UCLA baseball preps for Super Regionals

UCLA has had little success against Cal State Fullerton this season.
The teams have played twice, the Bruins have lost twice, the Titans only one of three teams that have taken multiple games them.

But UCLA coach John Savage has a little up his sleeve this time, a couple of aces whom Fullerton has not seen.

So even though the Titans have gone on a power surge this season, the Bruins are confident that Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer will pull the plug this weekend at Jackie Robinson Stadium, as UCLA hosts its NCAA Super Regional.

"Fullerton is a little different than they have been in the past," said Sunday starter Rob Rasmussen, who is 10-2 with a 2.90 ERA. "They swing with a lot of power. My first two years, they didn't have this power. But they haven't seen our weekend guys. They haven't seen Cole, Bauer, myself. We know our pitching staff is good. Really darn good. We're going to go out there and do what we've done every weekend, and we think that will be enough."

It will need to be against a veteran Fullerton squad that plays in its seventh consecutive NCAA Super Regional. The Titans lost to Minnesota in Game 1 on Friday night at home, but rallied for wins against Stanford, New Mexico and the Golden Gophers on Sunday before beating Minnesota again on Monday.

UCLA, meanwhile, cruised through its regional with a 3-0 sweep over Kent State, Louisiana State and UC Irvine.

"We're extremely confident," Rasmussen said. "The starters, we have confidence in each other. There's not one day that we go this can be an iffy days. We watch each other pitch and expect each other to win every time out. And once it's out of our hands, we have complete faith that our 'pen is going to take care of it. We don't have to go nine every game. There's a lot of confidence. And our hitting...our hitting has been timely almost the entire year. There's a lot of belief we can do some special things."