USC series pivotal for UW baseball

As the UW baseball team huddled around its dugout after Sunday’s stinging 4-3 loss at the hands of UCLA, it was left searching for answers.

The team’s offense was lacking, the bullpen collapsed and the defense faltered late as the Dawgs wasted yet another solid outing by a starting pitcher. Whatever the team talked about after the loss must have made an impact, though, as the Huskies (25-16, 5-7 Pac-10) outplayed British Columbia on Tuesday, 14-4.

Now the Dawgs will travel south to USC (21-22, 7-8 Pac-10) to right the ship in conference play in a pivotal three-game series.

UW coach Ken Knutson didn’t hesitate to let his outlook be known.

“I think we’re going to go out, play hard and expect to win the series,” he said.

Once again, pitching is where things will start for the Dawgs, as they send to the mound junior right-handed pitcher Jorden Merry on Friday, sophomore right-handed pitcher Cam Nobles on Saturday and junior left-handed pitcher Nick Haughian on Sunday.

Merry (6-0, 2.12 ERA) has been dominant thus far, giving up only 43 hits in 59 1/3 innings in his 10 appearances, of which eight were starts. Haughian (4-4, 3.21 ERA) continues to impress, leading the Pac-10 in strikeouts with 84 in 70 innings.

The Husky pitching staff will face off against a questionable Trojans offense that ranks sixth in the Pac-10 in batting average and runs scored and seventh in slugging percentage.

Even though the Huskies tend to rank below USC in most offensive stats, UW may be primed for an offensive breakthrough. Trojan pitchers are allowing opponents to hit a .290 average, while scoring a league-high 282 runs.

Knutson noted that while USC’s starters have done well, their bullpen has had trouble. For example, Trojans’ starter Tommy Milone, who the Huskies will likely see this weekend, has a 2.89 ERA over 10 starts, while several of their relievers are near the bottom of the conference in nearly every category.

“Their bullpen is struggling,” Knutson said. “We’ll try to be more aggressive at the plate and hopefully take advantage of that.”

But part of the problem in recent series for the Dawgs has been their ability to take advantage of good opportunities, especially against UCLA, when the Huskies couldn’t get men on base and couldn’t move them along when they did get on.

“We have to get good pitches to hit, get leadoff hitters on base and hit better with runners in scoring position,” Knutson said. “That’s something we had trouble with.”

If the Huskies do as prescribed and the pitching continues to dominate the mound, they should be in prime position to get back over .500 in conference.