure on him the rest of the game. The biggest chance came in the seventh when with a man on Anthony Benboom hit a bomb that was hauled down on the warning track by Beau Amaral, a shot that would have been a long homerun during the day but in the night air of Jackie Robinson Stadium, it was a harmless flyout. Mike Gerber was the next batter and Amaral robbed him of a hit to keep the shutout in tack for the Bruins.
“I was told this ballpark plays entirely differently at night than it does during the day, and we found that out,” Servais told me after the game. “Anthony Bemboom’s hit is at least a double, and with Chance (Ross) on first, he’s going to score.” Unfortunately, this was a night game, and it wasn’t a double, and the Jays didn’t score.
I think all fans should really be proud of the Jays effort tonight. This was a game that could have gotten ugly real fast. But this team fought hard and kept themselves in the game. One could argue the Jays outplayed the Bruins in the last half of the game and, in talking to a few of the players after the game, it seems this momentum could carry over to tomorrow’s game with San Diego. I really like the Jays chances in this one.
“I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” Servais mentioned afterward. “I think we’ll play a little more comfortably, I hope so anyway, and I told the team let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s not think ‘We’ve gotta win four games now to come through the losers bracket’ because if you think that way, then it’s too difficult. Let’s just go out tomorrow and play the kind of style we played last week, let’s be a little more aggressive, let’s try to create a few things on the basepaths. All we’re trying to do tomorrow is get to Sunday.”