SPORTSCOPE : UCLA Baseball Team Travels to Florida to Compete in Tournament

The UCLA baseball team, which split a doubleheader with UC Irvine to open the season, will play Friday through Sunday in the Florida Citrus Bowl Tournament at Orlando. Other teams in the field are Central Florida, Florida and Georgia Southern.

The Bruins will play host to Cal State Los Angeles at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Against Irvine, UCLA lost the first game, 4-1, but came back to win the second, 9-6. Top Bruin hitters in the doubleheader were Chris Pritchett with four hits, including a home run; Kevin Webb with two homers and three runs batted in, Matt Schwenke with three hits, including a homer and Joel Wolfe with two hits and two RBIs. Wolfe also stole three bases.

Pete Janicki was UCLA’s winning pitcher in the second game, and Zac Reeder had the save.

The Pepperdine baseball team (3-1) will begin West Coast Conference play this weekend with a three-game series at the University of San Diego. There will be a single game at 2 p.m. Friday and a doubleheader at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The Waves will play host to USC at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at Eddy D. Field Stadium.

Last week Pepperdine opened the season by routing Westmont, 21-0, and then took two of three games against Arizona. Against Westmont, the Waves set a school record by scoring 12 runs in one inning.

Top Pepperdine hitters have included Eric Ekdahl, who is 10 for 15 with six RBIs; Scott Vollmer, 7 for 13 with four RBIs, and Steve Rodriguez, 10 for 19 with nine RBIs.

The UCLA women’s softball team, three-time defending NCAA champion, will play host to Cal State Long Beach in a doubleheader at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Sunset Canyon diamond.

Last week the Bruins opened the season by sweeping a doubleheader from UC Santa Barbara, 5-0 and 2-0. Heather Compton pitched a three-hitter and had 12 strikeouts in the first game, and Lisa Fernandez nearly pitched a perfect game in the second game but finished with a one-hitter. Fernandez extended her scoreless streak to 56 innings over two seasons.

The UCLA men’s and women’s gymnastics teams are idle this weekend after both teams won last week in a combined meet at the John Wooden Center.

The women (7-1) scored 189.1 to 179.3 for Minnesota and 174.25 for UC Santa Barbara. The men (3-0) defeated UCSB, 280.95-268.1.

UCLA’s Rhonda Faehn dislocated an elbow while tumbling during her floor exercise routine and will be out for the season.

Scott Keswick led the Bruin men, taking first in the all-around with a 57.75, and teammate Chainey Umphrey was second in the all-around with a 56.6. For the women, UCLA’s Natalie Britton won the all-around with a 36.9.

The UCLA women’s basketball team (10-9 overall, 5-4 in the Pacific 10 play) will play tonight at Arizona (5-17, 0-9) and Saturday night at Arizona State (12-7, 3-6).

Last week the Bruins lost at Washington and Washington State. Rehema Stephens moved into 11th place on UCLA’s career scoring list with 22 points against Washington and 24 against Washington State and now has 1,095 points. She leads the Pac-10 with an average of 26.9 points.

The Pepperdine women’s basketball team (10-12 overall, 3-5 in the West Coast Conference) will play tonight at Portland (6-15, 0-8) and Saturday night at Gonzaga (7-14, 2-6).

Last week the Waves lost to St. Mary’s, but then snapped a three-game losing streak by beating the University of San Francisco. Linda Waters had career-high marks of 26 points and nine rebounds against St. Mary’s. Shannon Liber scored a career-high 21 points against USF.

The No. 4 UCLA women’s golf team will compete Monday through Wednesday at the Arizona Invitational in Tucson.