March 4, 2013
UCLA at LBSU - Game Notes 
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Los Angeles, Calif. -
The 12th-ranked UCLA Baseball team will travel down to Long Beach on Tuesday to square off against Long Beach State at 6:00 p.m. at Long Beach State's Blair Field. Freshman right-hander Cody Poteet will make his second career start on the mound for the Bruins.
PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS
Tuesday, March 5 - 6:00 p.m.
UCLA - Cody Poteet, RHP, Fr. (1-1, 6.48)
LBSU - David Hill, RHP, Jr. (0-1, 5.06)
LISTEN LIVE ONLINE (click here)
Tuesday's game at Long Beach State will feature a live audio broadcast online at uclabruins.com. John Ramey and Tim Wilhelm will have the call. Audio broadcasts of all UCLA home games and select road games will be available at uclabruins.com this season. In addition, fans can follow pitch-by-pitch action online through GameTracker, also available online at uclabruins.com.
BRUINS TO FACE DIRTBAGS
UCLA will travel down south to face the Long Beach State Dirtbags on Tuesday night at Blair Field in the first of two matchups between the two schools this year. UCLA enters the game on a five-game winning after sweeping a three-game home series against Wright State over the weekend. The Dirtbags enter tomorrow's contest with a 6-6 record on the year after dropping two out of three at home to Seattle. UCLA swept Long Beach State last year, winning 9-2 at Blair Field and 2-1 at Jackie Robinson Stadium. Grant Watson earned the victory in both games.
SERIES SWEEP
The Bruins took all three games over the weekend against Wright State, outscoring the Raiders 20-7 in the three-game set. Sophomore Kevin Kramer led the way, going 5-9 with four runs, four RBI and three stolen bases in the series. Junior Pat Valaika also had a strong series for the Bruins, knocking in eight runs and hitting his first home run of the season on Friday to propel UCLA to a 6-3 win. UCLA's starting trio of Adam Plutko, Nick Vander Tuig and Grant Watson each earned victories on the mound, allowing a combined five earned runs in 20.1 innings of work. Additionally, 14 of the 20 runs that the Bruins scored in the series came with two outs.
TUESDAY STARTER
Freshman Cody Poteet will make his second collegiate start for the Bruins against the Dirtbags. Poteet picked up his first collegiate win last Tuesday at UC Santa Barbara, going five innings and allowing just two hits in UCLA's 12-3 victory over the Gauchos. The right-hander from Bonita, Calif. was drafted by the Washington Nationals in the 27th round of the 2012 MLB Draft after enjoying a great three-year career at Christian High School (El Cajon, Calif.) and competing for club team ABD Bulldogs. Poteet went 10-1 with a 2.10 ERA and 112 strikeouts in 66.2 innings pitched for the Bulldogs in 2012.
TAKING THE HITS
UCLA has had a total of 19 batters get hit by a pitch in its last seven games, bringing the season total to a Pac-12 best 28 hit batters through 10 games. Kevin Kramer leads the Bruins with five hit by pitches while Shane Zeile, Brian Carroll and Pat Valaika have each been hit four times. Last Tuesday at UCSB, the Bruins had five batters hit by a pitch, the most since Nebraska hit five UCLA batters back on March 6, 2011. Overall, the Bruins have had a batter get hit by a pitch in all 10 of their games and have had at least two batters get by a pitch in nine of their 10 games. UCLA had a school record 104 batters hit by a pitch back in 2010.
STRONG STARTERS
UCLA's starting rotation of Adam Plutko, Nick Vander Tuig, Grant Watson and Cody Poteet has combined to post a 2.01 ERA entering tomorrow's game. UCLA's starters have allowed just 14 earned runs in 62.2 innings pitched so far, striking out a combined 35 hitters in the early going. As starters, Plutko, Vander Tuig, Watson and Poteet have a record of 7-1 through the first 10 games with two no-decisions. As a team, the Bruins have posted an ERA of 2.50 through the first 10 games and have allowed just a .213 batting average against them.
SHUTTING THE DOOR
Sophomore David Berg and freshman James Kaprielian have combined to go a perfect 4-4 in save opportunities through the first 10 games. Kaprielian earned his first two saves back in February, closing out both of UCLA's victories over Baylor. In three appearances this season, Kaprielian has struck out seven of the 13 batters he's faced and has allowed just one hit. Kaprielian was drafted in the 40th round of the 2012 MLB Draft by the Seattle Mariners after posting a career record of 33-3 with a 0.96 ERA, 250 strikeouts and 23 complete games at Beckman High School in Irvine, Calif. Berg has been dominant in the early going, leading all UCLA relief pitchers with a 1.80 ERA in seven appearances. He earned back-to-back saves last weekend against Wright State and has struck out seven of the last 11 batters he's faced.
REACHING BASE
Through the first 10 games, the Bruins have posted an outstanding team on-base percentage of .412, which is second-best among Pac-12 teams. Infielders Pat Valaika and Kevin Kramer have reached base at least once in all 10 games, posting OBP's of .521 and .429 respectivley. Juniors Brian Carroll and Pat Gallagher each have high OBP's of .500, while freshman Trent Chatterton has posted an on-base percentage of .483. The Bruins are just barely behind Arizona for the Pac-12 lead in on-base percentage, falling just four percentage points shy of Arizona's .416 mark.
OFF TO THE RACES
UCLA has gotten off to a fast start on the basepaths, stealing 16 bases in 22 attempts. Brian Carroll leads the team in stolen bases, swiping nine bags in 10 attempts, including going a perfect 4-4 in stolen base attempts this past weekend against Wright State. Kevin Kramer has stolen four bases in six attempts while Eric Filia is two for three on the basepaths. Last season, UCLA stole 62 bases in 98 attempts, good for a 63.2% success rate.
LOOKING AHEAD
UCLA will play a tough slate of non-conference games at home this weekend as they square off against No. 22 Notre Dame, No. 17 Oklahoma and rivals USC at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The Bruins and the Fighting Irish have met only twice on the baseball diamond, splitting the series 1-1, while Oklahoma holds a slight edge in the all-time series against UCLA, leading 7-6. Since John Savage became head coach of the Bruins in the summer of 2004, the Bruins have gone 19-9 against USC and have not lost a season series to the Trojans since 2005.
