UCLA Bruins Insider Podcast: Football Lands Huge Recruit

In today's episode of the UCLA Bruins Insider Podcast, we talk about DeShaun Foster and the UCLA Bruins landing highly-touted four-star offensive lineman Micah Smith.

We also break down baseball's game one win over UTSA in the Los Angeles Super Regional.

To watch today's episode, view below:

UCLA baseball coach John Savage spoke to the media after their game one win. Below is a transcription of his postgame press conference courtesy of UCLA Athletics:

opening statement
“It’s one game. You can’t get overly excited in these situations, and rule number one is that you don’t. There’s a lot of baseball left this weekend. We understand that. That game could have gone either way. We left some guys on base; they did a really good job of putting pressure on us. They pitched out some problems. Michael [Barnett] was really good, that was a really good start for us. To go six innings in a super-regional game, 75 pitches, very efficient. They clearly jumped on him. A guy hit the ball out of the ballpark on a 1-0 pitch. They’re very offensive, and it was one of those nights where we threw strikes. That’s always a good sign. The bullpen threw strikes, and the counts were good. Our defense was really good. I just look at it as one game and there’s a lot of baseball left.”

on the mindset going into tomorrow’s game
“Every game is a new game. Any good team wins games in a lot of different fashions. There are some nights where you have to give their pitching credit. They threw some double plays, struck some people out in some critical moments. We had Roch [Cholowsky] up there in some critical moments. They’re here for a reason; they’re very good. You can leave 13 guys on base. You don’t really want to do that, but at the end of the day, it’s super-regional baseball and they have really good arms. They did a really nice job of keeping it 3-2. You’ve got to tip your hat. But it’s a new game tomorrow, and we’ll go from there.”

on adapting after the first few innings
“It’s baseball. Any good team understands that there are moments like that. Like the solo home run, that guy is a very, very legitimate player. We saw him at Oregon, and it’s come full circle. He’s a really good player. Them stealing home was a lesson learned, throwing the ball from his knees, not throwing it firm enough. They picked up on that and stole home. A nine-inning game is a long game; I always tell them. There are plenty of opportunities that are still on the table. They jumped on us, no question about it. They had a lot of momentum. To Michael’s credit, he calmed that down a little bit. We put enough across and then Roman came up with the big hit, obviously, late in the game. Every game is going to be a dogfight from the end of the season until the end of the year. I don’t think we’ve really blinked an eye on not executing or not doing something well. If you feel sorry for yourself, or you get in your own way, you’re not going to get it done.

on the depth of the team
"This is not a one-man show. I told the guys that all year long. This is a really good team that plays together and believes in one another. There are a lot of different weapons throughout the lineup. Roman, Dean West, AJ, and Payton Brennan had a huge weekend last weekend. You’ve got to keep going.”

on having no walks
“No walks were nice. We threw strikes, and for the most part, we got in good counts.”

on Easton Hawk’s performance
"He’s been really good. Learning how to be a closer, they have a pitching change, so he had to wait. That’s a little adversity, a little time. He’s had to really learn, and to his credit, he’s come in and pounded the glove pretty well with multiple pitches. You can clearly see his talent. The end of the game is no joke. That’s only built for certain guys, and we felt that he could handle it. He’s still very young in his career and he has a long way to go, but he’s trending in the right way.

on Roch Cholowsky’s performance
"He’s just missing some pitches, probably trying to do too much. Sometimes good players try to do that. The defensive play that he made late in the game was an exceptional play. It doesn’t carry over to his defense, so that’s fine. We have other guys that can do things, and he had a couple of productive at-bats, a base hit. We’re not worried about it at all. It doesn’t carry over to the defensive side of the ball, and he’s a premium shortstop. He’s playing really good defense. All he cares about is winning; that’s what all of these guys care about. We like an average Roch; average Roch is pretty good. He’ll get going. It’s baseball, and it’s a new day tomorrow.”

on tomorrow’s pitching
"We’re going to decide that tonight.”

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