Serra grad Pat Caulfield loving life on the road with UCLA baseball

After graduating from Serra in 2017, Caulfield jumped at the chance to relocate to Southern California. It wasn’t quite what he had in mind — Caulfield had his sights set on playing at a four-year college as a freshman — but it turned out to be a fortuitous move in taking the JUCO route at Santa Barbara Community College.

“Junior college was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Caulfield said.

A middle infielder in high school, Caulfield blossomed into an All-California Community College outfielder as a sophomore at Santa Barbara, where he hit for a .336 career batting average.

It certainly wasn’t the path Caulfield had in mind at Serra as his teammates were signing with primetime colleges. Thomas McCarthy, a Serra senior in 2017, went on to play immediately at USF. And while pitcher Nick Garcia went the NCAA Division III route at Chapman University, the move saw Garcia get drafted in the third round by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2020.

All Caulfield wanted during his senior year in Padres pinstripes was to be one of those guys.

“I really did not want to go to junior college when I was in high school,” Caulfield said, warning against what he calls the stigma of signing the big collegiate commitment deal. “I wanted that to be me. So, I was doing everything I could in high school … and I never really got anything from it.”

The younger brother of former Burlingame twins Phil and Thomas — who each transferred to Division I programs out of Skyline College — Caulfield also had a stigma about wanting to break out of his brothers’ shadows.

So, he traveled high and low, geographically speaking.

Not only did he land at Santa Barbara, Caulfield caught on with the Walla Walla Sweets on the summer baseball circuit in Washington state.

“I like experiencing new stuff,” Caulfield said. “That’s something that goes back to, I never really wanted to do the same things my older brothers did. … I wanted to create my own legacy ever since.”

Now that legacy includes not just playing for a Pac-12 powerhouse in UCLA. Currently ranked No. 21 in the nation by Baseball America, the red-hot Bruins are riding a four-game winning streak into the postseason, including last weekend’s three-game sweep of Arizona State.

“We definitely clicked at the right time,” Caulfield said. “That last weekend at Arizona State really sent a good message as to what we’re going to do in Texas. We had some guys struggle this year that are really getting hot. … We’re full go. I actually can’t wait to get to Texas. It’s going to be a really fun time for us.”

The Bruins have earned it. In the context of between-the-lines college baseball, the closure of the 2020 season due to the coronavirus pandemic hit UCLA hard. The Bruins spent time as the No. 1 ranked team in the nation last season, and Caulfield’s production was quite a reason for optimism.

Of UCLA’s 15 games prior to the cancelation of the season, Caulfield was garnering regular playing time, and had even cracked the starting lineup 10 times. He finished the year with a .302 batting average and was slugging a respectable .443 with a home run and three doubles.

“We had a really solid team last year,” Caulfield said.

Through his first 17 games of 2021, however, the right-handed hitting outfielder batted just .242 while watching his playing time diminish. But, like UCLA, Caulfield finished strong. Since tabbing a three-hit day in the No. 2 spot of the batting order May 11 at Loyola Marymount, he finished the season with an 8-for-17 clip.

He is currently batting .299 on the year.

“I really picked it up,” Caulfield said. “I brought my average from low .200s to probably near .300 now. It’s just being ready when your number is called.”

Caulfield said he’s spent many hours in the batting cage, sometimes into the late hours of the night. Is this the secret to slump busting though? Or is it merely another stigma?

“Then it just becomes a point you get out of your way and you just start playing the game for what it is,” Caulfield said.