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By Jeff Agase

Daily Bruin Staff

Strike that. Back it up. Let’s try this thing again.

After a season-opening loss to UC Irvine earlier in the week, the UCLA baseball team will try once again to begin the season on the right foot with a three-game series against Gonzaga at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

The Bruins (0-1) were victims of quirky bounces and bobbled balls in the loss, leaving them clamoring for another chance at a first impression.

“We weren’t far away from winning the ball game, we just kind of killed ourselves,” freshman Kevin Conlin said.

Conlin’s suicidal analysis likely refers to the pair of errors committed by the UCLA defense, along with some early season defensive miscommunication. But equally self-destructive were their paltry four hits, which were easily offset by 13 strikeouts.

But it’s early yet. The Bruins know that without a bevy of first-round talent to ring up the scoreboard, they’ll have to play virtually mistake-free to win games.

According to pitching coach Gary Adcock, they’ll also need their starters to take them into the sixth or seventh inning, which may be wishful thinking at this stage of the season.

Mike Kunes, Mike Davern and Casey Janssen – UCLA’s Friday, Saturday and Sunday starters this weekend – have just 13 career starts. But they were all part of a surprising Bruin bullpen last season that often had to bail out early exits by starters.

They’ll face a Gonzaga squad playing its first games of the year but returning its entire infield.

“They have seven players returning from last year’s starting nine, and that’s very important when you play them at the beginning of the season,” UCLA head coach Gary Adams said. “They don’t need any time to gel as a team, so they come into the season ready to go.”

The Zags lost three all-conference pitchers, though, so both UCLA’s three and Gonzaga’s three will begin the season learning on the job.