UCLA baseball backs strong start to beat Oregon 4-2

Starter Grant Dyer tossed seven shutout innings and third baseman Luke Persico went 4-for-5 to lead UCLA baseball (18-18, 8-9) to a 4-2 win over Oregon (17-15, 7-7) Friday night.

The Bruins sprinkled four one-run innings throughout the game to clinch the weekend series against the Ducks and extend their winning streak to three.

Dyer (2-2, 5.44) held the weak Oregon offense, which is hitting .229 on the year, in check, striking out four and allowing only two hits to earn the win.

Persico continued to take advantage of the Ducks’ barrage of left-handed starters, belting three hits against Oregon starter Cole Irvin (3-4, 4.07) to raise his average against lefties to .385. The junior staked the Bruins to a lead in the third inning with two-out RBI single up the middle to score redshirt freshman catcher Daniel Rosica from third base.

Rosica played a key role in the offense, reaching base three times and scoring two of UCLA’s four runs thanks to some aggressive baserunning.

In the third, after stroking a leadoff single, Rosica moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and took third on a sacrifice fly before Persico drove him in. In the sixth, he walked and stole second, then alertly took off for third on a wild pitch, drawing an errant throw from Oregon catcher Tim Susnara that allowed Rosica to head home safely and put UCLA up 3-0.

The bullpen, as it has tended to do, made things interesting late in the game.

Redshirt junior Tucker Forbes (1-1, 5.11) entered in place of Dyer in the eighth inning and after getting the leadoff hitter to line out to short, issued a walk and a balk to put a runner in scoring position. Persico then made a throwing error on a ground ball, giving the Ducks two men in scoring position with one out.

Coach John Savage pulled Forbes in favor of redshirt junior lefty Hunter Virant (0-2, 9.22), who began his outing with a key strikeout of an Oregon pinch-hitter before allowing a two-run double to the Ducks No. 3 hitter, A.J. Balta.

Now dealing with the tying run in scoring position, Virant induced a groundout to senior shortstop Trent Chatterton to escape the jam.

Chatterton led off the next frame and produced an insurance run for the Bruins, singling and taking second on a sacrifice bunt before advancing the next two bases on wild pitches.

In the ninth, junior righty Moises Ceja (2-0, 2.00) got the ball in a save situation for the second night in a row and delivered once again, getting three ground-outs to seal the victory.

The Bruins will finish off the three-game series Saturday at 1 p.m.