BASEBALL: BRUINS TURN IT ON ONCE AGAIN UCLA HAS TWO CHANCES TO ADVANCE IN REGIONAL TODAY.Byline: John Helsley Special to the Daily News OKLAHOMA CITY Oklahoma City (1990 pop. 444,719), state capital, and seat of Oklahoma co., central Okla., on the North Canadian River; inc. 1890. The state's largest city, it is an important livestock market, a wholesale, distribution, industrial, and financial center, and a farm - UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX is a team that recognizes a sense of urgency. Apparent since midseason, that's also been the theme through two games at the Oklahoma City NCAA NCAA abbr. National Collegiate Athletic Association regional, where the Bruins now stand one win away from a championship. No. 1 seed UCLA beat tournament host Oklahoma 10-5 Saturday, answering a Sooners rally with a four-run eighth inning at Bricktown Ballpark. The Bruins, 37-24, will again face second-seeded Oklahoma - which later defeated third-seeded Oral Roberts Noun 1. Oral Roberts - United States evangelist (born 1918) Roberts 9-7 - in today's 9 a.m. title game. The Sooners must beat UCLA twice today to advance to a Super Regional berth next weekend. UCLA came to Oklahoma City as a questioned if not questionable No. 1 seed - even if it did share the Pacific-10 championship - because of an unimpressive 35-24 record. During the regular season, the Bruins struggled through stretches where they lost nine of 10 games and seven of eight, hardly the stuff of a College World Series contender. However, they rallied to tie Arizona State and Stanford for the conference title. And they're winning here, again knowing when to turn it on. ``We know that we have a good team right now,'' said pitcher Jon Brandt, who earned his first save with 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. ``I'm a third-year guy that came in here with 14 other guys. ``We have always looked at this point in our careers at UCLA asa time we have to step up and get it done. We have been preparing for this for three years.'' After needing a three-run ninth inning to overcome fourth-seeded Delaware in Friday's opener, the Bruins took a 6-1 lead against Oklahoma, only to find the Sooners finally firing up the home crowd late. OU scored four runs in the eighth to make it 6-5 and had the bases loaded before Brandt came on to shut off the threat. Then UCLA went back to work with the bats, after managing just one run since the first, scoring four runs on three hits, with Bill Scott's two-run double the big blow. Saturday's game, compared to Friday's, ``was a real baseball game Noun 1. baseball game - a ball game played with a bat and ball between two teams of nine players; teams take turns at bat trying to score runs; "he played baseball in high school"; "there was a baseball game on every empty lot"; "there was a desire for National League ,'' said Bruins coach Gary Adams. The Bruins got good starting pitching from Josh Karp, who went 7 1/3 innings, allowing seven hits and four runs while striking out six. And they got 13 hits, highlighted by Chase Utley's inside-the-park home run In baseball parlance, an inside-the-park home run or "leg home run" is a play where a hitter scores a home run without hitting the ball out of play. Discussion To score an inside-the-park home run the player must run, round, and touch all four bases before a fielder tags in the seventh. Garrett Atkins Garrett Bernard Atkins (born December 12, 1979 in Orange, California) has been the third baseman for the Major League Baseball team the Colorado Rockies since 2003. He bats and throws right-handed. , who hit for the cycle Friday, extended his season-high hitting streak to 21 games with an RBI RBI abbr. Baseball runs batted in Noun 1. rbi - a run that is the result of the batter's performance; "he had more than 100 rbi last season" run batted in single. Scott and Charles Merricks each had three hits. ``Offense, defense and pitching were the things that it took to beat a really good Oklahoma team,'' said Adams. ``We had it all today.'' |
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