UCLA: Baseball Ranked #1, Gymnastics Ranked #1 and headed for the National Championships

It’s been an exciting time for UCLA sports as of late, particularly for two of their programs.

After a school record 22-0 start, the Bruin baseball team is ranked number one in the country for the first time since 1997, which incidentally is the last time they went to the College World Series.

Led by coach John Savage, the Bruins have achieved this ranking largely on their strength of their starting pitching. Garrett Claypool (5-1, 1.91 ERA), Trevor Bauer (5-1, 1.95 ERA), Gerrit Cole (6-0, 2.37 ERA) and Rob Rassmussen(5-0, 2.89 ERA) have been lights out in shutting down opposing bats, as has closer Dan Klein, who has six saves to go with his Mariano Rivera-like 0.39 earned run average.

The Bruin bats have unexpectedly come alive as well, considering that they lost much of their power from last season. First baseman Dean Espy leads the team with a  whopping .416 average, second baseman Tyler Rahmatulla is the RBI leader with 28,  catcher Steve Rodriguez has five home runs to top the squad, and right fielder Brett Krill has turned in a solid season of four homers and 20 RBIs while batting .300.

With an overall record of 26-3, having recently taken two out of three games from Oregon State in Corvallis to currently stand at 4-2 in the Pac-10 Conference and after having whipped UC Riverside 10-0 on Tuesday night, UCLA stands a very good chance at going to Omaha in June for the College World Series, as long as they stay healthy and don’t go into any prolonged slumps.

The Westwood faithful  has certainly gotten excited about this team. I recently attended a game at Jackie Robinson Stadium, where the Bruins play their home games, on a weeknight when crowds are usually quite scarce; the place was nearly filled to capacity – that should say something.

As great as the Bruins have been on the diamond, there’s another sport on campus that people are especially jacked up about.

The women’s gymnastics team has been on fire the past few weeks, not only capturing the Pac-10 Championship in Tucson, AZ a few weeks ago, but also winning the NCAA Los Angeles Regional in Pauley Pavilion this past Saturday by an incredible score of 197.825, which was the highest of all the 36 teams in the six regionals. They also had the nation’s highest score at the Pac-10s.

These young ladies, led by Valorie Kondos Field, have been brilliant. Anna Li  brought down the house in achieving a perfect 10.0 on the uneven parallel bars for the second straight meet, having done the same thing at the Pac-10 Championships. She also got a 9.95 on the vault in her last appearance at Pauley, and still finished second in the all around to Vanessa Zamarrippa, who got a score of 39.675.

That should show the awesome depth Kondos Field’s program has; the best thing about all of this is that save for Li, the whole squad returns intact in 2011.

Combined with Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs’ all around score of 39.6, which tied for third and gave the Bruins a complete sweep along with Brittani McCullough dazzling the Pauley faithful with her floor routine, which scored a 9.925 and was good for first place in that event, UCLA is clearly peaking at the right time.

Miss Val’s ladies are ranked as the overall #1 seed heading into the NCAA Nationals, which will be held on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, FL  this April 22-24. They will be favored to capture their sixth national title, their first since 2004, and the school’s 105th overall. If the cards are played right, this could be the next dynasty.

I think folks can see why Bruins are excited in Westwood. With two sports being ranked number one and having dream seasons to this point, UCLA is reminding people that there are still two top athletic programs in Los Angeles; USC doesn’t even field a gymnastics team, despite having a ready facility at the Galen Center.

The Bruin Nation is keeping their fingers crossed for both baseball and women’s gymnastics. This could be a spring to remember, starting a week from this Thursday if the Bruin gymnasts get it done.

I certainly wish the Bruin ballplayers and gymnastics team the utmost best of luck.