OMAHA, Neb. — Like everyone else at Rosenblatt Stadium, UCLA’s Trevor Bauer was feeling the heat.
He said pregame warm-ups were almost intolerable. He gave up a home run in the first inning and had to work out of a minijam in the second. And it wasn’t long after that his sleeves - the sophomore was wearing a long-sleeved liner - were soaked through.
So don’t think the Bruins’ 10-3 victory Saturday againstTCU was no sweat.
Sweet?
Yes.
The Bruins, who hadn’t won a game in two previous College World Series, are heading to the championship round after Bauer limited the Horned Frogs to four hits and struck out 13 in eight innings.
Blair Dunlap hit a three-run home run in UCLA’s five-run first, and the Bruins won going away.
“Obviously, that five-spot in the first inning was huge,” Bauer said. “It gives me confidence they have my back and simplifies your pitching approach: Throw strikes and don’t put people on base. In a tighter game you have to be more careful and there’shigher stress. It’s huge when the offense can support you like that.”
UCLA (51-15) will play South Carolina, a 4-3 winner over Clemson, in the best-of-3 final starting Monday.
Aside from Bryan Holaday’s two home runs for TCU, Bauer (12-3) dominated a lineup that was batting a CWS-best .337. The Frogs, in the CWS for the first time, finished the year 54-14.
Bauer, with his fastball approaching the mid 90s, allowed only one more base runner after Holaday’s fifthinning home run, and that was on a walk. He struck out the last four batters he faced before Daniel Klein came on to pitch a scoreless ninth.
“The eighth inning was anunreal inning,” UCLA Coach John Savage said. “He was on top of his game.”
Bauer and the Bruins weathered Omaha’s hottest day of the year. The temperature was 94 degrees with a heat index of 107 degrees by the seventh inning. A thermometer on the field measured the temperature at 109.
Home-plate umpire Jim Jackson and second-base umpire Mark Ditsworth had to be treated for heat issues during the game, which lasted 3 hours, 40 minutes.
“It was definitely hot out there,” Holaday said. “And then those long innings, they had a lot of really good atbats and seemed like every inning they had runners on. And definitely it wears youout a little bit being out in the heat like that.”
Bauer said he drank fluids and stayed near the fan between innings.
“I kind of caught my breath after the fourth,” he said. “I cooled down a little bit and kind of went along from there. My sleeves were so wet they kind of kept me cool. There was a breeze.”
Bauer’s strikeouts raised his season total to a nationleading 165. He has 10 or more strikeouts in eight of his 18 starts and has pitched seven or more innings in 15. In the Bruins’ CWS opener against Florida last Saturday, he recorded 11 strikeouts in seven innings in an 11-3 victory.
UCLA roughed up TCU starter Kyle Winkler (12-3) for the second consecutive game.He didn’t record an out, hitting leadoff man Beau Amaral and giving up a single to Niko Gallego before Dunlap homered to left to help the Bruins get out to a 5-1 lead.
At a glance At Rosenblatt Stadium, Omaha, Neb.
FRIDAY’S GAMES TCU 6, UCLA 2 South Carolina 5, Clemson 1 SATURDAY’S GAMES UCLA 10, TCU 3
TCU eliminated South Carolina 4, Clemson 3 CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES Best-of-3 MONDAY’S GAME UCLA vs. South Carolina, 6:30 p.m.
TUESDAY’S GAME UCLA vs. South Carolina, 6:30 p.m.
Sports, Pages 31 on 06/27/2010