University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
UCLA
Harvard
Baseball Beats Harvard On Strong Pitching From Henkel
March 17, 2000 | Baseball
March 17, 2000
Westwood, Calif.-- Junior LHP Rob Henkel set a UCLA record by striking out sixteen batters for the second consecutive game as UCLA (12-10, 0-0 Pac-10) won its fifth straight by defeating Harvard (0-1, 0-0 Ivy League) 9-2 in a Friday evening contest at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
Henkel, from La Mesa, CA, followed up a six-inning, 16 strikeout performance vs. Bradley on March 10, with a seven-inning, 16 K effort against the Crimson this evening, giving him 32 strikeouts in his last 13 IP, a school record. In addition, the southpaw gave up just three hits and no runs while walking just one batter. Henkel's strikeout-to-walk ratio this season is a phenomenal 52:5. Finally, the Monte Vista HS product struck out the side in the fifth and seventh innings, and managed strike out all nine Harvard starters at least once. In all, Henkel retired 20 of the 24 batters he faced, including nine of the first ten. Like last week, Henkel fell one short of tying the school record for strikeouts in a game set on Feb. 12, 1999 by fellow junior RHP Jon Brandt.
The game got off to a slow start as Harvard starter RHP Justin Nyweide matched Henkel by shutting out the Bruins for the first three frames. In the fourth, however, junior 1B Garrett Atkins torched a Nyweide offering to right field for his seventh homer of the season, giving the Bruins a 2-0 advantage. UCLA would add two more in the fifth, one off an RBI single by junior SS Josh Canales, and the other off a bases-loaded walk by Atkins. Junior CF Charles Merricks got the whole thing started when he doubled off reliever RHP Ryan Tsujikawa, driving sophomore 3B Randall Shelley, who led off the inning with a walk, to third. Merricks followed that up with a two-RBI double in the sixth, accounting for two of the three runs scored in that inning. The junior from Oxnard, CA was perfect on the night, going 3-3 with a career-high two doubles, two runs, and two RBI.
UCLA would tack on two more in the seventh, as junior RF Nick Lyon and junior DH Ryan Hamill drove in runs via single and sac fly, respectively. Junior RHP Paul Diaz closed out UCLA's fifth win in a row by pitching the final two innings in relief of Henkel. Junior 2B Chase Utley extended his hitting streak to 12 games by going 2-4 with a RBI. Utley now leads the team with a .398 batting average.
The two clubs will meet tomorrow, Saturday, March 18 for a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. at Jackie Robinson Stadium. Harvard, which played its first game of the season today, will throw RHP John Birtwell and RHP Ben Crockett while UCLA will counter with sophomore RHP Josh Karp (2-1) and junior LHP Bobby Roe (2-2). Game two is scheduled to begin approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of game one.
