Monday, May 4, 1998
Seniors give all in final home game
BASEBALL: Three-game sweep well-deserved after struggling
season
By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Staff
When John Phillips came to the plate in the bottom of the
eighth, the question that popped up was "Huh?"
Phillips is a senior pitcher who earlier this season had his
career come to a halt. On March 13 at Arizona, Phillips felt the
same pain in the right elbow that forced him to miss the 1996
season. A second Tommy John surgery would make it virtually
impossible for him to ever pitch again as a Bruin.
Therefore Phillips forced himself to pitch one more inning in
tremendous pain and retired the side in order, striking out the
last batter he will ever face.
But on Senior Day at Jackie Robinson Stadium, the right-handed
hitting Phillips once again wore a Bruin uniform as he showed off
his less-than-stellar switch hitting skills. No one cared, though,
that Phillips grounded out on a check swing. No one cared that
Phillips did not give UCLA a great chance for a hit. No one cared
because Phillip’s at-bat was about more than baseball.
"I feel like I owe an awful lot to (Phillips)," UCLA head coach
Gary Adams said. "He’s been hurt and I think we owe John some kind
of reward. He wanted an at-bat and it was a no-brainer. I was happy
to give it to him. He deserved it."
After a tough season that has seen the Bruins (23-30) struggle
due to their youth, a three-game sweep of Portland State (13-32)
was well deserved. UCLA relied on pitching in all their games –
Friday’s 7-6 win, Saturday’s 4-3 win and Sunday’s 7-4 Senior Day
victory.
The Bruins had four seniors in the lineup Sunday, but ironically
it was freshman third baseman Garrett Atkins who stole the show.
Atkins raised his team-leading batting average to .386 as he went
four for four with one home run and four RBI.
Atkins even bumped a senior from the record book during Senior
Day. With his four hits, Atkins now has 80 for the season –
breaking Eric Byrnes’ 1995 mark of 77 hits.
Senior Tony Righetti (2-0) started the game for UCLA and pitched
five innings while striking out six. He lowered his team-leading
ERA to 2.66 before giving way to three underclassmen.
"I’m proud of those seniors," Adams said. "They all played hard
and I was hoping that every one of them hit a home run. But
Righetti did a good job, (Brett) Nista got robbed a couple of times
… Byrnes had his usual good day, Cassidy Olson got a clutch
double for us while Phillips did not get his money’s worth."
Other seniors honored were team manager Allen Jerkens, catcher
Casey Cloud, pitcher Matt Klein and second baseman Nick
Theodorou.
But Sunday wasn’t about baseball and the 315 people in
attendance knew this.
"I was sitting there during the national anthem and I had tears
rolling down my face – I’ll tell you that right now," Byrnes said.
"Everything just sunk in at once."