Silva gets a lot of grief here and with some of the performances this year, that frustration is very easy to account for. However, he did come to NU with an estimable playing and coaching pedigree from CSF, Fresno St., UCI and LMU. He's also the same guy for whom the pitching staff performed very well in 2015, when then the offense couldn't scratch across a few extra runs to win some key games. The guys that were counted on this year have struggled (GKing, Burkamper and Chesnut, intermittently), been injured (Waldron) or both (Howell). There have been some occasions where we've seen the performance of a Friday night ace (Charleston, LBSU) but it is an absolute necessity to get that EVERY week, in terms of innings and competitiveness. Kubat, Sinclair and DeLeon are recent versions of these kind of guys, and it's not unreasonable to think that we have that potential on the roster now (or at least to have thought so at the start of the season). Silva surely knows this and has been trying to get someone to show some swagger with not-great results.
Still, despite all, the team is 28-16 and has a shot at the postseason. You can ask for more, but I'm not a subscriber to the notion that the "great fans and facilities" gets us the obligatory winner - UCLA has neither a devoted baseball fan base nor facilities of renown (maybe the weather supplants that). D1 college teams - even in the "hapless" Big 10 - are are full of big, talented and competitive athletes who will battle you and win their share.