Long Beach: UCLA Is Feeling Super

By Lara Boyko - June 04, 2007

Not since 2000 has the UCLA baseball team felt as super as they do tonight.

This is because for the first time in seven seasons, the UCLA baseball program is extending their season into Super Regional action by beating Long Beach State in the final game of the Long Beach Regional 7-4.

"It was a hard fought game," UCLA coach John Savage said of his team's performance tonight. "It started out rough as Tim Murphy struggled early. He found his composure and found his strikes. It was a game where we did what we needed to offensively and kept going at them. It was a great win for our program."

Pitching complete game for the Bruins -- which was their third starting pitcher to have completed his game during the weekend -- was Murphy who gave up eight hits, four runs, walked two and recorded eight strikeouts in 140 pitches.

"I was running a little bit low in the tank, but you always have to think you have a little bit more left in you and we went out and got it," Murphy said.

Helping encourage Murphy along to the complete game was the UCLA offense that connected for two runs in the third inning, four runs in the fifth inning and one more in the sixth to give them the edge. Along with the offense doing their job during the at-bats, UCLA's defense also staved off a pesky Long Beach State team that was fighting off a long day at the ballpark that started with their 4-3 win over University Illinois-Chicago.

"I give our guys a lot of credit," Long Beach State coach Mike Weathers said. "When you are in that elimination game and playing two in a day, it's not easy. I thought our guys did a great job with it."

Long Beach State did not go down quietly as the Dirtbags struck first by recording three runs in the first and one run in the third. Yet as their bats cooled down in the night air, continuing on to a Super Regional was not in the cards for this season.

"I know a lot of people only remember the last game, but as I just told the guys that this season was incredible when we had 21 out of 35 new guys and everyone learned so much," Weathers said. "Even though we came up short, we weren't even in it last year, so I am real proud of them."