Champions, Teammates & Best Frenemies: UCLA baseball alumni to duke it out on Olympic stage

Eric Filia and Zack Weiss will go head-to-head when Team USA plays Israel on Friday

Zack Weiss and Eric Filia have plenty of shared experience on the diamond.

They were teammates on UCLA's 2013 NCAA championship squad. They were reunited this spring when Weiss joined Filia on the Seattle Mariners' Triple-A affiliate, the Tacoma Rainiers.

Even going all the way back to when they were 14 years old, Weiss and Filia were junior umpires for 8U PONY Baseball in Irvine, California.

But when they take the field Friday, the pair of lifelong friends won't be donning the same uniforms.

Filia will be in the outfield for Team USA and Weiss will be coming out of the bullpen for Israel in the first Olympic baseball tournament since 2008. The Israelis qualified for the Tokyo Games back in 2019, while the Americans punched their ticket in early June. Once Weiss and Filia realized they'd be going head-to-head in the Olympics, things got weird in the Rainiers dugout.

"It's been fun, there's been a lot of jabbing in the clubhouse," Weiss said. "It's been really cool playing with him again, he's a great dude."

The two former UCLA players kept those friendly quips going once they arrived in Japan too. They got dinner together Tuesday night and reminisced about everything from their Little League days to the national championship they brought home to Westwood.

While they went nearly eight years without being on the same team, Weiss said he stayed very close with Filia, in addition to all of his fellow Bruins from back in the day.

"They're all still my best friends," Weiss said. "We've still got a fantasy football group that we play every year, that chat goes 12 months a year. ... There's been a lot of banter in that chat."

Part of that banter was sparked by right-hander Eric Jaffe, who was teammates with Weiss and Filia at UCLA in 2012. Jaffe bought a Team Israel jersey shirt with Weiss' name and number on the back and sent a photo of it in the group chat to show support for his fellow pitcher.

UCLA coach John Savage took pride in the camaraderie his team's alumni still have, even all these years later.

"It's a lifelong fraternity, really," Savage said. "It's a special bond that they had when they played with each other, the respect they have for the alumni and guys that are older than them, the help they provide to the young guys coming into the program – it's just a lot of helpers. I think that's one of the things we try to really teach is to help and support and provide your experience with other Bruins."

What's going on in Tokyo isn't just a UCLA reunion party, though. There are games to be played and won, and an international stage to relish.

The International Olympic Committee announced baseball would be returning for the 2020 Olympics in 2016 after it was dropped for the 2012 and 2016 Games. A few months later, Israel was a surprise standout at the 2017 World Baseball Classic. Those two factors convinced Weiss to apply for Israeli citizenship, since he is Jewish and has ancestry from within the Jewish diaspora, and he made it his mission to become an Olympian.

Weiss said even without fans, it was a surreal experience to walk through Tokyo's Olympic Stadium for the opening ceremony, especially after the long and winding journey he and his teammates took to get there. 

Savage, who served as the manager for USA Baseball's Collegiate National Team in 2017, said bringing the sport back into the Olympics gives hard-working players like Weiss and Filia an extra chance to succeed at the highest level.

"It just gives guys hope," Savage said. "It's the honor of all honors when you represent your country. Baseball is such a world sport now, the competition level is so good that it's a goal for many guys to hopefully have that opportunity."

Israel lost its first-ever Olympic game to South Korea 6-5 on Thursday, with Weiss especially coming up short in the defeat. After inheriting two runners in the fifth, the right-hander escaped the jam and then tossed a scoreless sixth, all before allowing back-to-back home runs and three earned in the seventh.

A home run from catcher Ryan Lavarnway in the ninth helped force extra innings, giving the Israelis a brief moment hope, before they crumbled again in the 10th.

Weiss' performance represented an off-night for the former Bruin, who owns a 3.42 ERA and a .235 BAA in seven minor league seasons and had a 2.25 ERA in 43 appearances out of the bullpen for UCLA in 2013.

The matchup between Team USA and Israel on Friday will be the Americans' first outing of the tournament, marking Filia's own Olympic debut. Filia has hit .315 with an .836 OPS across five minor league seasons, and he also picked up a home run and five RBIs in four games as Team USA's cleanup hitter through qualifiers this spring.

Still, when asked if he could strike out his college and minor league teammate should the two meet Friday, Weiss didn't hesitate.

"Of course," Weiss said. "He's a good hitter, but we're going to challenge him."

Filia could not be reached for comment on this story, but his old coach came to his defense in terms of who would win the battle of the Bruins.

"Eric doesn't strike out," Savage said. "All you gotta do is look at the back of his baseball card, that's the one thing he does not do, so good luck on that. I'm hoping he hits a line drive and it's at somebody so both guys can feel good about it."

First pitch for USA vs. Israel is scheduled for Friday at 3 a.m. (PT).

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