Losses were mounting, and frustrations were rising.

The Washington baseball team struggled for weeks, getting unlucky in some games and flat-out losing others.

But after a three-game sweep of Cal last week, the Huskies gained new momentum, prompting head coach Ken Knutson to give his team some post-series thoughts.

“He just said, ‘This is how it’s supposed to happen,’” said first baseman Troy Scott. “‘This is what we’re supposed to be doing.’”

There is perhaps nothing more different from the Huskies’ last four games than the eight games that came before them.

Washington (14-19, 4-5 Pac-10) scored 36 runs in its recent four-game winning streak — which includes a non-conference win against Gonzaga — but only managed 23 in its eight games prior, of which the Dawgs lost seven.

It wasn’t just failure at the plate that caused the Huskies to spiral out of control. Starting pitchers couldn’t throw strikes when they needed to; none of them during that span were able to throw past the fifth inning.

Knutson hopes to avoid those problems this weekend at UCLA (14-19, 6-6 Pac-10) and see play more like the Huskies showed in their sweep of Cal last week.

“Our pitching was much better [against Cal],” Knutson said. “And I think we’re swinging a little better. The only shot we had was if we pitched better, and we certainly did that. We were just in that losing streak where we got behind in counts and walked guys. We just weren’t good enough to stay competitive.”

Now, it’s a different story.

With a newfound belief, the Huskies will once again go with a rotation of Aaron West, Jason Erickson and Andrew Kittredge against the Bears. While West struggled in a 9-8 win over the Bears last Friday, Erickson and Kittredge pitched 12 2/3 innings Saturday and Sunday, allowing three runs on eight hits. Erickson was the strongest of the bunch, pitching effectively through eight innings.

“[They’re] strike-throwers as much as anything,” said Knutson about the three starters. “Erickson needs to repeat, Kittredge needs to be a little more efficient, and West needs to pitch more to his style and his standards.”

And at the plate, Washington has to continue to bash the baseball.

Led by the Pac-10’s leader in home runs, Kyle Conley, the Huskies’ offense may need to pull off a repeat act in order to get ahead against UCLA early and sustain leads into the late innings, when UW’s relief corps can do what it has done for much of the past few weeks: shut down opposing teams.

If the Dawgs can perform like they did against the Bears, Scott believes there’s no reason why they can’t elevate themselves to a higher plane in the Pac-10.

“We kind of believe now; nothing’s out of chance,” Scott said. “We have to believe that we can do this. When we went through our rough streak, nothing was going right. You’ve got to fight through that.”

Reach reporter Allen Wagner at sports@dailyuw.com.