Baseball drops first game against Oregon State heading into postseason
Senior sinkerballer Jake Bird went the distance Thursday, tossing a complete game and allowing just 2 earned runs on five hits. The Bruins’ offense, however, could not get any runs on the board and Bird took the loss as UCLA fell 2-0 to Oregon State. (Isabelle Roy/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By Sam Connon
May 24, 2018 9:42 p.m.
The Bruins had plenty of chances, but they just weren’t able to put the pieces together down the stretch.
Entering the game in need of a series win heading into the postseason, No. 18 UCLA baseball (35-18, 18-10 Pac-12) dropped the first game of its series against No. 2 Oregon State (43-9-1, 19-8-1). The Bruins outhit the Beavers 6 to 5, but UCLA stranded eight runners and was 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.
Senior right-hander Jake Bird tossed another complete game – his second in a row – but was saddled with the loss after an early hiccup. The sinkerballer allowed 2 earned runs on an RBI single and a groundout in the second inning, giving Oregon State the 2-0 lead they held for the rest of the game. In the other eight frames, however, the Beavers had three hits.
Oregon State had two men on with one out in the eighth, but Bird got out of the jam when his team turned to a double play to end the inning and hold the deficit at 2 runs. Bird only had two strikeouts, but forced 11 groundouts and 10 fly outs. The senior still leads the Pac-12 with a 2.01 ERA, but it is only the second time this year his ERA has gone above 2.00.
The Bruin bats were shut down by pitcher Luke Heimlich, who notched his nation-leading 14th win of the year. The lefty no-hit UCLA for 4 2/3 innings, and pitched into the eighth with 10 strikeouts on 125 pitches.
Junior center fielder Daniel Amaral knocked a leadoff single to right field in the seventh and advanced to second on a sac bunt by freshman right fielder Garrett Mitchell. After a walk by junior pinch hitter Jake Hirabayashi, sophomore left fielder Jeremy Ydens struck out of three pitches to end the rally before it started.
The only Bruin to log multiple hits was sophomore first baseman Michael Toglia. He pulled a two-out double down the left field line in the eighth – UCLA’s only extra-base hit of the afternoon. Toglia was stranded at second when junior designated hitter Jake Pries popped out on the first pitch of the next at-bat to end the inning.
Toglia was 2-for-4, raising his season batting average to .340 – the highest it has been since the first series of conference play in mid-March.
In the top of the ninth, still down 2 runs, Mitchell blooped a single to left. Sophomore Ryan Kreidler stepped up to the plate as the tying run, but he grounded into a double play to end the game.
Ydens – who won Pac-12 Player of the Week on Monday after posting a .550 batting average – was 0-for-4 with a team-high three strikeouts.
The Bruins and Beavers will face off again Friday at 4 p.m. with freshman right-hander Zach Pettway taking the mound for UCLA. Pettway has a chance to build off his six-inning, 1 earned run performance against Oregon last Saturday when he also struck out seven Ducks.
