UCLA baseball gets a boost

From UCLA:

Freshman right-handed pitcher Eric Jaffe has enrolled at UCLA in the Winter Quarter and will be eligible to compete for the Bruins in 2011. Jaffe, selected in the 19th round of the 2010 MLB Draft by the Boston Red Sox, was a three-year varsity baseball letterwinner at Oakland's Bishop O'Dowd High School.

Rated the nation's No. 86 prospect in his class by Baseball America as a senior, Jaffe starred at Bishop O'Dowd both on the mound and at the plate as a power-hitting first baseman. He went 8-1 with a 0.83 ERA in 2010, recording 98 strikeouts and 36 walks in a team-leading 57.2 innings.

At the plate, Jaffe batted .442 with seven home runs, six doubles, 20 RBI and 28 runs. The two-way standout helped lead Bishop O'Dowd to a 21-5 overall record, along with a 14-2 mark in the Hayward Area Athletics League (HAAL) last spring.

Jaffe secured first-team All-HAAL honors as a junior and senior and was named a first-team All-State baseball selection by Cal-Hi Sports at the end of the 2010 season. He captured first-team All-East Bay honors from the Bay Area News Group as a senior.

As a junior, Jaffe went 3-0 with a 1.91 ERA on the mound, allowing 11 hits and recording 47 strikeouts in 33.0 innings. He batted .471 for Bishop O'Dowd, belting eight home runs and registering 25 RBI in 2009. Jaffe was selected a first-team Underclass All-America selection by Perfect Game USA as a junior.

Jaffe becomes the fourth true freshman right-handed pitcher on UCLA's roster in 2011, joining classmates Adam Plutko, Nick Vander Tuig and Zack Weiss.

UCLA opens its 2011 schedule with a three-game series against San Francisco, beginning Friday, Feb. 18. Game time at Jackie Robinson Stadium is slated for 6 p.m.