As an annual preseason ritual, the UCLA baseball team thinks of key words it hopes will define the coming year. The words go on posters and the posters go on the locker room walls. They are then used to make a mission statement. The mission statement goes in every player’s locker.
The mission statement is a steadying presence during a wild season. Five days before their season opener, the Bruins had yet to finalize their statement for the year, but they found a guiding word.
“This year, the biggest word is ‘edge,’” junior pitcher Griffin Canning said. “It’s just that competitive edge. That extra oomph in your game.”
A 25-31 finish last year surely sharpened UCLA’s competitive edge as the Bruins start 2017 on Friday with a three-game home series against San Jose State. UCLA tumbled from the Pac-12 champion and No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament in 2015 to 10th in the conference and missing the postseason completely in 2016.
With a healthy roster and a freshman class capable of making an immediate impact, the Bruins are ready for redemption.
“I think any team coming off a subpar year would have to say that the alertness and the awareness and the fire is within,” said head coach John Savage, who described last year as “bitter.”
The Bruins are in danger of graduating a senior class without a trip to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., for the first time since 2009. They won the national championship in 2013, but made it to the postseason only once since.
“With the history of this program, there’s a precedent that’s been set of what the team’s supposed to be,” Canning said. “So after last season, the guys that are back are definitely hungry to get back out there and start again.”
The Bruins welcome back starting shortstop Nick Valaika, who was sidelined last year with a hand injury. While they lost catcher Darrell Miller Jr., who graduated after missing last season due to a shoulder injury, they still have depth at that position with junior college transfer Gavin Johns, redshirt sophomore Daniel Rosica and sophomore Jake Hirabayashi.
Johns, a Chaparral High alumnus, won the Division I JuCo World Series last year at Yavapai College. Rosica started 40 games last year while Hirabayashi started 18 as a true freshman.
“We’re much deeper position player wise, which obviously creates competition,” Savage said. “We want depth. We want competition. We want things that are going to give us the best chance to win.”
UCLA’s top-20 recruiting class figures to bolster that depth immediately. Although the Bruins lost three incoming freshmen to the MLB draft, including No. 1 overall pick Mickey Moniak, the group is still “as strong as we’ve had” in terms of depth, Savage said. He expects infielders Michael Toglia, Chase Strumpf and Ryan Kreidler will play early and often as true freshmen.
Savage compared the group to his 2006 recruiting class, which included two-time MLB World Series champion Brandon Crawford. That class was Savage’s second in Westwood and was called upon immediately to help overhaul the program after a 15-41 season, still the worst in the coach’s 13-year tenure.
Similarly, this 2017 class will be key players in the hopes of rebounding from Savage’s second-worst season at UCLA as the team aims to regain its brand of baseball.
Players pondered the definition of Bruin baseball while drafting their mission statement during the past few weeks. It means to be fundamentally sound and mentally tough, to have competitiveness and awareness.
To play with edge.
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